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+                           GRETTIR THE OUTLAW
+
+
+
+
+This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online at
+http://www.gutenberg.org/license. If you are not located in the United
+States, you’ll have to check the laws of the country where you are
+located before using this ebook.
+
+
+
+Title: Grettir the Outlaw
+       A Story of Iceland
+Author: S. Baring-Gould
+Release Date: March 31, 2015 [EBook #48622]
+Language: English
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GRETTIR THE OUTLAW ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Al Haines.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Cover art]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THORKELL AND THE OUTLAWED GRETTIR LEAVE THE ASSIZE.]
+
+
+
+
+                          *Grettir the Outlaw*
+
+                          *A Story of Iceland*
+
+
+                                   by
+
+                            S. BARING-GOULD
+
+ Author of "John Herring" "Mehalah" "Iceland: its Scenes and Sagas" &c.
+
+
+
+            _WITH SIX PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS BY M. ZENO DIEMER_
+
+
+
+                        BLACKIE AND SON LIMITED
+                       LONDON GLASGOW AND DUBLIN
+                                  1889
+
+
+
+
+                               *PREFACE.*
+
+
+                          TO MY YOUNG READERS.
+
+
+It is now just thirty years since I first began to read the "Saga of
+Grettir the Strong" in Icelandic.  At that time I had only a Danish
+grammar of Icelandic and an Icelandic-Danish dictionary, and I did not
+know a word of Danish.  So I had to learn Danish in order to learn
+Icelandic.
+
+It was laborious work making out the Saga, and every line when I began
+took me some time to understand.  Moreover, I had not much time at my
+disposal, for then I was a master in a school.
+
+Now, after I had worked a little way into the Saga, I became intensely
+interested in it myself, and it struck me that my boys whom I taught
+might like to hear about Grettir.  So I tried every day to translate,
+after school hours, a chapter, hardly ever more at first, and sometimes
+not even as much as that.  Then, when on half-holidays I proposed a walk
+to some of my scholars, they were keen to hear the story of Grettir.
+Well, Grettir went on for some months in this way, a fresh instalment of
+the tale coming every half-holiday, and it was really wonderful how
+interested and delighted the boys were with the story.  Nor was I less
+so; the labour of translation which was so great at first became rapidly
+lighter, and I was as much interested in the adventures of the hero as
+were the boys.  The other day I met an old pupil of mine, and almost the
+first thing he said to me was: "Oh! do you remember Grettir?  Thirty
+years ago!  Fancy!  I am a married man and have boys of my own, and I
+have often tried to tell them the story which made such an impression on
+me, but I cannot remember all the incidents nor their order.  I do wish
+you would write it as a story for boys.  I should like to read it myself
+again, and my boys would love it."  "Very well," I said, "I will do so."
+
+Now my boy readers must understand that I have told them the story in my
+own words and in my own way.  I went to Iceland in 1861, and went over
+nearly every bit of the ground made famous by the adventures of Grettir.
+Consequently, I am able to help out and illustrate the tale by what I
+actually saw.  In the original book there is a great deal more than I
+have attempted to retell, but much has to do with the ancestors of
+Grettir, and there are other incidents introduced of no great importance
+and very confusing to the memory.  So I have taken the leading points in
+the story, and given them.
+
+S. BARING-GOULD.
+
+
+
+
+                              *CONTENTS.*
+
+CHAP.
+
+      I. Winter Tales
+     II. How Grettir played on the Ice
+    III. Of the Ride to Thingvalla
+     IV. The Doom-day
+      V. The Voyage
+     VI. The Red Rovers
+    VII. The Story of the Sword
+   VIII. Of the Bear
+     IX. The Slaying of Biorn
+      X. Of Grettir’s Return
+     XI. The Horse-fight
+    XII. Of the Fight at the Neck
+   XIII. How Grettir and Audun made Friends
+    XIV. The Vale of Shadows
+     XV. How Grettir fought with Glam
+    XVI. How Grettir Sailed to Norway
+   XVII. The Hostel-burning
+  XVIII. The Ordeal by Fire
+    XIX. The Winter in Norway
+     XX. Of what Befell at Biarg
+    XXI. The Return of Grettir
+   XXII. The Slaying of Oxmain
+  XXIII. At Learwood
+   XXIV. The Foster-brothers
+    XXV. How Grettir was well nigh Hung
+   XXVI. In the Desert
+  XXVII. On the Great Eagle Lake
+ XXVIII. On the Fell
+   XXIX. The Fight on the River
+    XXX. A Mysterious Vale
+   XXXI. The Death of Hallmund
+  XXXII. Of Another Attempt against Grettir
+ XXXIII. At Sandheaps
+  XXXIV. How Grettir was Driven About
+   XXXV. On the Isle
+  XXXVI. Of Grettir on Heron-ness
+ XXXVII. Of Hœring’s Leap
+XXXVIII. Of the Attempt made by Grettir’s Friends
+  XXXIX. Of the Old Hag
+     XL. How the Log came to Drangey
+    XLI. The End of the Outlaw
+   XLII. How Asdis received the News
+  XLIII. How Dromund kept his Word
+
+Epilogue
+
+
+
+
+                            *ILLUSTRATIONS.*
+
+
+Thorkell and the outlawed Grettir leave the Assize, _Frontis_.
+
+Grettir challenges Kormak and his Party
+
+Grettir defends Himself from the Mob
+
+Grettir attacked in the Rift by Thorir’s Party
+
+Fording the quivering flood
+
+Illugi defends the dying Grettir
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: PEDIGREE OF THE FAMILY OF ASMUND OF BIARG]
+
+
+
+
+                         *GRETTIR THE OUTLAW.*
+
+
+
+                              *CHAPTER I.*
+
+                            *WINTER TALES.*
+
+
+    _The Birthplace of Grettir—The Peopling of Iceland—A History of
+    Quarrels—Stories Round the Hearth—Biarg—The Great Blue Bay—The
+    Boy Grettir—The Saga of Onund Treefoot—The Northern Pirates—The
+    Fight with King Harald—Onund’s Wound—After the Battle_
+
+
+It was night—drawing on to midnight—in summer, that I who write this
+book arrived at the little lonely farm of Biarg, on the Middle River, in
+the north of Iceland. It was night, near on midnight, and yet I could
+hardly call it night, for the sky overhead was full of light of the
+clearest amethyst, and every stock and stone was distinctly visible.
+Across the valley rose a rugged moor, and above its shoulder a snow-clad
+mountain, turned to rosy gold by the night sun.  As I stood there
+watching the mist form on the cold river in the vale below, all at once
+I heard a strange sound like horns blowing far away in the sky, and
+looking up, I saw a train of swans flying from west to east, bathed in
+sunlight, their wings of silver, and their feathers as gold.
+
+I had come all the way from England to see Biarg, for there was born,
+about the year A.D. 997, a man called Grettir, whose history I had read,
+and which interested me so much that I was resolved to see his native
+home, and the principal scenes where his stormy life was passed.
+
+The landscape was the same as that on which Grettir’s childish eyes had
+looked more than eight hundred and fifty years ago.  The same outline of
+dreary moor, the same snowy ridge of mountain standing above it,
+catching the midnight summer sun, the same mist forming over the river;
+but the house was altogether different.  Now there stood only a poor
+heap of farm-buildings, erected of turf and wood, where had once been a
+noble hall of wood, with carved gable-ends, surrounded by many
+out-houses.
+
+Before we begin on the story of Grettir, it will be well to say a few
+words about its claim to be history.
+
+Iceland never was, and it is not now, a much-peopled island.  The
+farmhouses are for the most part far apart, and the farms are of very
+considerable extent, because, owing to the severity of the climate, very
+little pasturage is obtained over a wide extent of country for the sheep
+and cattle.  The population lives round the coast, on the fiords or
+creeks of the sea, or on the rivers that flow into these fiords. The
+centre of the island is occupied by a vast waste of ice-covered
+mountain, and desert black as ink strewn with volcanic ash and sand, or
+else with a region of erupted lava that is impassable, because in
+cooling it has exploded, and forms a country of bristling spikes and
+gulfs and sharp edges, very much like the wreck of a huge ginger-beer
+bottle factory.
+
+What are now farmhouses were the halls and mansions of families of noble
+descent.  Indeed, the original settlers in Iceland were the nobles of
+Norway who left their native land to avoid the tyranny of Harold
+Fairhair, who tried to crush their power so as to make himself a
+despotic king in the land.
+
+These Norse nobles came in their boats to Iceland, bringing with them
+their wives, children, their thralls or slaves, and their cattle; and
+they settled all round the coast.  The present Icelanders are descended
+from these first colonists.
+
+Now, the history of Iceland for a few hundred years consists of nothing
+but the history of the quarrels of these great families.  Iceland was
+without any political organization, but it had an elected lawman or
+judge, and every year the heads of the families rode to Thingvalla, a
+plain in the south-west, where they brought their complaints, carried on
+their lawsuits, and had them settled by the judge. There was no army, no
+navy, no government in Iceland for a long time; also no foreign wars,
+and no internal revolutions.
+
+These noble families settled in the valleys and upon the fiords thought
+a good deal of themselves, and they carefully preserved, at first orally
+then in writing, the record of their pedigrees, and also the tradition
+of the famous deeds of their great men.
+
+In summer there is no night; in winter, no day. In winter there is
+little or nothing to be done but sit over the fire, sing songs, and tell
+yarns.  Now, in winter the Icelanders told the tales of the brave men of
+old in their families, and so the tradition was handed on from father to
+son, the same stories told every winter, till all the particulars became
+well known.  At the same time there can be no doubt that little
+embellishments were added, some exaggerations were indulged in, and here
+and there the grand deed of some other man was grafted into the story of
+the family hero.  About two hundred or two hundred and fifty years after
+the death of Grettir, his history was committed to writing, and then it
+became fixed—nothing further was added to it, and we have his story
+after having travelled down over two hundred years as a tradition.  That
+was plenty of time for additions and emendations, and the hobgoblin and
+ghost stories that come into his life are some of these embellishments.
+But the main facts of his life are true history.  We are able to decide
+this by comparing his story with those of other families in the same
+part of the island, and to see whether they agree as to dates, and as to
+the circumstances narrated in them.
+
+In the north-west of Iceland is an immense bay called the Huna-floi,
+which branches off into several creeks, the largest of which is called
+the Ramsfirth, and the next to that is the Middlefiord.  Into this flows
+a river that has its rise in the central desert, in a perfect tangle of
+lakes.  Three rivers issuing from these lakes unite just above Biarg,
+and pour their waters a short morning’s ride lower through sands into
+the Middlefirth.
+
+The valley is not cheerful, running from north to south.  Biarg lies on
+the east side, and faces the western sun.  The moor which lies behind
+it, and forms the hill on the other side of the river, is not broken and
+picturesque, and if it were not for the peak of Burfell, covered with
+snow a good part of the year, the view from Biarg would be as
+uninteresting as any to be found in the land.  But then, when one rides
+down to the coast, or ascends the moor, what a splendid view bursts on
+the sight! The great Polar Sea is before one, intensely blue, not with
+the deep ultramarine of the Mediterranean, but with the blue of the
+nemophyla or forget-me-not, rolling in from the mysterious North; and
+across the mighty bay of the Huna-floi can be seen the snowy mountains
+of that extraordinary peninsula which runs out to the north-west of
+Iceland, and is only just not converted into an island because connected
+with Iceland by a narrow strip of land.  That great projection is like a
+hand with fiords between the fingers of land, and glacier-mountains
+where are the knuckles; but the wrist is very narrow indeed, only about
+one English mile across, and there lies a trough along this junction,
+with a little stream and a lake in it.  Now, at this wrist, as we may
+call it, lies the farm of Eyre, where, somewhat later, lived the sister
+of Grettir, who married a man that farmed there, named Glum.
+
+Looking away across the great blue bay, the mountains of the hand may be
+seen rising out of the sea, and looking like icebergs.
+
+Grettir the Strong was the son of a well-to-do bonder, or yeoman, who
+lived at Biarg, and was descended from some of the great nobles of
+Norway. His father’s name was Asmund with the Grey-head, and his
+mother’s name was Asdis.
+
+He had a brother called Atli, a gentle, kindly young fellow, who never
+wittingly quarrelled with anyone, and was liked by all with whom he had
+to do.  He had also two sisters—one was called Thordis, and she was
+married to Glum of Eyre—but neither come into the story; and he had
+another sister called Rannveig, who was married to Gamli of Melar, at
+the head of Ramsfirth.  He had also a little brother called Illugi, of
+whom more hereafter. Grettir was not a good-looking boy; he had reddish
+hair, a pale face full of freckles, and light blue eyes.  He was
+broad-built, not tall as a boy, though in the end he grew to be a very
+big man.
+
+He was not considered a good-tempered or sociable boy.  He seemed lazy
+and sullen; he liked to sit by the fire without speaking to anyone,
+listening to what was said, and brooding over what he had heard.
+
+If his father set him a task, he did it so unwillingly, and so badly
+that Asmund Greyhead regretted having set him to do anything.
+
+Now, during the winter, as we have already seen, when there is but a
+very little daylight, and the nights are vastly long, when, moreover,
+the whole land is deep in snow, so that there is no farm-work that can
+be done, and no travelling about to visit neighbours, it was, and is
+still, usual in Iceland for those in the house to tell tales, or sagas,
+as they are called.  Some of these sagas relate to the old gods of the
+Norsemen, some are fabulous stories of old heroes who never existed, or,
+if they did exist, have had all sorts of fantastic legends tacked on to
+their histories; but other sagas are the tales of the doings of
+ancestors of the family.
+
+Now, among the sagas that Grettir used to hearken to with greatest
+delight was that of old Onund Treefoot, his great-grandfather, who first
+settled in Iceland.  And this was the tale:
+
+
+Onund, the son of Ufeigh Clubfoot, son of Ivar the Smiter, was a mighty
+Viking in Norway; that is, he went about every summer harrying the
+coasts of England, Ireland, and Scotland.  He joined with three friends,
+and they had five ships together, and one summer they sailed to the
+Hebrides—which were then called the Sudereys, or southern isles. The
+Bishop of the Isle of Man is still called Bishop of Sodor and Man,
+because his diocese originally included the Sudereys.  Then out against
+them came Kiarval, king of the Hebrides, with five ships, and they gave
+him battle, and there was a hard fray. But the men of Onund were the
+mightiest warriors. On each side many fell, but the end of the battle
+was that the king fled with only one ship.  So Onund took the four
+vessels and great spoil, and he wrought great havoc on the coast,
+plundering and burning, and so in the fall of the year returned to
+Norway.  In the history of England, and in that of Scotland and of
+Ireland, we read of the terrible annoyance given to the natives of Great
+Britain and Ireland by the northern pirates; and, indeed, they conquered
+Dublin, and established a kingdom there, and also took to themselves
+Orkney.  Well, when Onund returned to Norway he did not find that
+matters were pleasant there; for King Harald the Unshorn had begun to
+establish himself sole king in Norway.  Hitherto there had been many
+small kings and earls; but Harald had taken an oath that he would not
+cut or trim his hair till he had subdued all under his power, and made
+himself supreme throughout the land.
+
+A great many bonders and all the little kings united against him, and
+there was a great battle fought at Hafrsfiord—the greatest battle that
+had as yet been fought in Norway.  Onund was in the battle along with
+his friend, King Thorir Longchin, and he set his ship alongside of that
+of King Longchin. King Harald ran his ship up alongside of that of
+Longchin, grappled it, and boarded it.  There was a furious fight, and
+Harald sent on board his Bearsarks, a set of half-mad ruffians, who wore
+not bear but wolf skins, and who were said to lead charmed lives, so
+that no weapon would wound them.  Thorir Longchin and all his men were
+killed; and then King Harald cut away the ship and ran up against that
+of Onund.  Onund was in the fore part, and he fought manfully.  As the
+grappling-irons of Harald caught his ship, Onund made a sweep with his
+longsword at the man who threw the irons, and in so doing he put his leg
+over the bulwark.  Then one on the king’s ship threw a spear at Onund.
+He saw it flung, and leaned his head back to let it fly over him, and as
+he did so one on the king’s ship smote at him with a battle-axe, and the
+axe fell on his leg below the knee and shore his leg off. Then Onund
+fell back on board his own vessel, and his men carried him across into
+that of a friend named Thrand, who lay alongside of him on the other
+board.  And Thrand had a great cauldron there of pitch boiled, and Onund
+set his knee in the boiling pitch, and never blinked nor uttered a cry.
+That staunched the blood.  If he had not done this he would have bled to
+death.
+
+Now, Thrand saw that King Harald was gaining the mastery everywhere, so
+he fled away with his ship and sailed west.
+
+Onund was healed of his wound, but ever after he walked with a wooden
+leg, and that is why he got the name of Onund Treefoot.
+
+After the battle of Hafrsfiord, Onund could only return to Norway by
+stealth, and he could not recover his lands there, so he deemed it
+wisest for him to sail away and seek a home elsewhere.  That is how he
+left Norway and settled in Iceland.
+
+And when King Harald saw himself lord and master through all the land,
+then he had his hair trimmed and combed, and it was so long and so
+beautiful, that ever after he who had been called "The Unshorn" went by
+the name of "Fairhair," and in history he is known as King Harald
+Fairhair.
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER II.*
+
+                    *HOW GRETTIR PLAYED ON THE ICE.*
+
+
+    _An Evil Boyhood—Golf on the Ice—Grettir Quarrels with Audun—A
+    Threat of Vengeance_
+
+
+There are several tales told of Grettir when he was a boy, which show
+that he was a rough and unkindly lad.  He was set by his father to keep
+geese on the moors, and this made him angry, so he threw stones at the
+geese and killed or wounded them all.
+
+The old man suffered from lumbago, and in winter when unwell asked his
+wife and the boys to rub his back by the fire; but when Grettir was
+required to do this, he lost his temper, and on one occasion he snatched
+up a wool-carding comb and dug it into his old father’s back.
+
+Many other things he did which made those at home not like him, and
+there was not much love lost between him and his father.  The fact was
+that Grettir was a headstrong, wilful fellow, and bitterly had he to pay
+in after life for this youthful wilfulness and obstinacy.  It was these
+qualities, untamed in him, that wrecked his whole life, and it may be
+said brought ruin and extinction on his family. There were great and
+good qualities in Grettir’s nature, but they did not show when he was
+young; only much suffering and cruel privations brought out in the end
+the higher and nobler elements that were in him.
+
+It is so with all who have any good in them, if by early discipline it
+is not manifested, then it is brought out by the rough usage of
+misfortune in after life.
+
+And now I will give one incident of Grettir’s boyhood.  It was a
+favourite amusement for young fellows at that time to play golf on the
+ice, and in winter, when the Middlefirth was frozen over, large parties
+assembled there for the sport.
+
+One winter a party was arranged for a match on the ice, and a good many
+lads came to Middlefirth from Willowdale, a valley only separated from
+the Middlefirth by a long shoulder of ugly moor.  The Willowdales-men
+had a much better sheet of water, a very large lake called Hop, into
+which their river flowed, before discharging itself into the sea; and
+the return match was to be played on Hop.
+
+Among the young fellows who came from Willowdale was Audun, a fine,
+strapping fellow; frank, well-built, good-looking, and amiable.
+
+When the parties were assembled at the place, there they were paired off
+according to age and strength; and on this occasion I am speaking of,
+Grettir, who was fourteen, was set to play with Audun, who was two years
+older than he, and a head taller.
+
+Audun struck the ball and it flew over Grettir’s head, and he missed it,
+and it went skimming away over the ice to a great distance, and Grettir
+had to run after it.  Some of those who were looking on laughed.  Then
+Grettir’s anger was roused.  He got the ball and came back carrying it,
+till he was within a few yards of Audun, and then, instead of dropping
+the ball, and striking it with his golfing-stick, he suddenly threw it
+with all his force against his adversary, and struck him between his
+eyes, so that it half-stunned him, and cut the skin.  Audun whirled his
+golfing-bat round, and struck at Grettir, who dodged under and escaped
+the blow.  Then Audun and Grettir grappled each other, and wrestled on
+the ice.
+
+Every one thought that Audun would have the stumpy, thick-set boy down
+in a trice, but it was not so; Grettir held his ground;—they swung this
+way, that way; now one seemed about to be cast, and then the other, and
+although Audun was almost come to a man’s strength, he could not for a
+long time throw Grettir.  At last Grettir slipped on a piece of ice
+where some had been sliding, and went down.  His blood was up, so was
+that of Audun; and the fight would have been continued with their
+sticks, had not Grettir’s brother Atli thrown himself between the
+combatants and separated them.  Atli held his brother back, and tried to
+patch up the quarrel.
+
+"You need not hold me like a mad dog," said Grettir.  "Thralls wreak
+their vengeance at once, cowards never."
+
+Audun and Grettir were distant cousins.  They were not allowed to play
+against each other any more, and the rest went on with their game.
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER III.*
+
+                      *OF THE RIDE TO THINGVALLA.*
+
+
+    _Thorkel Mani’s Find—Thorkel Krafla—The Halt at Biarg—A Bad
+    Prospect—Among the Lakes—The Lost Meal-bags—Suspicion
+    Confirmed—The Slaying of Skeggi—The Song of the
+    Battle-ogress—Grettir Chooses to take his Trial_
+
+
+There lived in Waterdale, a day’s journey from Biarg, an old bonder,
+named Thorkel Krafla. He was the first Icelander who became a Christian.
+
+In heathen times, among the Northmen as among the Romans, it was
+allowable for parents to expose their children to death, if they did not
+want to have the trouble of rearing them.  Now Thorkel had been so
+exposed, with a napkin over his face.  It so happened that a great chief
+called Thorkel Mani was riding along one day, thinking about the gods
+that he had been taught to believe in, who drank and got drunk, and
+fought each other, and, being a grave, meditative man, he could not make
+out what these rollicking, fighting gods could have had to do with the
+world,—with the creation of sun, moon, and stars, and the earth with its
+yield.  He thought to himself, "There must be some God above these
+tipsy, quarrelsome deities; and this higher God must love men, and be
+good and kind to men."
+
+As he thought this, he heard a little whimpering noise from behind a
+stone; he got off his horse, and went to see what produced this noise,
+and found there a poor little baby, that with its tiny hands had rumpled
+up the kerchief which had been spread over its nose and mouth.  Thorkel
+Mani took up the deserted babe in his arms, and looking up to heaven, to
+the sun, said, "If the good God, who is high over all, called this
+little being into life, gave it eyes and mouth and ears and hands and
+feet, He surely never intended His handiwork to be cast out as a thing
+of no value, to die.  For the love of Him I will take this child."
+
+Then Thorkel Mani rode home, carrying the baby in his arms; and he
+called it by his own name, Thorkel; but to distinguish it from himself,
+it was given the nickname Krafla, which means to rumple, because the
+babe had rumpled up the kerchief, so as to let its cries be heard.  So
+the child grew up, and kept the name through life of Thorkel Rumple.
+This Thorkel became a very great man, and Godi, or magistrate, of the
+Waterdale; and, as I have said, he was the first man to become a
+Christian, when missionaries of the gospel came to Iceland.
+
+Very soon after Grettir’s birth Christianity became general, and in the
+year 1000 was sanctioned by law; but there were few Christian priests in
+the land, so that the knowledge of the truth had not spread much, and
+taken hold and transformed men’s lives. Thorkel Rumple was now very old.
+He was the bosom friend of Asmund, and every year when in the spring he
+rode to the great assizes at Thingvalla, he always halted at least one
+night at Biarg.  Not only were Asmund and he men of like minds, and
+friends, but they were also connected.  In the spring of the year 1011,
+Thorkel arrived as usual at Biarg, attended by a great many men, and he
+was most warmly received by Asmund and his wife.  He remained with them
+three nights, and he and they fell a-talking about the prospects of the
+two young men, Atli and Grettir.  Asmund told his kinsman that Atli was
+a quiet, amiable fellow, now at man’s estate, and likely to prove a good
+farmer; a man who would worthily succeed him at Biarg when he died, and
+keep the honour of the family untarnished, and would enlarge the estate.
+
+"Ah!  I see," said Thorkel.  "A useful man, good and respectable, like
+yourself.  But what about Grettir?"
+
+Asmund hesitated a moment before answering; but presently he said, "I
+hardly know what to say of him.  He is unruly, sullen, makes no friends,
+and he has been a constant cause of vexation to me."
+
+Thorkel answered, "That is a bad prospect; however, let him come with me
+to Thingvalla, and I shall be able to see on the journey of what stuff
+he is made."
+
+To this Asmund agreed; and right glad was Grettir to think he was to go
+to the great law-gathering.
+
+Thorkel had sixty men with him, and he rode in some state; for, as
+already said, he was a great man. The way led over the great desolate
+waste, called the Two-days-ride; but as on this expanse there were few
+halting-places, the grass most scanty, and not sufficient to allow of a
+stay, the party rode across it down to the settled lands nearer the
+coast as quickly as they could, and reached Fleet-tongue in time to
+sleep; so they took the bridles off their horses, and let them graze
+with their saddles on.  Their road had lain among the lakes, from which
+issued the rivers that united above Biarg.  In each lake floated a pair
+of swans.  Often they heard the loud hoarse cry of the great northern
+diver; but there was hardly any grass, for the moor lies high, is swept
+by the icy blasts from the glacier mountains to the south, and is made
+up of black sand.  Before them all day had stood towering into the sky
+the Eyreksjokull, a mountain with perfectly precipitous sides of black
+basalt, domed over with glittering ice.  It resembles an immense
+bridecake.  At one place this mountain in former times had gaped, and
+poured forth a fiery stream of lava that ran to the lakes, and for a
+while converted them to steam.  One can still see whence this great
+fiery river issued from the mountain.  Little did Grettir think then as
+he passed under it, a boy of fourteen, that, for the three most lonely,
+wretched years of his life, that great glacier-crowned mountain was to
+be the one object on which his eye would rest.
+
+The men were all very tired after their long ride, and they slept till
+late next morning, lying about on the scant herbage, around a fire made
+of the roots of trailing willows that they had dug out of the sand.
+
+When they awoke many of the horses had strayed, and some had rolled in
+the sand, burst their girths and shaken off their saddles.  But they
+could not have gone any great distance, for they were all hobbled.  In
+Iceland thick woollen ropes are put round the legs of the horses, below
+the hocks, and twisted together into a knot with a knuckle-bone. This
+serves as a secure hobble, and the wool being soft does not gall the
+skin.
+
+It was customary in those days for every one to take his own provisions
+with him, and most of those who went to the great assize carried
+meal-bags athwart their saddles.  Grettir found his horse at last, but
+not his meal-bag, which had come off, and was lost; for the saddle was
+turned under the belly of his cob.
+
+The horses could not have strayed far, not only because they were
+hobbled, but also because the Tongue where they had been turned loose
+was a narrow strip of land between two rivers; but then the slope was
+considerable in places, and the meal-bag might have rolled down into the
+water.
+
+As Grettir was running about hunting for his bag, he saw another man in
+the same predicament.  What is more, he saw that the rest of the party,
+impatient to get on their way, would tarry no longer for them, and were
+defiling down the hill to cross the river.
+
+Grettir was in great distress.  Just then he saw the man run very
+directly in one course, and at the same moment Grettir saw something
+white lying under a mass of lava.  It was towards this that the fellow
+was running.  Grettir ran towards it also.  It was a meal-sack.  The man
+reached it first, and threw it over his shoulder.
+
+"What have you got there?" asked Grettir, coming up panting.
+
+"My meal-sack," answered the fellow.
+
+"Let me look at it," said Grettir.  "It may be mine, not yours.  Let me
+look before you appropriate it."
+
+This the man refused to do.
+
+Grettir’s suspicion was confirmed, and he made a catch at the sack, and
+tried to drag it away from the fellow.
+
+"Oh, yes!" sneered the man—who was a servant at a farm called The Ridge,
+in Waterdale, and his name Skeggi,—"Oh, yes! you Middlefirthers think
+you will have everything your own way."
+
+"That is not it," answered Grettir.  "Let each man take his own.  If the
+sack be yours, keep it; if mine, I will have it."
+
+"It is a pity Audun is not here," scoffed the serving-man, "or he would
+trip up your heels and throttle you, as he did on the ice when golfing."
+
+"But as he is not here," retorted Grettir, "you are not like to get the
+better of me."
+
+Skeggi suddenly took his axe by the haft and hewed at Grettir’s head.
+Grettir saw what he was at, and instantly put up his left hand and
+caught the handle below where Skeggi’s hand held it; wrenched it out of
+his grasp, and struck him with it, so that his skull was cleft.  The
+thing was done in a moment, and Grettir had done it in self-preservation
+and without premeditation.  He was but a boy of fourteen, and this was a
+full-grown stout churl.
+
+Grettir at once seized the meal-bag, saw it was his own, and threw it
+across his saddle.  Then he rode after the company.  Thorkel Krafla rode
+at the head of his party, and he had no misgiving that anything untoward
+had taken place.
+
+But, when Grettir came riding up with his meal-bag, the men asked him if
+he had left Skeggi still in search of his.  Grettir answered in song:
+
+    "A rock Troll did her burden throw
+    Down on Skeggi’s skull, I trow.
+    O’er the battle-ogress saw I flow
+    Ruby rivers all aglow.
+    She her iron mouth a-gape
+    Did the life of Skeggi take."
+
+
+This sounds like nonsense; to understand it one must have a notion of
+what constituted poetry in the minds of Icelanders and Northmen.  With
+them the charm of poetry consisted in never calling anything by its
+right name, but using instead of it some far-fetched similitude or
+periphrasis.  Thus—the burden of the rock Troll is iron.  The Troll is
+the spirit of the mountain, and the heaviest thing found in the mountain
+is iron.  The battle-ogress is the axe which bites in battle.  The
+verses that the Norse poets sang were a series of conundrums, and the
+hearers puzzled their brains to make out the sense. This time they soon
+understood what Grettir meant, and the men turned and went back to the
+Tongue, and there found Skeggi dead.
+
+Grettir went on to Thorkel, and in few words, and to the point, told how
+things had fallen out. He was not the aggressor.  He had merely defended
+himself.
+
+Thorkel was much troubled, and he told Grettir that he might either come
+on to the assize or go home; that this act of man-slaughter would be
+investigated at the law-gathering, and judgment given upon it.
+
+Grettir agreed to go on, and see how matters would turn out for him.
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER IV.*
+
+                            *THE DOOM-DAY.*
+
+
+    _The Lava Plain—The Law of Man-slaughter—Grettir’s Sentence—The
+    Grettir Stone_
+
+
+That evening they arrived at Thingvalla.
+
+The great plain of Thingvalla is entirely composed of lava.  At some
+remote period before Iceland was colonized a beautiful snowy cone of
+mountain, called "The Broad Shield," poured forth a deluge of molten
+rock, which ran in a fiery river down a valley for some miles,
+half-choking it up, and then spread out over a wide plain where
+anciently there had been a great lake.  Then all cooled, but after the
+cooling, or whilst it was in process, there came a great crack, crack.
+The great mass of lava must have been poured over some subterranean
+caverns; at any rate the whole plain snapped and sank down a good many
+feet, the lava becoming cracked and starred like glass.  Nowadays, one
+cannot cross the plain because it is all traversed with these fearful
+cracks, chasms the bottom of which is filled with black water.  Where
+the plain sank deepest there water settled and formed the beautiful
+Thingvalla Lake.
+
+At the side of one of the cracks where the plain broke off and sank is a
+very curious pinnacle of black rock, and this was called the Hanging
+Rock, as criminals were hung from it over the chasm.
+
+In one place two of the cracks unite, and there is a high mound of
+blistered lava covered with turf and flowers between them.  That is
+called the Law Hill, because the judge and his assessors sat there, and
+no one could get to them, nor could the accused get away across the
+chasms.
+
+Now it was the law at this time in Iceland that when any man had been
+killed his nearest relatives came to the assize, and the slayer appeared
+by proxy and offered blood-money—that is to say, to pay a fine to the
+relations, and so patch up the quarrel.  But if they refused the money
+then they were at liberty to pursue and kill him.  There were no police
+then.  If the relations wanted to have the criminal punished they must
+punish him themselves.
+
+Upon this occasion the case was discussed in the court on the finger of
+rock between the two chasms, the people standing on the further sides of
+these gulfs, listening, but unable to come a step nearer; and Thorkel
+appeared for Grettir and offered to pay the blood-money.  The relations
+of the dead Skeggi, after a little fuss, agreed to accept a certain sum,
+and Thorkel at once paid it.  But the court ordered that, as Grettir had
+acted with undue violence, and as there was no evidence except his word
+that Skeggi had made the first attack, he should be outlawed, and leave
+Iceland for three winters.  If he set his foot in Iceland till three
+winters had passed, his life was forfeit.  He was allowed a moderate and
+reasonable time for finding a ship that would take him out of the
+country.
+
+When the assize was over all rode home, and the way that Thorkel and
+Grettir went was up the valley that had been half-choked with the lava
+that rolled down from Broad Shield.  They came to a small grassy plain
+with a gently-sloping hill rising out of it, a place where games took
+place, the women sitting up the slope and watching the men below. Here
+Grettir is said to have heaved an enormous stone.  The stone is still
+shown, and I have seen it. I also know that Grettir never lifted it; for
+it has clearly been brought there by a glacier.  But this is an instance
+of the way in which stories get magnified in telling.  No doubt that
+Grettir did "put" there some big stone, and as it happened that at this
+spot there was a great rock standing by itself balanced on one point, in
+after days folks concluded that this must have been the stone thrown by
+Grettir.
+
+
+
+
+                              *CHAPTER V.*
+
+                             *THE VOYAGE.*
+
+
+    _Preparations for a Voyage—His Grandfather’s Sword—A Bitter
+    Jester—Vain Reproaches—Haflid’s Stratagem—The Tables
+    Turned—Shipwrecked_
+
+
+Grettir, then, was doomed by the court to leave his native land whilst
+only a boy, and remain in banishment for three years—that is to say,
+till he was eighteen.  He was not over sorry for this, as he was tired
+of being at home, and he wanted to see the world.
+
+There was a man called Haflid who had a ship in which he intended to
+sail that autumn to Norway, and Asmund sent to him to ask him to take
+Grettir out with him.
+
+Haflid answered that he had not heard a good account of the boy, and did
+not particularly wish to have him in his boat; but he would stretch a
+point, because of the regard he had for old Asmund, and he would take
+him.
+
+Grettir got ready to start; but Asmund would not give him much wherewith
+to trade when abroad, except some rolls of home-made wadmall, a coarse
+felty cloth, and a stock of victuals for his voyage. Grettir asked his
+father to give him some weapon; but the old man answered that he did not
+trust him with swords and axes, he might put them to a bad use, and it
+would be better he went without till he had learned to control his
+temper and keep a check on his hand.
+
+So Grettir parted from his father without much love on either side; and
+it was noticed when he left home that, though there were plenty of folks
+ready to bid him farewell, hardly anyone said that he hoped to see him
+come home again—a certain token that he was not liked by those who had
+seen most of him.  But indeed he had taken no pains to oblige anyone and
+obtain the regard and love of anyone.
+
+His mother was an exception.  She went along the road down the valley
+with him, wearing a long cloak; and when they were alone, at some
+distance from the house, she halted and drew out a sword from under her
+cloak, and handing it to Grettir, said: "This sword belonged to
+grandfather, and many a hard fight has it been in, and much good work
+has it done.  I give it to you, and hope it may stand you in good
+stead."
+
+Grettir was highly pleased, and told his mother that he would rather
+have the sword than anything else that could be given him.
+
+Haflid received Grettir in a friendly manner, and he went at once on
+board; the ship’s anchor was heaved, and forth they went to sea.
+
+Now, directly Grettir got on board he looked about for a place where he
+could be comfortable, and chose to make a berth for himself under a boat
+that was slung on deck; then he put up his wadmall, making a sort of
+felt lining or wall round against the wind and spray, leaving open only
+the side inwards, and inside he piled his provisions and whatever he
+had; then he lay down there and did not stir from his snuggery.  Now, it
+was the custom in those days for every man who went in a ship to help in
+the navigation; but Grettir would not only do nothing, but from his den
+he shouted or sang lampoons—that is, spiteful songs, making fun of every
+man on board.  They were not good-natured jokes, but bitter, stinging
+ones.
+
+Naturally enough the other men were annoyed, and they were not slow to
+tell Grettir what they thought of him.  He made no other reply than a
+lampoon.
+
+After the ship had lost sight of land a heavy sea was encountered, and
+unfortunately the vessel was rather leaky and hardly seaworthy in dirty
+weather. The weather was squally and very cold, so that the men suffered
+much.  Moreover, they had to bale out the water from the hold, and this
+was laborious work.  They had not pumps in those days.
+
+The gale increased, and the crew and passengers had been engaged for
+several days and nights in baling without intermission, but Grettir
+would not help.  He lay coiled up in his wadmall under the boat, peering
+out at the men and throwing irritating snatches of song at them.  This
+exasperated them to such an extent that they determined to take him and
+throw him overboard.  Haflid heard what they said, and he went to
+Grettir and reproached him, and told him what was menaced.
+
+"Let them try to use force if they will," said Grettir.  "All I can say
+is that I sha’n’t go overboard alone as long as my sword will bite."
+
+"How can you behave as you do?" said Haflid. "Keep silence at least, and
+do not madden the men with your mockery and sneers."
+
+"I cannot hold my tongue from stabbing," said Grettir.
+
+"Very well, then, stab on, but stab me."
+
+"No; you have not hurt me."
+
+"I say, stab me.  Then, if the fellows hear you sing or say something
+spiteful of me, and I disregard it, they will not mind so much the
+ill-natured things you say of them."
+
+Grettir considered a moment, and then, remembering that he had heard of
+something ridiculous that had once occurred to Haflid, he composed a
+verse about it and shouted it derisively at Haflid as he walked away.
+
+"Just listen to him," said Haflid to the men. "Now he is slandering and
+insulting me.  He is an ill-conditioned cur, so ill-conditioned that I
+will not stoop to take notice of his insolence.  And if you take my
+advice you will disregard him as I do."
+
+"Well," said the men, "if you shrug your shoulders and pay no regard to
+his bark, why should we?"
+
+So Haflid, by his tact, smoothed over this difficulty, and averted a
+danger from Grettir’s head.
+
+The weather slowly began to mend, and the sun shone out between the
+clouds; but the wind was still strong, and the leak gained on the ship,
+for her bottom was rotten.  Now that the sun shone, the poor women who
+had been aboard and under cover during the gale, crawled forth and came
+to the side where the boat was, and where was a little shelter, and
+there sat sewing; whilst Grettir still lay, like a dog in his hutch,
+within.  Then the men began to laugh, and say that Grettir had found
+suitable company at last—he was not a man among men, but a milksop among
+women.  This was turning the tables on him, and this roused him.  Out he
+came crawling from his den, and ran aft to where the men were baling,
+and asked to be given the buckets.  The way in which it was done was for
+one to go down into the hold into the water, and fill a tub or cask and
+hoist it over his head to another man, who carried it up on deck and
+poured it over the bulwarks.  Grettir swung himself down into the hold,
+and filled and heaved so fast that there had to be two men set to carry
+up the baling casks, and then two more, four in all attending to him.
+At one time he even kept eight going, so vigorously did he work;—but
+then he was fresh, and they exhausted.
+
+When the men saw what a strong, active fellow Grettir was, they praised
+him greatly, and Grettir, unaccustomed to praise, was delighted and
+worked on vigorously, and thenceforth was of the utmost assistance in
+the ship.
+
+They still had bad weather, thick mist, in which they drifted and lost
+their bearings, and one night unawares they ran suddenly on a rock, and
+the rotten bottom of the ship was crushed in.  They had the utmost
+difficulty in rescuing their goods and getting the boat ready; but
+fortunately they were able to put all the women and the loose goods into
+the boat, man her, and row off before the ship went to pieces.  They
+came to a sandy island, ran the boat ashore, and disembarked in the cold
+and wet and darkness.
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER VI.*
+
+                           *THE RED ROVERS.*
+
+
+    _Rescued from the Holm—The Sullen Guest—The Outlawed
+    Rovers—Yule-tide Gatherings—The Suspicious Craft—Grettir Guides
+    the Rovers—The Worst Ruffians in Norway—Grettir Entertains the
+    Band—A Crew of Revellers—When the Wine is in—Thorfin’s
+    Treasures—Prisoners and Unarmed—Mad with Drink and Fury—One
+    Against Twelve—In Hot Pursuit—The Slaughter in the Boat-shed—The
+    Last of the Band—Wearied with Slaying—Thorfin’s Return—A Moment
+    of Perplexity—Better than a Dozen Men—The Gift of the Sword_
+
+
+One morning, after a night of storm on the coast of Norway, the servants
+ran into the hall of a wealthy bonder, named Thorfin, to tell him that
+during the night a ship had been wrecked off the coast, and that the
+crew and passengers were crowded on a little sandy holm, and were
+signalling for help.
+
+The bonder sprang up and ran down to the shore. He ordered out a great
+punt from his boat-house, and jumping in with his thralls, rowed to the
+holm to rescue those who were there.
+
+These were, I need not tell you, the crew and passengers of Haflid’s
+merchant vessel.  Thorfin took the half-frozen wretches on board his
+boat and rowed them to his farm, after which he returned to the islet
+and brought away the wares.  In the meantime his good housewife had been
+lighting fires, preparing beds, brewing hot ale with honey to sweeten
+it, and making every preparation she could think of for the sufferers.
+
+Haflid and the rest of the merchants or chapmen who had sailed with him
+remained at the farm a week, whilst the women were recovering from the
+cold and exposure and their goods were being dried and sorted.  Then
+they departed, with many thanks for the hospitality shown them, on their
+way to Drontheim.
+
+Grettir, however, remained.  Thorfin, the master of the house, did not
+much like him.  He did not ask him to stay; but then he had not the lack
+of hospitality to bid him depart.  In the farm Grettir never offered to
+lend a hand in any of the work; he never joined in conversation, he sat
+over the fire warming himself, and ate and drank heartily.
+
+Thorfin was much abroad, hunting or seeing after the wood-cutting, and
+he often asked Grettir to come with him.  But he was granted no other
+answer than a shake of the head and a growl.  Now the bonder was a
+merry, kindly-hearted fellow, and he liked to have all about him
+cheerful.  It is no wonder, then, that Grettir, morose and indolent,
+found no favour with him.
+
+Yule drew near, and Thorfin busked him to depart, with a number of his
+attendants, to keep the festival at one of his farms distant a good
+day’s journey. His wife was unable to accompany him, as his eldest
+daughter was ill and needed careful nursing.  Grettir he did not invite,
+as his sullenness would have acted as a damper on the joviality of the
+banquet.
+
+The farmer started for his house where he was going to spend Yule some
+days before.  A large company of guests were invited to meet him, so he
+took thirty serving-men to attend on him and them.
+
+Norway was at this time being brought into order by Earl Erik, who was
+putting down with a high hand the bands of rovers who had been the
+terror of the country.  He had outlawed all these men, and that meant
+that whoever killed them could not be fined or punished in any way for
+the slaying. Now Thorfin, the farmer with whom Grettir was staying, had
+been very active against these rovers, and they bore him a grudge.
+Among the worst of them were two brothers, Thorir wi’ the Paunch and Bad
+Ogmund.  They had not yet been caught, and they defied the power of the
+Earl.  They robbed wherever they went, burned farms over the heads of
+the sleeping inmates, and with the points of their spears drove the
+shrieking victims back into the flames when they attempted to escape.
+
+Christmas Eve was bright and sunny, and the sick girl was sufficiently
+recovered to be brought out to take the air on the sunny side of the
+great hall, leaning on her mother’s arm.
+
+Grettir spent the whole day out of doors, not in the most amiable mood
+at being shut out from the merry-makings, and left to keep house with
+the women and eight dunderheaded churls.  He fed his discontent by
+sitting on a headland watching the boats glide by, as parties went to
+convivial gatherings at the houses of their friends.  The deep blue sea
+was speckled with sails, as though gulls were plunging in the waters.
+Now a stately dragon-ship rolled past, her fearful carved head
+glittering with golden scales, her sails spread like wings before the
+breeze, and her banks of oars dipping into the sea and flashing as they
+rose.  Now a wherry was rowed by laden with cakes and ale, and the
+boatmen’s song rang merrily through the crisp air.
+
+The day began to decline, and Grettir was on the point of returning to
+the farm, when the strange proceedings of a craft at no great distance
+attracted his attention.  He noticed that she stole along in the shadows
+of the islets, keeping out of sight as much as possible.  Grettir could
+make out of her just this much, that she was floating low in the water,
+and was built for speed.  As she stranded the rowers jumped on the
+beach.  Grettir counted them, and found they were twelve, all armed men.
+They burst into Thorfin’s boat-house, thrust out his punt, and in its
+place drew in their own vessel, and pulled her up on the rollers.
+
+Mischief was a-brewing—that was clear.  So Grettir went down the hill,
+and sauntered up to the strangers, with his hands in his pockets,
+kicking the pebbles before him.
+
+"Who is your leader?" he asked curtly.
+
+"I am.  What do you want with me?" answered a stout coarse man—"Thorir,
+whom they nickname ’wi’ the Paunch.’  Here is my brother Ogmund. I
+reckon that Thorfin knows our names well enough. Don’t you think so,
+brother?  We have come here to settle a little outstanding reckoning.
+Is he at home?"
+
+"You are lucky fellows," laughed Grettir, "coming here in the very nick
+of time.  The bonder is away with all his able-bodied and fighting men,
+and won’t be back for a couple of days.  His wife and daughter are,
+however, at the farm.  Now is your time if you have old scores to wipe
+off; for he has left all his things that he values unprotected, silver,
+clothing, ale, and food in abundance."
+
+Thorir listened, then turning to Ogmund he said, "This is as I had
+expected.  But what a chatterbox this fellow is, he lets out everything
+without being asked questions."
+
+"Every man knows the use of his tongue," said Grettir.  "Now, follow me,
+and I will do what I can for you."
+
+The rovers at once followed.  Then Grettir took fat Thorir by the hand
+and led him to the farm, talking all the way as hard as his tongue could
+wag. Now the housewife happened at the time to be in the hall, and
+hearing Grettir thus talking, she was filled with surprise, and called
+out to know whom he had with him.
+
+"I have brought you guests for Yule," said Grettir. "We shall not keep
+it in as dull a fashion as we feared.  Here come visitors uninvited, but
+merry, uncommon merry."
+
+"Who are they?" asked the housewife.
+
+"Thorir wi’ the Paunch and Ogmund the Bad, and ten of their comrades."
+
+Then she cried out: "What have you done?  These are the worst ruffians
+in all Norway.  Is this the way you repay the kindness Thorfin has shown
+you in housing and keeping you here, without it’s costing you anything?"
+
+"Stay your woman’s tongue!" growled Grettir. "Now bestir yourself and
+bring out dry clothes for the guests."
+
+Then the housewife ran away crying, and her sick daughter, who saw the
+house invaded by ill-looking men all armed, hid herself.
+
+"Well," said Grettir, "as the women are too scared to attend on you, I
+will do what is necessary; so give me your wet clothes, and let me wipe
+your weapons and set them by the fire lest they get rusted."
+
+"You are a different fellow from all the rest in the house."
+
+"I do not belong to the house.  I am a stranger, an Icelander."
+
+"Then I don’t mind taking you along with us when we go away."
+
+"As you will," answered the young fellow; "only mind, I don’t behave
+like this to every one."
+
+Then the freebooters gave him their weapons, and he wiped the salt water
+from them, and laid them aside in a warm spot.  Next he removed their
+wet garments, and brought them dry suits which he routed out of the
+clothes-chests belonging to Thorfin and his men.
+
+By this time it was night.  Grettir brought in logs and faggots of fir
+branches, and made a roaring fire that filled the great hall with ruddy
+light and warmth.  In those days the halls were long buildings with a
+set of hearths running down the middle, and benches beside the fires.
+
+"Now, then, my men," said Grettir, "come to the table and drink, for I
+doubt not you are thirsty with long rowing."
+
+"We are ready," said they.  "But where are the cellars?"
+
+"Oh, if you please, I will bring you ale."
+
+"Certainly, you shall attend on us," said Thorir.
+
+Then Grettir went and fetched the best and strongest ale in Thorfin’s
+cellars, and poured it out for the men.  They were very tired and
+thirsty, and they drank eagerly.  Grettir did not stint them in meat or
+drink, and at last he took his place by them, and recited many tales
+that made them laugh, he also sang them songs; but they were becoming
+fast too tipsy to rack their brains to find out the meaning in the
+poetry.
+
+Not one of the house-churls showed his face in the hall that evening;
+they slunk about the farm, in the stables and sheds, frightened and
+trembling.
+
+Then said Thorir: "I’ll tell you what, my men. I like this young chap,
+and I doubt our finding another so handy and willing.  What say you all
+to our taking him into our band?"
+
+The pirates banged their drinking-horns on the table in token of
+approval.  Then Grettir stood up and said:
+
+"I thank you for the offer, and if you are in the same mind to-morrow
+morning when the ale is no longer in your heads, I will strike hands and
+go with you."
+
+"Let us drink brotherhood at once," shouted the rovers.
+
+"Not so," said Grettir calmly.  "I will not have it said that I took
+advantage of you when you were not sober.  It is said that when the wine
+is in the wit is out."
+
+They all protested that they would be of the same mind next morning, but
+Grettir stuck to his decision. They were now becoming so tipsy that he
+proposed they should go to bed.
+
+"But first of all," said he, "I think you will like to run your eyes
+over Thorfin’s storehouse where he keeps all his treasures."
+
+"That we shall!" roared Thorir, staggering to his feet.
+
+Then Grettir took a blazing firebrand from the hearth, and led the way
+out of the hall into the night.
+
+The storehouse was detached from the main buildings.  It was very
+strongly built of massive logs, firmly mortised together.  The door also
+was very solid, and the whole stood on a strong stone basement, and a
+flight of stone steps led up to the door.  Adjoining the storehouse was
+a lean-to building divided off from it by a partition of planks.
+
+The sharp frosty air of night striking on the faces of the revellers
+increased their intoxication, and they became very riotous, staggering
+against each other, uttering howls and attempting to sing.
+
+Drawing back the bolt Grettir flung the door open, and showed the twelve
+rovers into the treasury; and he held the flaming torch above his head
+and showed the silver-mounted drinking-horns, the embroidered garments,
+the rich fur mantles, gold bracelets, and bags filled with silver coins
+obtained from England.  The drunken men dashed upon the spoil, knocking
+each other over and quarrelling for the goods they wanted.
+
+In the midst of this noise and tumult Grettir quietly extinguished the
+torch, stepped outside and ran the bolt into its place; he had shut them
+all—all twelve, into the strong-room, and not one of them had his
+weapons about him.
+
+Then Grettir ran to the farm door and shouted for the housewife.  But
+she would not answer, as she mistrusted him; and no wonder, for he had
+seemed to be hand and glove with the pirates.
+
+"Come, come!" shouted Grettir, "I have caught all twelve, and all I need
+now are weapons.  Call up the thralls and arm them.  Quick! not a moment
+must be lost."
+
+"There are plenty of weapons here," answered the poor woman, emerging
+from her place of concealment. "But, Grettir, I mistrust you."
+
+"Trust or no trust," said Grettir, "I must have weapons.  Where are the
+serving-men?  Here, Kolbein!  Swein!  Gamli!  Rolf!  Confound the
+rascals, where are they skulking?"
+
+"Over Thorfin’s bed hangs a great barbed spear," said the housewife.
+"You will also find a sword and helmet and cuirass.  No lack of weapons,
+only pluck to wield them is needed."
+
+Grettir seized the casque and spear, girded on the sword and dashed into
+the yard, begging the woman to send the churls after him.  She called
+the eight men, and they came up timidly—that is to say, four appeared
+and took the weapons, but the other four, after showing their faces, ran
+and hid themselves again, they were afraid to measure swords with the
+terrible rovers.
+
+In the meantime the pirates had been trying the door, but it was too
+massive for them to break through, so they tore down the partitions of
+boards between the store and the lean-to room at the side. They were mad
+with drink and fury.  They broke down the door of the side-room easily
+enough, and came out on the platform at the head of the stone steps just
+as Grettir reached the bottom.
+
+Thorir and Ogmund were together.  In the fitful gleams of the moon they
+seemed like demons as they scrambled out, armed with splinters of deal
+they had broken from the planks and turned into weapons.  The brothers
+plunged down the narrow stairs with a howl that rang through the
+snow-clad forest for miles.  Grettir planted the boar-spear in the
+ground and caught Thorir on its point.  The sharp double-edged blade,
+three feet in length, sliced into him and came out between his
+shoulders, then tore into Ogmund’s breast a span deep.  The yew shaft
+bent like a bow, and flipped from the ground the stone against which the
+butt-end had been planted. The wretched men crashed over the stair,
+tried to rise, staggered, and fell again.  Grettir trod on Thorir,
+wrenched the spear out of him, and then running up the steps cut down
+another rover as he came through the door.  Then the rest came out
+stumbling over each other, some armed with bits of broken stick, others
+unarmed, and as they came forth Grettir hewed at them with the sword, or
+thrust at them with the spear.
+
+In the meantime the churls had come up, armed indeed, but not knowing
+how to use the weapons, and in a condition of too great terror to use
+them to any purpose.  The pirates saw that they were being worsted, and
+their danger sobered them.  They went back into the room and ripped the
+planks till they had obtained serviceable pieces, and then came two
+together down the stair, warding off Grettir’s blows with their sticks,
+and not attempting to strike. Then they forced him back and allowed
+space and time for those behind to leap down to the ground. If then they
+had combined they might have recovered the mastery, but they did not
+believe that they were assailed by a single enemy, they thought that
+there must have been many; consequently those who had leaped from the
+platform, instead of attacking Grettir from behind, ran away across the
+farmyard, and those who were warding off his blows, finding themselves
+unsupported, lost heart, and leaped down as well and attempted to
+escape. The yard was full of flying frightened wretches, too blinded by
+their fear to find the gate, and in the wildness of their terror they
+climbed or leaped over the yard wall and ran towards the boat-house.
+Grettir went after them.  They plunged into the dark boat-shed, and
+possessed themselves of the oars, whilst some tried to run their boat
+down into the water.  Grettir followed them in the gloom, smiting to
+right and left.  The bewildered wretches in the darkness hit each other,
+stumbled and fell in the boat, and some wounded went into the water.
+
+The thralls, content that the pirates had cleared out of the yard, did
+not trouble themselves to pursue them, but went into the farmhouse.  The
+good woman in vain urged them to go after and succour Grettir.  They
+thought they had done quite enough.  It is true, they had neither killed
+nor wounded anyone, but they had seen some men killed.  So Grettir got
+no help from them.  He was still in the boat-house, and he had this
+advantage: the boat-house was open to the air on the side that faced the
+sea, whilst the further side was closed with a door, consequently
+Grettir was himself in shadow. But the moon shone on the water, and he
+could see the black figures of the rovers cut sharply against this
+silver background.  So he could see where to strike, whilst he himself
+was unseen.
+
+One stroke from an oar reached him on the shoulder, and for the moment
+numbed his arm; but he speedily recovered sensation, and killed two more
+of the ruffians; then the remaining four made a dash together, past him,
+through the door, and separating into pairs, fled in opposite
+directions.  Grettir went after one of the couples and tracked them to a
+neighbouring farm, where they dashed into a granary and hid among the
+straw.  Unfortunately for them most of the wheat had been thrashed out,
+so that only a few bundles remained.  Grettir shut and bolted the door
+behind him, then chased the poor wretches like rats from corner to
+corner, till he had cut them both down.  Then he opened the door, and
+cast the corpses outside.
+
+In the meanwhile the weather was changing, the sky had become overcast
+with a thick snow fog that rolled up from the sea, so that Grettir, on
+coming out, saw that he must abandon the pursuit of the remaining two.
+Moreover, his arm pained him, his strength was failing him, and a sense
+of overpowering fatigue stole over him.
+
+The housewife had placed a lamp in a window of a loft as a guide to
+Grettir in the fog; the stupid house-thralls could not be induced by her
+to go out in search of him, and she was becoming uneasy at his
+protracted absence.  The fog turned into small snow, thick and blinding,
+and Grettir struggled through it with difficulty, as the weariness he
+felt became almost overpowering.  At last he reached the farm and
+staggered in through the door.  He could hardly speak.  He went to the
+table, took a horn of mead, drank some, and then threw himself down
+among the rushes on the floor by the fire, full armed grasping the
+sword, and in a moment was asleep.
+
+He did not wake for twelve hours; but the cautious and prudent housewife
+had sent out the carles in search of the pirates.  The dead bodies were
+found, some in the yard, some in the boat-house; then Grettir woke and
+came to them and pointed out in what direction the only remaining two
+had run.  The snow had fallen so thick that their traces could not be
+followed, but before nightfall they were discovered, dead, under a rock
+where they had taken refuge; they had died of cold and loss of blood.
+All the bodies were collected and a great cairn of stones was piled over
+them.
+
+When they had been buried, then the housewife made Grettir take the high
+seat in the hall, and she treated him with the utmost respect, as he
+deserved.
+
+Time passed, and Thorfin prepared to return home; he dismissed his
+guests, and he and his men got into their boat to return home.  No
+tidings had reached him of the events that had happened whilst he had
+been away.  The first thing he saw as he came rowing to his harbour was
+his punt lying stranded. This surprised and alarmed him, and he bade his
+men row harder.  They ran to the boat-house, and then saw it occupied by
+a vessel, on the rollers, which there was no mistaking; he knew it well,
+it belonged to those redoubted pirates Thorir and Ogmund.  For a moment
+he was silent with the terror and grief that came on him.  "The Red
+Rovers!" he said, when he recovered the stunning sense of alarm.  "The
+Red Rovers are here—they are on my farm.  God grant they have not hurt
+my wife and daughter!"
+
+Then he considered what was to be done, whether it was best to go at
+once to the farm, or to make a secret approach to it from different
+quarters, and surprise the enemy.
+
+Grettir was to blame.  He ought not to have allowed Thorfin to be thus
+thrown into uncertainty and distress.  He had seen the master’s boat
+round the headland and enter the bay, but he would neither go himself to
+meet him on the strand, nor suffer anyone else to go.
+
+"I do not care even if the bonder be a bit disturbed at what he sees,"
+said the young man.
+
+"Then let me go," urged the wife.
+
+"You are mistress, do as you like," said Grettir bluntly.
+
+So the housewife and her daughter went down towards the boat-house, and
+when Thorfin saw them he ran to meet them, greatly relieved but much
+perplexed, and he clasped his wife to his heart and said, "God be
+praised that you and my child are safe!  But tell me how matters have
+stood whilst I have been away, for I cannot understand the boat being
+where I found it."
+
+"We have been in grievous peril," answered his wife.  "But the
+shipwrecked boy whom you sheltered has been our protector, better than a
+dozen men."
+
+Then he said, "Sit down on this rock by me and tell me all."
+
+They took each other by the hand and sat on a stone; and the attendants
+gathered round, and the housewife told them the whole story from
+beginning to end.  When she spoke of the way in which the young
+Icelander had led the tipsy rovers into the storehouse and fastened them
+in, without their swords, the men burst into a shout of joy; and when
+her tale was concluded, their exultant cries rang so loud that Grettir
+heard them in the farmhouse.
+
+Thorfin said nothing to interrupt the thread of his wife’s story; and
+after she had done he remained silent, rapt in thought.  No one ventured
+to disturb him.  Presently he looked up, and said quietly, "That is a
+good proverb which says, ’Never despair of anyone.’  Now I must speak a
+word with Grettir."
+
+Thorfin walked with his wife to the farm, and when he saw Grettir he
+held out both his hands to him, and thanked him.
+
+"This I say to you," said Thorfin, "which few would say to their best of
+friends—that I hope some day you may need my help, and then I will prove
+to you how thankful I am for what you have done. I can say no more."
+
+Grettir thanked him, and spent the rest of the winter at his house.  The
+story of what he had done spread through all the country, and was much
+praised, especially by such as had suffered from the violence of the Ked
+Rovers.  But Thorfin made to Grettir a present, in acknowledgment of
+what he had done; and that present was the sword that had hung above his
+bed, with which Grettir had killed so many of the rovers.  Now,
+concerning this sword a tale has to be told.
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER VII.*
+
+                       *THE STORY OF THE SWORD.*
+
+    _The Light on the Cliff—The Grave of Karr the Old—The Visit to
+    the Ness—The Chamber of the Dead—The Shape on the Throne—In the
+    Dead Man’s Arms—A Fearful Wrestle—The Dead Vanquished—The
+    Dragon’s Treasure—The Tale of the Sword—The Two Swords of
+    Grettir_
+
+
+Some little while before the slaying of the Red Rovers, a strange event
+had taken place.
+
+Grettir had made the acquaintance of a man called Audun, who lived at a
+little farm at some distance from the house of Thorfin, and he walked
+over there occasionally to sit and talk with his friend.  As he returned
+late at night he noticed that a strange light used to dance at the end
+of a cliff that overhung the sea, at the end of a headland; a lonely
+desolate headland it was, without house or stall near it.  Grettir had
+never been there, and as it was so bare, he knew that no one lived on
+that headland, so he could not account for the light.  One day he said
+to Audun that he had seen this strange light, which was not steady but
+flickered; and he asked him what it meant.
+
+Audun at once became very grave, and after a moment’s hesitation said,
+"You are right.  No one lives on that ness, but there is a great mound
+there, under which is buried Karr the Old, the forefather of your host
+Thorfin; and it is said that much treasure was buried with him.  That is
+why the ghostly light burns above the mound, for—you must know that
+flames dance over hidden treasure."
+
+"If treasure be hidden there, I will dig it up," said Grettir.
+
+"Attempt nothing of the kind," said Audun, "or Thorfin will be angry.
+Besides, Karr the Old is a dangerous fellow to have to deal with.  He
+walks at night, and haunts all that headland and has scared away the
+dwellers in the nearest farms.  No one dare live there because of him.
+That is why the Ness is all desolate without houses."
+
+"I will stay the night here," said Grettir, "and to-morrow we will go
+together to the Ness, and take spade and pick and a rope, and I will see
+what can be found."
+
+Audun did not relish the proposal, but he did not like to seem
+behindhand with Grettir, and he reluctantly agreed to go with him.
+
+So next day the two went out on the Ness together. They passed two
+ruined farmhouses, the buildings rotting, the roofs fallen in.  Those
+who had lived in them had been driven away by the dweller in the old
+burial mound, or barrow.  The Norse name for these sepulchral mounds is
+_Haug_, pronounced almost like How; and where in England we have places
+with the names ending in _hoe_, there undoubtedly in former times were
+such mounds.  Thus, in Essex are Langenhoe and Fingringhoe, that is to
+say the Long Barrow and Fingar’s How.  Also, the Hoe, the great walk at
+Plymouth above the sea, derives its name from some old burial mound now
+long ago destroyed.
+
+The Ness was a finger of land running out into the sea, and on it grew
+no trees, only a little coarse grass; at the end rose a great circular
+bell-shaped mound, with a ring of stones set round it, to mark its
+circumference.  Grettir began to dig at the summit, and he worked hard.
+The day was short, and the sun was touching the sea as his pickaxe went
+through an oak plank, into a hollow space beneath, and he knew at once
+that he had struck into the chamber of the dead.  He worked with
+redoubled energy, and tore away the planks, leaving a black hole beneath
+of unknown depth, but which to his thinking could not be more than seven
+feet beneath him.  Then he called to Audun for the rope.  The end he
+fastened round his waist, and bade his friend secure the other end to a
+pole thrown across the pit mouth.  When this was done, Audun cautiously
+let Grettir down into the chamber of the dead.
+
+Now, you must know that in heathen times what was often done with old
+warriors was to draw up a boat on the shore, and to seat the dead man in
+the cabin, with his horse slain beside him, sometimes some of his slaves
+or thralls were also killed and put in with him, and his choicest
+treasures were heaped about him.  This men did because they thought that
+the dead man would want his weapons, his raiment, his ornaments, his
+horse and his servants in the spirit world.  Of late years such a mound
+has been opened in Norway, and a great ship found in it, well preserved,
+with the old dead chief’s bones in it.  When a ship was not buried, then
+a chamber of strong planks was built, and he was put in that, and the
+earth heaped over him.  Into such a chamber had Grettir now dug.
+
+He soon reached the bottom, and was in darkness, only a little light
+came in from above, through the hole he had broken in the roof of the
+cabin or chamber.  His feet were among bones, and these he was quite
+sure were horse bones.  Then he groped about.
+
+As his eyes became more accustomed to the darkness, he discerned a
+figure seated in a throne.  It was the long-dead Karr the Old.  He was
+in full harness, with a helmet on his head with bull’s horns sticking
+out, one on each side; his hands were on his knees, and his feet on a
+great chest.  Round his neck was a gold torque or necklet, made of bars
+of twisted gold, hooked together behind the head. Grettir in the dark
+could only just make out the glimmer of the gold, but it seemed to him
+that a phosphorescent light played about the face of the dead chief.
+
+So little light was left, that Grettir hasted to collect what he could.
+There stood a brazen vessel near the chair, in which were various
+articles, probably of worth, but it was too dark for Grettir to see what
+they were.  He brought the vessel to the rope and fastened the end of
+the cord to its handle.  Then he went back to the old dead man and drew
+away a short sword that lay on his lap, and this he placed in the brass
+vessel.  Next he began to unhook the gold torque from his neck, and as
+he did this the phosphorescent flame glared strangely about the dead
+man’s face.
+
+Then, all at once, as both his hands were engaged undoing the hook
+behind Karr’s neck, he was clipped. The dead man’s arms had clutched
+him, and with a roar like a bull Karr the Old stood up, holding him
+fast, and now all the light that had played over his features gathered
+into and glared out of his eyes.
+
+When Audun heard the roar, he was so frightened that he ran from the
+barrow, and did not stay his feet till he reached home, feeling
+convinced that the ghost or whatever it was that lived in the tomb had
+torn Grettir to pieces.
+
+Then began in the chamber of the dead a fearful wrestle.  Grettir was at
+times nigh on smothered by the gray beard of the dead chief, that had
+been growing, growing, in the vault, ever since he had been buried.
+
+How long that terrible struggle continued no one can tell.  Grettir had
+to use his utmost force to stand against Karr the Old.  The two wrestled
+up and down in the chamber, kicking the horse bones about from side to
+side, stumbling over the coffer, and the brass vessel, and the horse’s
+skull, striking against the sides, and when they did this then masses of
+earth and portions of broken plank fell in from above.
+
+At last Karr’s feet gave way under him and he fell, and Grettir fell
+over him.  Then instantly he laid hold of his sword, and smote off Old
+Karr’s head and laid it beside his thigh.
+
+This, according to Norse belief, was the only way in which to prevent a
+dead man from walking, who had haunted the neighbourhood of his tomb,
+and in the Icelandic sagas we hear of other cases where the same
+proceeding was gone through.  The Norsemen held to something more
+dreadful than ghosts walking; they thought that some evil spirit entered
+into the bodies of the dead, that when this happened the dead no longer
+decayed, but walked, and ate, and drank, and fought, very much like
+living ruffians, but with redoubled strength.  Then, when this happened,
+nothing was of any avail save the digging up of the dead man, cutting
+off his head and laying it at his thigh.
+
+When Grettir had done this, he despoiled Karr the Old of his helm, his
+breast-plate, his torque, and he took the box on which the feet had
+rested. He fastened all together to the rope, and called to Audun to
+haul up.  He received no answer, so he swarmed up himself, and finding
+that his friend had run away he pulled up what he had tied together, and
+carried the whole lot in his arms to the house of Thorfin.  Thorfin and
+his party were at supper; and when Grettir came in, the bonder looked
+up, and asked why he did not keep regular hours, and be at the table
+when the meal began.  Grettir made no other answer than to throw all he
+carried down on the supper-table before the master.  Thorfin raised his
+eyebrows when he saw so much treasure.
+
+"Where did you get all this?" he asked.
+
+Then Grettir answered in one of his enigmatical songs:
+
+    "Thou who dost the wave-shine shorten,
+      My attempt has been to find
+    In the barrow what was hidden,
+      Deep in darkness black and blind.
+    Nothing of the dragon’s treasure
+      With the dead is left behind."
+
+
+By the wave-shine shortener he meant Thorfin; the dragon’s treasure
+meant gold, because dragons were thought to line their lairs with that
+metal.
+
+Thorfin saw that Grettir’s eye looked longingly at the short sword that
+had lain on the knees of Karr. He said: "It was a heathen custom in old
+times to bury very much that was precious along with the dead.  I do not
+blame you for what you have done; but this I will say, that there is no
+one else about this place who would have ventured to attempt what you
+have done.  As for that sword on which you cast your eyes so longingly,
+it has ever been in our family, and I cannot part with it till you have
+shown that you are worthy to wear it."
+
+Then that sword was hung up over Thorfin’s bed. You have heard how
+Grettir did show that he was worthy to wear it, and also how Thorfin
+gave it him.
+
+Now, this tale about the sword will very well illustrate what was said
+at the beginning, that the history of Grettir contains, in the main,
+truth; but that this substance of truth has been embroidered over by
+fancy.  What is true is, that during the winter in which he was with
+Thorfin he did dig into the mound in which Karr was buried, and did take
+thence his treasures and his sword.  But all the story of his fight with
+the dead man was added. The same story occurs in a good many other
+sagas, as in that of Hromund Greip’s son, who also got a sword by
+digging into a barrow for it.  When the history of Grettir was told, and
+this adventure of his was related, those who told the story imported
+into it the legend of the fight of Hromund in the grave with the dead
+man, so as to make the history of Grettir more amusing.  As you will see
+by the tale, no one else was present when it happened, for Audun had run
+away, and it was not like Grettir to boast of what he had done.  This
+was an embellishment added by the story-teller, and from the storyteller
+the incident passed into the volume of the story-writer.
+
+Grettir had now two good swords; one long, which he called Jokull’s
+Gift, that he had received from his mother, and this short one that he
+wore at his girdle, which he had taken out of the grave of Karr the Old,
+and which he had won fairly by his bravery in the defence of the house
+and family of Thorfin.
+
+
+
+
+                            *CHAPTER VIII.*
+
+                             *OF THE BEAR.*
+
+
+    _Grettir goes North—Biorn the Braggart—The Bear’s Den—Biorn’s
+    Feat—A Hunting Party—The Lost Cloak—Grettir Seeks the Bear
+    Alone—Grettir’s Hardest Tussle—The Fall Over the Cliff—Thorgils
+    Acts as Peacemaker—Grettir Restrains Himself_
+
+
+When spring came, then Grettir left his friend Thorfin, and went north
+along the Norwegian coast, and was everywhere well received, because the
+story of how he had killed twelve rovers, he being as yet but a boy, was
+noised through all the country, and every one who had anything to lose
+felt safer because that wicked gang was broken up. Nothing of
+consequence is told about him during that summer.  For the winter he did
+not return to Thorfin as asked, but accepted the invitation of another
+bonder, named Thorgils.
+
+Thorgils was a merry, pleasant man, and he had a great company in his
+house that winter.  Among his visitors was a certain Biorn, a distant
+cousin, a man whom Thorgils did not like, as he was a slanderous-tongued
+fellow, and moreover he was a braggart.  He was one of those persons we
+meet with not infrequently who cannot endure to hear another praised;
+who, the moment a good word is spoken of someone, immediately puts in a
+nasty, spiteful word, and tells an unkind story, so as to drag that
+person down in the general opinion.  At the same time, concerning
+himself he had only praiseworthy and wonderful feats to relate about his
+wit, his wisdom, his craft, his knowledge of the world, about his
+strength and courage.
+
+Thorgils knew how much, or rather how little, to believe of what Biorn
+said, and he did not pay much regard to his talk.  But now Grettir had
+an opportunity of seeing and of feeling how mistaken had been his
+conduct on board the ship upon which he had come to Norway, when he made
+lampoons on the sailors and chapmen, and stung them with sharp words.
+He saw how disagreeable a fellow Biorn was, how much he was disliked,
+and by some despised; and he kept very greatly to himself and out of
+Biorn’s way.  He did not wish to quarrel with him, because he was the
+relative of his host, and he was afraid that his anger would get the
+better of him if he did come to words with the braggart.
+
+Grettir had grown a great deal since he left Iceland, and he was now a
+strapping fellow, broad built but not short.  He was not handsome, but
+his face was intelligent.
+
+It fell out that a bear gave much trouble that winter to Thorgils and
+the neighbouring farmers. It was so strong and so daring that no folds
+were secure against it, and Thorgils and the other farmers endured
+severe losses through the depredations of Bruin.
+
+Before Yule, a party was formed to go in search of and kill the bear,
+but all that was done was to find the lair.
+
+The bear had taken up his abode in the face of a tremendous cliff that
+overhung the sea.  There was but one path up to the cave, and that was
+so narrow that only one man could creep along it at a time. Moreover, if
+his foot slipped he would be flung over the edge upon the rocks or
+skerries below against which the waves dashed.
+
+"When the den of the bear had been discovered," Biorn said, "That is the
+main thing.  Now I know where the rogue lies, I’ll settle with him,
+trust me. I’ve been the death of scores of bears.  My only dread is lest
+he be afraid of me, and will not come on."
+
+And, actually, Biorn went out on several moonlit nights to watch for the
+bear.  He saw that the only way to deal with him would be to stop the
+track from the den, and fight him as he attempted to come away.  He took
+his short sword and great shield with him covered with ox-hide, and one
+night he laid himself down on the path of the bear, and put his shield
+over him.  He thought that Bruin would come smelling at the great
+hide-covered shield, and then all at once he (Biorn) would spring up and
+drive his sword into the heart of the bear. That was his plan—and not a
+bad plan—only, unfortunately for Biorn, the bear did not come out for a
+long time.  He had got an inkling that a man was watching for him, so he
+was shy, and whilst he waited before venturing forth, Biorn, who had
+been drinking pretty freely that evening, went to sleep.
+
+Presently the bear came out, crept cautiously down the narrow track,
+snuffing about, and when he came to Biorn, he plucked with his claws at
+the shield, and with one wrench had it off and tumbled it down the
+cliff.
+
+Biorn woke with a start, rose to his knees, saw the huge bear before
+him, and in a moment turned tail, and ran as hard as he could run to
+Thorgils’ house, and was too scared to be able to boast that he had
+killed or wounded the bear.
+
+Next morning his shield was found where the bear had thrown it, and much
+fun did this adventure of the braggart occasion.  This made him very
+irritable and more spiteful than ever.
+
+Thorgils now said that really something must be done to rid the
+neighbourhood of the bear, so a party of eight set out well armed with
+spears; of this party were Biorn and Grettir.  They reached the point
+where the track to the den ran up the cliff to the lair, and one man
+after another tried it.  But there was no getting at the bear; for as
+soon as a man came near the beast put his great forepaws forth and
+caught and snapped the spear-heads or beat them down.  As already said,
+only one could crawl up at a time.
+
+Grettir had gone out that day in a fur coat that his friend Thorfin had
+given him, and which he greatly valued.  When the onslaught against the
+bear began, he took off his fur coat, and folded it, and put it on a
+stone.  Biorn saw this, and, when none observed, he took the fur coat
+and threw it into the cave of the bear.  Grettir did not see what had
+been done till the party, disappointed with their want of success, made
+ready to depart, when he missed it, and then some suspicion entered his
+head as to what had been done with it, and by whom, but he said nothing.
+
+As they walked home, Biorn began to taunt Grettir with having done
+nothing all day.  He could kill robbers who were unarmed and were drunk,
+perhaps asleep, but a bear was too serious an adversary for him.
+
+Grettir said nothing, but as his gaiter thong became broken, he stopped
+and stooped to mend it. Thorgils asked if they should wait for him.
+Grettir declined.
+
+"Oh," said Biorn, "it is all nonsense.  It is a pretence.  He means to
+have all the glory of fighting the bear alone when we have gone on."
+
+He said the truth, but he had no idea when he spoke that it was the
+truth.
+
+Grettir tarried till the party had crossed a hill and was out of sight,
+then he turned and went back to the bear’s den.  He slipped his hand
+through the loop at the end of the handle of his short sword that he had
+taken from the grave of Karr the Old, and let it hang on his wrist, but
+he held the long sword, Jokull’s gift, by the pommel.  His plan was to
+use the long sword if needed, but if the bear came to close quarters he
+would throw it down and grasp the short one without having to put his
+hand to his girdle for it.  Very cautiously he crept along the path.
+Bruin saw him, and was now angry and hungry, and came down to meet him.
+The bear was somewhat above him; Grettir halted, and the bear stood up
+growling on his hind-legs.
+
+At once the long sword was whirled and fell on the right wrist above the
+paw, and cut it off.  The bear immediately fell down on all-fours; but
+the amputated paw was on the side away from the wall of rock, and when
+he went down on the stump he was overbalanced, and came down with his
+whole weight on Grettir.
+
+Grettir let fall his long sword at once, and with both hands grasped the
+brute’s ears, and held his head off lest he should get a bite at him.
+Grettir, in after years, was wont to say that this was the hardest
+tussle he had in his life—it was even worse than anything he had to do
+with the rovers.  For if the beast had but been able to nip him on the
+breast, or shoulder, or face with his great fangs, all would have been
+up with him.  Moreover, the ears were so smooth that he had to do his
+utmost not to let them slip.  Grettir had the wit to drag back the
+brute’s head to the rock, and by so doing the bear could not use his
+only uninjured fore-leg, armed with terrible claws, which would have
+ripped Grettir’s clothes and flesh.
+
+In the struggle the two went over the edge, and for a moment Grettir
+thought, as they spun in the air, that he was lost.  But the bear was
+heavier than the lad, consequently he fell crash on the rocks at the
+bottom first, and Grettir on him, breaking Grettir’s fall by his great
+body.  The bear’s back was broken.
+
+Then Grettir got up, shook himself, left the bear, went up the path and
+found his fur coat torn to tatters, and he put it about him, recovered
+also his long sword, and took the cut-off paw of the bear.
+
+He now went back to Thorgils’ house, and when he came into the hall
+where the fires were blazing, every one laughed to see him in his
+tattered coat; but when he gave the paw of the bear to Thorgils the
+general merriment exchanged to surprise.  Biorn, however, could not
+contain himself for vexation, and launched forth some coarse jest that
+made Grettir’s blood tingle in his veins.
+
+"Do not listen to him," said Thorgils.  "You are a brave fellow, and
+there are not many your like."  Then turning to Biorn, he said,
+"Kinsman, I advise and warn you to keep a civil tongue in your head, or
+you will come to rue it, and have to be taught better manners."
+
+"Oh, if I am to learn manners from Grettir, that is sending me to a cub
+indeed!"
+
+"I want to know," said Grettir, "whether you threw my fur coat into the
+den?"
+
+"I am not afraid of saying that I did."
+
+"Will you give me another in its place?"
+
+"I have not the smallest intention of doing charity to beggars."
+
+The braggart knew that Grettir was restraining himself because he did
+not wish to quarrel with his host’s kinsman, and he took advantage of
+his knowledge.  But Thorgils was greatly distressed and ashamed, and he
+said to Grettir:
+
+"Pay no attention to his words.  He has insulted you, and I will pay you
+a fine in compensation for his insult, that it may be buried and
+forgotten."
+
+That was customary then.  When one had hurt another in body or in honour
+by blow or foul word, he was bound to pay a sum of money; if he did not
+then the man injured was required by the laws of honour to revenge the
+injury.
+
+But when Biorn heard this proposal, he shouted out that he would not
+suffer the matter to be so compromised; he was not ashamed of his words.
+Thorgils drew Grettir aside, and said to him that his kinsman was a
+badly-behaved, brutal fellow, but that he hoped Grettir would not take
+up the quarrel in his house; and Grettir promised him solemnly that he
+would not attempt to take revenge for the rudeness of Biorn so long as
+they were both inmates of his house.
+
+"As for what may happen between you later," said Thorgils, "I wash my
+hands of responsibility. If Biorn is offensive to those who have never
+hurt him, he must take the consequences."
+
+So matters remained; only that Biorn, presuming on his position, became
+daily more arrogant, intolerable, and abusive, so that Grettir had to
+exercise daily self-restraint to keep his hands off him.  And glad he
+was when spring came, that he might get away to another part of Norway.
+
+As for Biorn, he went in the summer to England in a ship that belonged
+to Thorgils, trading there for Thorgils and for himself.  Consequently,
+all that summer he and Grettir did not meet.
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER IX.*
+
+                        *THE SLAYING OF BIORN.*
+
+
+    _The Meeting on the Island—Biorn’s Death—Thorfin Comes to
+    Grettir’s Aid—Grettir’s Life in Danger—Hiarandi’s Revenge—A
+    Doomed Man_
+
+
+Grettir left Thorgils very good friends, and he went with some merchants
+to the north, but when the summer was over he came back south, and
+arrived at a little island in the entrance of the Drontheim firth.  His
+intention was to see Earl Sweyn, and perhaps take service under him; but
+if so, things fell out other than he had reckoned.  For, as he was in
+this island, there came in a large merchant vessel from England, and
+Grettir and those with him at once went to see the shipmen, and among
+them was Biorn.  The ship was, in fact, that of Thorgils, and it was
+laden with commodities bought in England, or obtained by exchange for
+the wool, and furs, and women’s embroidery sent out in the spring by
+Thorgils.
+
+Directly Biorn saw Grettir he turned red, and pretended not to recognize
+him; but Grettir went to him at once and said:
+
+"Now has come the time when we two can settle our differences."
+
+"Oh," said Biorn, "that is soon done.  I don’t object to paying a
+trifle."
+
+"The time for paying is over," said Grettir. "Thorgils offered an
+indemnity for your insolence, and you refused to consent to it."
+
+Then Biorn saw that there was no help for him but that he must fight.
+So he girded him for the conflict, and he and Grettir went down on the
+sand, and they fought.
+
+The fight did not last long.  Grettir’s sword cut him that he fell and
+died.
+
+When the news reached Thorgils, he got ready, and came by boat as fast
+as he could to see the earl at Drontheim.  He found the earl very angry,
+but he said to him:
+
+"I am a kinsman of the fallen man, and I know that he treated Grettir
+with intolerable insolence, and that he refused every compromise.  Then
+remember what a benefit has been done to the country by Grettir, who
+ridded it of the Red Rovers, Thorir wi’ the Paunch and Ogmund the Bad."
+
+Thorfin also came to Drontheim when he heard of the straits into which
+Grettir had come through killing Biorn.  The earl called a council on
+the matter, and said he would not come to a decision till he had heard
+what Biorn’s brother Hiarandi had to say on the matter.  Hiarandi was a
+violent man, and he was very wroth.  He would hear of no patching up of
+the matter, and he vowed he would not, as he expressed it, "bring his
+brother into his purse."  As already said, it was customary when a man
+had been killed to offer a sum of money to the next of kin, and if he
+accepted the money the quarrel was at an end.  When we now speak of
+"pocketing an injury," reference is made to this same ancient usage, by
+which every offence was estimated at so much money, and if the wronged
+man took money for the offence committed against him, he was said _to
+pocket it_.  When the earl went into the matter, and heard how Grettir
+had been wronged and outraged by Biorn, he gave his decision that
+Grettir had not acted contrary to law, and that Biorn had justly
+forfeited his life.  Thorfin offered the sum of money which the earl
+considered was sufficient to atone to the relations for the death of
+Biorn, but Hiarandi refused absolutely to touch it.
+
+Then Thorfin knew that Grettir’s life was in danger, for Hiarandi would
+certainly try to take it; so he begged his kinsman Arinbiorn to go about
+with Grettir, and keep on the look-out against the mischief that
+threatened.
+
+Now it fell out one day that Grettir and Arinbiorn were walking down a
+street in Drontheim when their way led before a narrow lane opening into
+it.  They did not see any danger in the way, and were unaware of this
+lane.  But just as they had passed it a man jumped out from behind, in
+the shadow, swinging an axe, and he struck at Grettir between the
+shoulder-blades.  Fortunately, Arinbiorn had looked round at the lane,
+and he saw the man leap out, so he suddenly dragged Grettir forward with
+such a jerk that Grettir fell on his knee. This saved his life, for the
+axe came on his shoulder-blade, made a gash that cut to his armpit, and
+then the axe buried itself in the roadway.  Instantly Grettir started to
+his feet, turned round, and with his short sword smote in the very nick
+of time as the man, who was Hiarandi, was pulling up his axe to cut at
+Grettir again.  Grettir’s sword fell on his upper arm near the shoulder,
+and cut it off.  Then out rushed some servants of Hiarandi on Arinbiorn
+and Grettir, who set their backs against a house-wall and defended
+themselves with such valour that they killed or put to flight all who
+had assailed them.
+
+Now, this had been a base and cowardly attempt on the life of Grettir,
+and Hiarandi richly deserved his fate.  But the earl was exceedingly
+angry when he heard the news, and he called a council together. Thorfin
+and Grettir attended, and the earl angrily charged Grettir with having
+committed great violence, and being the cause of the death of Hiarandi
+and some of his servants.
+
+Grettir acknowledged this; but showed his wound, and stated how he had
+been attacked from behind; how his life had been saved by the
+promptitude of Arinbiorn, and how he had but defended himself against
+enemies who sought his life.
+
+"I wish you had been killed," said the earl, "and then there would have
+been an end to these disorders."
+
+"You would not have a man not raise his hands to save his head?" said
+Grettir.
+
+"I see one thing," exclaimed the earl.  "Ill luck attends you, and you
+are doomed to commit violences wherever you are."
+
+The end of it was that Earl Sweyn said he would not have Grettir to live
+in Norway any longer, lest he should be the cause of fresh troubles.
+But he remained over the third winter, and next spring sailed for
+Iceland, the time of his outlawing being ended.
+
+
+
+
+                              *CHAPTER X.*
+
+                         *OF GRETTIR’S RETURN.*
+
+
+    _Iceland Once More—Life’s Bitter Lessons—Grettir Pays Audun a
+    Visit—Some Icelandic Terms—Byres and Sels—A Chief’s Hall—The
+    Return of Audun—Grettir’s Second Wrestle with Audun—Bard
+    Interposes—The Cousins Reconciled_
+
+
+When Grettir came back to Biarg, he found his father so old and infirm
+as to be no more able to stir abroad, and Atli managed the farm for him
+along with Illugi, Grettir’s youngest brother, now grown up to be a big
+boy.  Grettir was now aged eighteen, but he looked and was a man.
+Illugi was about fifteen, a gentle, pleasant boy.  He and the kindly,
+careful Atli were as unlike Grettir as well could be; they avoided
+quarrels, they had a civil word for every one, and took pains to make
+themselves agreeable, whether to guests in their house, or when staying
+anywhere, to their hosts. Grettir never troubled himself to be courteous
+or to be obliging to anyone.  Now that he was back from Norway he was
+rather disposed to think much of himself as a man more brave and
+audacious than his fellows, for, had he not killed twelve rovers, broken
+into a barrow, slain a bear, and been the death of one man in a duel,
+and another who had attempted to assassinate him?  Atli did not much
+like his manner, and cautioned him not to be overbearing whilst at home,
+lest he should involve himself in fresh troubles.  But words were wasted
+on Grettir.  He was not the fellow to listen to advice, but one of those
+men who must learn the bitter lessons of life by personal experience.
+It is so with men always.  Some, who are thoughtful, see what God’s law
+is which is impressed on all society, and listen to what others have
+found out as the lessons taught them by their lives, so they are able to
+go out equipped against the trials and difficulties of life.  But others
+will neither look nor listen, and such have to go through every sort of
+adversity, till they have learned the great truths of social life, and
+perhaps they only acquire them when it is too late to put them in
+practice.
+
+It is with laws and courtesies of life as with the three R’s.  A man
+will fare badly who cannot read, write, and cipher.  If he learns these
+accomplishments as a child, he does well; he is furnished for the
+struggle of life, and starts on the same footing as other men; but if as
+a child he is morose and indifferent, and refuses to learn, then all
+through his life he is met with difficulties, owing to his ignorance,
+and he finds that he must learn to read, write, and do sums; and he has
+to acquire these in after years with much less ease than he might have
+learnt as a child, and after he has lost many chances of getting on
+which might have been seized, had he known these things before.
+
+Grettir’s temper on his return may be judged by one incident that
+happened almost directly.  He had not forgotten his struggle on the ice
+with his cousin Audun, and he was resolved to have another trial of
+strength with him.  So he had not been home many days before he rode
+over the hill to Audunstead in his best harness, and with a beautiful
+saddle on his horse that had been given him by Thorfin.  The time was
+that of hay, and he saw the field round Audun’s farm full of rich grass,
+ready to be cut.  He took the bridle off his horse and turned it into
+Audun’s meadow.  This was not out of thoughtlessness, but out of
+insolence, and was intended to exasperate Audun.  In Iceland grass grows
+very little, and only fit to be cut for hay round the farms in what is
+called the _tun_, where it is richly dressed with stable-dung.
+Consequently hay is very scarce and very precious.  The grass never
+grows much longer than one’s fingers, and so even in the tun it is not
+plentiful.  He knocked at the door of the farm and asked for his cousin,
+and was told that Audun had gone to the highland _sel_ to fetch curds,
+and would be back later.  The _sel_ was a farm on the highland, only
+occupied in summer, when the cattle were driven to the moors and hills
+to feed on the grass there, and to save that in the lowlands against
+winter.
+
+Here a word or two must be said about Icelandic names of places and
+people.  When Iceland was colonized, those who first settled in the land
+and built farms, called the places after their own names in a great many
+cases; they called them so-and-so’s _stead_, or so-and-so’s _by_ or
+farm.  A _by_ is the Scotch byre, and in Icelandic is _bœr_, pronounced
+exactly like the Scotch word.  Wherever, in the north and east of
+England, Norse settlers came, there we find names of places ending in
+the same way, and we know that these were farms and dwellings of old
+Norse settlers.  Thus in Northumberland, Yorkshire, and Lincolnshire,
+are plenty of Norse place-names. Near Thirsk is Thirkelby or
+Thorkel’s-byre, near Ripon is Enderby or Andrew’s-byre.  Not only so,
+but where there are high hills there we find also _sels_, that is
+summer-farms, like the Alps to which the cattle are driven in
+Switzerland.  Next as to the names of people.  What is a little puzzling
+to remember is the number of persons whose names begin with Thor.  Thor,
+the god of thunder, was regarded with the highest reverence by the
+Icelanders; they thought of him even more than they did of Odin, the
+chief god of all, who had one eye, and his one fiery eye was the sun.
+Thor was called the Redbeard, and the aurora borealis was thought to be
+his waving red-beard in the sky.  The thunderbolt they regarded as his
+hammer.  To show their respect for him, children were named after him:
+Thor-grim means Thor’s wrath; Thor-kel, Thor’s kettle, in which the
+sacrificial meat was cooked in offering to Thor; Thor-gil was Thor’s boy
+or servant; Thor-hall was Thor’s flint spear-head, and so on.  The
+Northumbrian king, St. Osmund, takes his name from the Hand of God, and
+the name is the same as Asmund, the father of Grettir.  Oswald means the
+elect of the god; in Icelandic the name would be Aswald.
+
+When Grettir found that Audun was from home, he went into the hall and
+lay down on the bench nearest the door.  The hall was dark.
+
+The halls of the Icelandic chiefs were like bodies of churches, and were
+divided into a nave with side aisles; and were lighted by windows in a
+clere-story that were covered with the skin of the lining of a sheep’s
+stomach, to let in light and keep out cold, because they had no glass.
+In the side aisles were the beds of those who lived in the house, some
+with doors and shutters, which could be fastened from within; and a man
+in danger of his life would so sleep.  He would go to bed, and then
+close himself in and lock the shutters, that no one could get at him
+when he was asleep.  The fires and benches and tables were in the nave,
+or middle of the great hall.  Over the partitions for the beds were hung
+shields and swords and spears, and on grand occasions hangings were put
+up all along the sides, hiding the beds and berths in the side aisles.
+The arrangement in an Icelandic house at the present day is much the
+same, only on a very much reduced scale.  The people live and eat and
+sleep in the same room, like the saloon-cabin of a ship, with the berths
+round the walls.
+
+Audun arrived in the afternoon with a horse that carried curds in skins
+on its back; that is to say, skins were made into bottles, as is still
+common in Palestine.  When he saw that a horse with a saddle on it was
+wandering about in his meadow, trampling down the grass and eating it,
+he was very vexed; and throwing one bottle of curd over his back, and
+hanging another in front on his breast to counterbalance it, he ran into
+the house to ask who had done this.
+
+The hall was dusky, and Audun’s eyes were accustomed to the bright
+summer-light.  As he entered Grettir put out his foot; Audun did not see
+it, and stumbled over it, fell on the skin of curds and burst it.  Then
+he jumped up, very angry, and asked who had played him this scurvy
+trick.  Grettir named himself, and said he had come over about that
+matter of the wrestle on the ice.  Audun, still very irate, all at once
+stooped, picked up the burst skin, and dashed it in Grettir’s face,
+smothering him with curds.  Then he threw down the other curd-bottle,
+and began to wrestle with Grettir.  They swung up and down the hall,
+kicking over the benches, now upon the floor, then on the stone-paved
+fire-hearth in the midst; then they crashed against the walls and
+pillars of the bed-chambers, and as they did so the shields and weapons
+hung over them clashed like bells.  Some frightened servant-maids came
+in, and ran out again in alarm, calling for aid.
+
+Audun felt now that Grettir had outgrown him in strength, but he would
+not give in; then they slipped on the curd and both fell, parted for a
+moment, rose, and flew at each other once more. Again, up and down,
+banging, stumbling, writhing in each other’s arms, twisting legs round
+each other, to try to trip each other up, and ever Grettir bearing Audun
+backwards, but never wholly mastering him.  Audun could not trust his
+cousin, for though they were akin, and though he had not really done him
+an injury, there was no telling to what a pitch Grettir’s blood might
+mount and blind him; so as they wrestled, Audun took care to twist the
+short sword out of Grettir’s belt and throw it away.  As, to do this, he
+had to disengage his hand from Grettir’s shoulder, he lost an advantage.
+Grettir managed to trip him, and throw him flat on his back.
+
+At that moment, fortunately, a man, big, wearing a red kirtle, and in
+full harness, entered the hall and asked what was the meaning of the
+noise and fight? As he did not receive an immediate answer, he came to
+the rescue of Audun, and drew Grettir from him.
+
+"We are only in play with each other," said Grettir.
+
+"Rather rough play," said the man, "and likely to end in tears rather
+than laughter."
+
+"Who are you that interfere?" asked Grettir.
+
+"My name is Bard."
+
+Then Audun scrambled to his feet.
+
+"What is the reason of this rough play?" asked Bard.
+
+Then Grettir answered, by singing:
+
+    "Prithee, Audun, will you say
+    How, upon the ice one day,
+    You to throttle did essay?
+    Now, for that I this have done,
+    On Audun honour I have won;
+    Curds and wrestle make good fun."
+
+
+"Oh, I see," said Bard; "fighting out an old grudge.  I have nothing to
+say against that.  Now, shake hands, and be loving cousins again."
+
+Audun held out his hand, and Grettir agreed to let the matter end thus.
+But he was dissatisfied, and ever after bore Bard a grudge.  However, he
+never again wrestled with Audun, and remained on good terms with him.
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER XI.*
+
+                           *THE HORSE-FIGHT.*
+
+
+    _Atli’s Roan—The Coming Fight—Unfair Play—Grettir
+    Retaliation—Smouldering Fire_
+
+
+One of the rude and cruel sports that amused the Icelanders in summer
+time was horse-fighting. A smooth piece of turf was chosen, and was
+staked round.  Into this inclosure two or sometimes more horses were
+introduced, and a man attended each, who urged on his own horse, armed
+with a goad. By means of these goads the horses were stung to madness,
+and attacked each other, biting each other savagely.  Now, Atli had a
+beautiful roan, with a black mane, which he and his old father were very
+proud of.  Lower down the valley, near the sea, was a farm called Mais,
+in which lived a bonder named Kormak, and his brother; they had in their
+house a man called Odd the Foundling, a sly, captious fellow, who, like
+Grettir, made verses; but his verses were not generally thought to be so
+good as those of Grettir.  On the opposite side of the river is a
+hot-spring; it is still hot, but not so hot as it was in those days,
+when it boiled up and poured forth a cloud of steam, and ran in a
+scalding rill down to the river.  There was a convenient level place
+near the river for a horse-fight, and it stood above the water on one
+side rather steeply, so that it needed only fencing on three sides.
+Kormak had a brown horse that fought well, and it was resolved that
+autumn to have a fight between the horse of Kormak and the roan of Atli.
+Odd was to goad on Kormak’s brown, and Grettir offered himself to his
+brother to run with the roan.  Atli did not much like the proposal, as
+he feared Grettir’s temper; but he could not well decline his offer, so
+he said, "I will consent, brother; only I pray you, be peaceable, for we
+have to do with overbearing men, and it will be very unfortunate if a
+broil should come of this."
+
+"If they begin, I shall not run away," said Grettir.
+
+"Not if they begin; but be very careful not to provoke a quarrel."
+
+"Quarrels come and are not made," said Grettir.
+
+"That I do not hold," answered Atli.
+
+The day of the horse-fight arrived, and the horses were led to the place
+of contest.  They had been fed up and groomed for the occasion, and each
+had a band round his middle of colour, by which he who went with the
+horse could hold, and the goad of each was tied with a tuft of feathers
+at the head, stained the same colour as the belt about the horse.
+
+The two horses were introduced within the inclosure, and were soon
+goaded into anger, and began to plunge, and snort, and snap at each
+other.  The by-standers outside the railing cheered and shouted, and the
+horses seemed to understand that they were to do their best; so they
+pranced about each other, struck at each other, and tried to get round
+each other so as to bite the flank.  At one moment the roan bit the side
+of the brown, and held.  Odd ran his goad into the horse of Grettir to
+make it let go;—this was against the rules; he did it to save his own
+horse from a terrible wound.  Grettir saw what he did, but he said
+nothing.  Now the horses bore towards the river, and were rearing and
+plunging close to the edge, and the two men had much ado to hold on.
+Then Odd took the opportunity when Grettir’s back was turned to drive at
+him with his goad between the shoulders, where was the great scar still
+red, and only just fully healed, that he had received from the axe of
+Hiarandi.  It was a cruel blow, and this also was against all rule of
+fair play.
+
+At that moment the roan reared, and instantly Grettir ran under him, and
+struck Odd with such a blow that he reeled back towards the water edge,
+and in so doing dragged the brown horse he was holding over the edge,
+and both went down into the water together.  The river was very full
+with the melted snows, and Odd was brought ashore with difficulty.  It
+was found that three of his ribs were broken; but whether with the blow
+dealt by Grettir, or by his fall on the rock, or by the hoof of the
+horse as it fell and struggled in the river, cannot be said; but the
+party of Kormak, of course, charged Grettir with having broken Odd’s
+ribs with his stick, and they flew to arms, and threatened the party
+from Biarg.  However, the people of the nearest vales and firths
+interfered, and no bloodshed ensued.  But the men of Mais and of Biarg
+separated bearing each other much ill-will, each charging the other with
+having broken the laws of the sport.
+
+Atli did not say what he felt, he was greatly annoyed; but Grettir was
+less careful of his words, he said that the matter was by no means
+ended, and that he hoped there would be a meeting between the men of
+Mais and the men of Biarg, and then—it would not be a fight of horses,
+but of men; not a biting of horses, but of sharp blades.
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER XII.*
+
+                      *OF THE FIGHT AT THE NECK.*
+
+
+    _The Desolate Moor—Grettir challenges Kormak—Oxmain comes on the
+    Scene—Slow-coach taunts Grettir—Grettir’s Vexation_
+
+
+The next fiord on the west of that into which the river that flowed past
+Biarg poured was called the Ramsfirth, and at the head of it lived
+Grettir’s married sister.
+
+In the following summer, that is in 1014, Grettir paid his sister a
+visit; he had with him two servant-men from Biarg, and he spent three
+days and nights at his sister’s.  Whilst there, news reached him that
+Kormak, who had been away from Mais for a week or two, was on his road
+home, and who was now staying at a house called Tongue.  Grettir at once
+made ready to depart, and his brother-in-law sent two men with him, for
+it was not safe that Grettir should have only two churls with him, as
+there was ill blood between him and Kormak about that affair of the
+horse-fight.
+
+A high, long shoulder of desolate moor lies between the Ramsfirth and
+the Westriver-dale, in which is a confluent of the river that flows past
+Biarg.  This shoulder rises to the north into a great hump, called
+Burfell, and on the saddle is a little lake.  A very fine view is
+obtained from this shoulder of moor over the northern immense bay of
+Hunafloi, towards the glaciers and mountains of that curious excrescence
+of land that lies on the north-west of Iceland.  I know exactly the road
+taken by Grettir on this occasion, for I have ridden over it.  Along the
+top of this shoulder the rocks are scraped by glaciers, that must at one
+time have occupied the whole centre of the island, and have slowly
+slidden down into the firths on all sides.  Here, what is curious is,
+that the rocks are furrowed, just as if carved with a graving tool, in
+lines from south to north, showing the direction from which the glaciers
+slipped down. Now, on the slope of this bit of upland is a great stone
+poised on a point, which I have seen.  Grettir came to this stone, and
+spent a long time in trying to upset it.  It is called Grettir’s-heave
+to this day. The men who were with him rather wondered at him why he
+wasted time over this, instead of pushing on.  But his sharp eye had
+noticed the party of Kormak leaving Tongue, and he was bent on an
+encounter.  He thought that if Odd had seen him going over the hill he
+would make a lampoon about him running away from his sister’s house the
+moment he heard that danger was threatening.  So he determined to tarry
+till Kormak came up and fight him.  He had not long to wait, for
+presently over the top of the hill came Kormak with Odd and some others.
+Grettir at once rode to meet them, and said, "Now we have our weapons on
+both sides, let us fight like men of good birth, and not with sticks as
+churls."
+
+Then Kormak turned to his men and bade them accept the challenge and
+fight.
+
+Accordingly they ran at one another and fought. Grettir bade his two
+serving-men stand behind his back and defend that, and he, sweeping his
+longsword from left to right, went forward against Kormak.  Thus they
+fought for a while, and some were wounded on both sides.
+
+Now it so happened that at a rich farm in the Ramsfirth-dale lived a
+well-to-do, and very strong man, called Thorbiorn—that is, Thor’s
+Bear—nicknamed Oxmain.  He had ridden that day over Burfell-heath, with
+a party, and was now returning. As he came along he heard shouts and the
+clashing of arms, so he quickened his pace, and presently came in sight
+of the fighters.  He at once ordered his men to dash in between the
+combatants.  But by this time the passions of those engaged were so
+furious that they would not be separated.  Grettir sweeping his
+long-sword about him strode forward, and the men of Kormak fell back
+before him. Down went two of those who were with Kormak, and one servant
+of Atli, Grettir’s brother, was killed.
+
+[Illustration: GRETTIR CHALLENGES KORMAK AND HIS PARTY.]
+
+Then Thorbiorn Oxmain raised his great voice and roared out, that he and
+his party would take sides against the first man who dealt another blow.
+Grettir saw that it would hardly do if Thorbiorn Oxmain brought all his
+force against him, so he gave up the battle; but they did not part till
+every one of those engaged was wounded, and two were killed on one side,
+and one on the other.  Grettir was ill pleased that the affray had ended
+in this manner, and he felt resentment against Oxmain for his
+interference.  Unfortunately, Oxmain’s brother, who went by the name of
+the Slow-coach, made fun of the matter, and laughed about Grettir
+sneaking away from the fight directly he saw that he was getting the
+worst of it.  Whatever he said was reported at Biarg, and, as may well
+be imagined, did not improve Grettir’s temper, or liking for Oxmain and
+Slow-coach.  Nothing further occurred between him and Kormak, probably
+he and Kormak were content with the trial of strength that had taken
+place, and were disinclined to renew a profitless contest.
+
+Atli took no notice of the loss of his house-churl; he desired peace,
+and not a stirring afresh of the fires of discord.  To his peaceable
+behaviour it was doubtless due that the quarrel with Kormak came to an
+end.  But the vexation felt by Grettir against Oxmain for his
+meddlesomeness, and against Slow-coach for his gibes, rankled in his
+breast.
+
+
+
+
+                            *CHAPTER XIII.*
+
+                 *HOW GRETTIR AND AUDUN MADE FRIENDS.*
+
+
+    _Audun’s Pedigree—His relation to Grettir—Grettir’s-heaves—In
+    Willowdale—The Place called Tongue—A very strange Tale_
+
+
+Grettir remained through the autumn at Biarg, after the skirmish at the
+Neck, till September, and then he thought he would ride away east and
+see Audun again, with whom he had had that little ruffle that was almost
+a quarrel, and which was fortunately interrupted by the entrance of
+Bard. Audun was a cousin, though not a near one, and Grettir had no
+desire that any bad blood should exist between kinsfolk.  Audun belonged
+to what was called the Madpate family; for it had had in it at least two
+who had been so odd in their ways that folk said they were not quite
+right in their minds. The relationship will easily be understood by a
+look at the pedigree.  It will be remembered that old Onund Treefoot,
+who had settled in Iceland, had to wife secondly Thordis, an Icelandic
+woman, and his son by her was Thorgrim Grizzlepate, and this Thorgrim
+bought the estate and house of Biarg about the year 935.  Onund Treefoot
+died in or about 920, and then his widow Thordis married again a man
+called Audun Skokull, and they had a son who was called Asgeir, who
+settled in Willowdale, and either went off his head or proved so queer
+in his ways that folks called him Madpate.  This Madpate married and had
+a son Audun, and a daughter Thurid who married away west into a very
+good family; and she had a son called Thorstein Kuggson, of whom we
+shall hear more presently.  Audun of Willowdale’s son was Madpate the
+Second, and the lad Audun who wrestled with Grettir and burst the bottle
+of curds was the son of this Madpate the Second.  Consequently the
+relationship to Grettir was through Grettir’s great-grandmother, and
+Audun belonged to a generation younger than that of Grettir, because
+Grettir was the son of Asmund’s old age. Moreover, Asmund’s father
+Thorgrim had married somewhat late in life, whereas all the Madpate
+family had dashed into marriage at a very early age.  Thus it came about
+that Grettir’s great-grandmother was Audun’s great-great-grandmother,
+and that, nevertheless, Audun was somewhat older than Grettir.
+
+Grettir rode straight up over the hill behind his house.  Now this hill
+like the Neck, already described, is rather curious, for on it are a
+number of rocks that have been deposited by glaciers, and not only so,
+but they have been dragged along by ice, scratching the rocks over which
+they were driven forward, and so these beds of rock are rubbed and
+scored with lines made by the stones forced over them by ice.  Above
+Biarg there is one large stone that has scratched a deep furrow in the
+bed of rock and then has stopped at the end of the furrow it had itself
+scored.  This remarkable phenomenon tells us of a time when the whole of
+the centre of Iceland was covered with glaciers, like the centre of
+Greenland now.  These glaciers slided down the slopes of the hills, and
+were thrust along to the sea, where they broke off and floated away as
+icebergs.
+
+Nowadays folk in Iceland do not understand these odd stones perched in
+queer places, which were deposited by the ancient glaciers, and they
+call them Grettir-taks or Grettir’s-heaves.  So the farmer at Biarg told
+me that the curious stone at the end of the furrow in the bed of rock on
+top of the hill was a Grettir-tak; it had been rubbed along the rock and
+left where it stands by Grettir.  But I knew better. I knew that it was
+put there by an ancient glacier ages before Grettir was born, and before
+Iceland was discovered by the Norsemen.  I have no doubt that in
+Grettir’s time this stone was said to have been put there by some troll.
+Afterwards, when people ceased to believe in trolls, they said it was
+put there by Grettir.
+
+Grettir’s ride led him by a pretty little blue lake that lies folded in
+between high hills and has a stream flowing from it into a very large
+lake near Hop.  But he did not follow the stream down; he crossed
+another hill, not very steep and high, and reached his cousin’s house at
+Audun stead in Willowdale.  Now this valley took its name from the woods
+of willows that grew in it when first settled, but at the present day
+none remain; all have in course of time been burnt for fuel, and except
+for scanty grass the Willowdale is very dreary-looking.  We may be sure
+that Iceland presented a much more smiling and green appearance eight
+hundred or a thousand years ago than it does at present.
+
+When Grettir came to Willowdale, Audun received him in a friendly
+manner, and Grettir made him a present of a handsome axe he had.  He
+remained with him some little while, and they talked over old tales of
+Onund Treefoot and his doings, and every shadow of rivalry and anger
+disappeared, so that they parted at length in the best of tempers and as
+true and affectionate cousins.
+
+Audun would have desired to keep Grettir there longer, but Grettir would
+not stay.  He desired to get on to the head of Waterdale, where lived an
+uncle of his called Jokull, his mother’s brother, at a place called
+Tongue.
+
+So he rode away over the moor, and reached Tongue.  Here a stream comes
+rushing through a gorge in a series of waterfalls, and meets another
+stream that comes down a valley called the Valley of Shadows further
+east.
+
+Tongue is so called because it lies on a grassy slope exactly in the
+tongue of land between these two streams.  There is now a good farm
+there and a church, and there I stayed a few days.  At the back of
+Tongue the hill rises rapidly to a fell called Tongue-heath.  This hill
+was covered with snow when Grettir arrived.  This uncle Jokull was glad
+to see him.
+
+He was a rough and violent man, very big and strong; and it was clear to
+everyone that his nephew took after his mother’s family more than his
+father’s, for there was a strong likeness both in build and face and in
+character between Jokull and Grettir.
+
+He received Grettir heartily in his rough, blunt way, and bade him stay
+there as long as he liked. Jokull had been a seafaring man, and had made
+much by his merchant trips.  He would probably have been a richer and
+more respected man had he not been so violent and overbearing and ready
+to pick quarrels.
+
+Now Grettir had not been at Tongue three days before he heard a very
+strange tale.  Jokull’s mouth was full of it, and with good reason, for
+the events had taken place not an hour’s ride distant.  It was a tale
+about the nearest farm in the Valley of Shadows, a farm called
+Thorhall’s-stead, which was reported to be haunted; and so serious had
+affairs become there that no servants would remain, and the farmer and
+his family had been driven from house and home by the hauntings last
+winter, and had come and lodged with Jokull at Tongue, and he had
+entertained them for some two or three months.  Now this was not a case
+of mere fancy and fantastic fear.  It was something very real and very
+marvellous.  But it is a long story, and must be consigned to another
+chapter.
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER XIV.*
+
+                         *THE VALE OF SHADOWS.*
+
+
+    _A Turning-point in Grettir’s Life—The Farm in the Valley—The
+    haunted Sheep-walks—A strange-looking Fellow—"Here is my
+    Hand"—Glam keeps Faith—Glam is missing—Following the Red
+    Track—The Ghost of Glam—Glam’s Successor—Thorgaut is
+    Missing—From Bad to Worse—Fate of the old Serving-man—Thorhall’s
+    Perplexity—Grettir offers Aid_
+
+
+We have come now to an incident which formed a turning-point in
+Grettir’s life.  It is a very mysterious and inexplicable story, not one
+that can be put aside as we have that of his fight in the tomb with Karr
+the Old.  This is a story even more gruesome. It relates to an event
+that so shook Grettir’s nerves that he never after could endure to be
+alone in the dark, and would risk all kinds of dangers to escape
+solitude.  How much of truth lies under this strange narrative we cannot
+now say, but that something really did take place is certain from the
+effect it had on Grettir ever after.
+
+The richest valley for grass in all this quarter of Iceland, and the
+most peopled, is the Waterdale. On the east rises a mountain ridge of
+precipitous basaltic cliffs, down which leap waterfalls from the snows
+above.  The river that flows through this valley is fed by two main
+streams that unite at the farm called Tongue.  The stream on the east
+rises a long way inland in a mass of lava, and flows through a valley so
+narrow and so gloomy that it goes by the name of the Valley of Shadows.
+The high ranges of moor and waste to the south shut off the southern
+sun, and the lofty banks of mountain to east and west so close it in
+that it gets no sun morning or evening.
+
+A little way up this valley—not far, and not where it is most gloomy—are
+now the scanty ruins of a farm called Thorhall’s-stead.  Above this the
+valley so contracts and the hills are so steep that it is only with
+great difficulty that a horse can be led along. This I know very well;
+for in crossing an avalanche slide my horse and I were almost
+precipitated into the torrent below.  Further up the valley stands a
+tongue of high land with a waterfall on one side and the ravine on the
+other, and here at one time some robbers had their fortress who were the
+terror of the neighbourhood.  No trace of their fortress remains at
+present, but it was to find this place that I explored the valley.
+
+In the farm that is now but a heap of ruins lived a bonder named
+Thorhall and his wife.  He was not a man of much consideration in the
+district, for he was planted on cold, poor land, and his wealth was but
+small.  Moreover, he had no servants; and the reason was that his
+sheep-walks were haunted.
+
+Not a herdsman would remain with him.  He offered high wages, he
+threatened, he entreated, all in vain.  One shepherd after another left
+his service, and things came to such a pass that he determined to have
+the advice of the law-man or chief judge at the next annual assize.
+
+He saddled his horses and rode to Thingvalla. Skapti was the name of the
+judge then, a man with a long head, and deemed the best of men for
+giving counsel.  Thorhall told him his trouble.
+
+"I can help you," said Skapti.  "There is a shepherd who has been with
+me, a rude, strange man, but afraid of neither man nor hobgoblin, and
+strong as a bull; but he is not very clear in his intellect."
+
+"That does not matter," said Thorhall, "so long as he can mind sheep."
+
+"You may trust him for that," said Skapti.  "He is a Swede, and his name
+is Glam."
+
+Towards the end of the assize two gray horses belonging to Thorhall
+slipped their hobbles and strayed; so, as he had no serving-man, he went
+after them himself, and on his way met a strange-looking fellow, driving
+before him an ass laden with faggots.  The man was tall and stalwart;
+his face attracted Torhall’s attention, for the eyes were ashen gray and
+staring.  The powerful jaw was furnished with white protruding teeth,
+and about his low brow hung bunches of coarse wolf-gray hair.
+
+"Pray, what are you called?" asked Thorhall, for he suspected that this
+was the man Skapti had spoken about.
+
+"Glam, at your service."
+
+"Do you like your present duties—wood-cutting?" asked the farmer.
+
+"No, I do not.  I am properly a shepherd."
+
+"Then, will you come with me?  Skapti has spoken of you and offered you
+to me."
+
+"What are the drawbacks to your service?" asked Glam cautiously.
+
+"None, save that my sheep-walks are haunted."
+
+"Oh! is that all?  Ghosts won’t scare me.  Here is my hand.  I will come
+to you before winter."
+
+They separated, and soon after the farmer found his horses; they had got
+into a little wood, and were nibbling the willow tops.  He went home,
+having thanked Skapti.
+
+Summer passed, then autumn, and nothing further was heard of Glam.  The
+winter storms began to bluster up the valley from the cold Polar Sea,
+driving the flying snowflakes and heaping them in drifts at every turn
+of the vale.  Ice formed in the shallows of the river, and the streams
+which in summer trickled down the sides were now turned to icicles. I
+was there the very end of June, and then the whole of the mountain flank
+to the west was covered with frozen streams spread like a net of icicle
+over the black and red striped bare rock.
+
+One gusty night a violent blow at the door startled all in the farm.  In
+another moment Glam, tall and wild, stood in the hall glowering out of
+his gray staring eyes, his hair matted with frost, his teeth rattling
+and snapping with cold, his face blood-red in the glare of the fire that
+glowed in the centre of the hall.
+
+He was well received by Thorhall, but the housewife did not like the
+man’s looks, and did not welcome him with much heartiness.  Time passed,
+and the shepherd was on the moors every day with the flock; his loud and
+deep-toned voice was often borne down on the wind as he shouted to the
+sheep, driving them to fold.  His presence always produced a chill in
+the house, and when he spoke it sent a thrill through the women, who did
+not like him.
+
+Christmas-eve was raw and windy; masses of gray vapour rolled up from
+the Arctic Ocean, and hung in piles about the mountain tops.  Now and
+then a scud of frozen fog, covering bar and beam with feathery
+hoar-frost, swept up the glen.  As the day declined snow began to fall
+in large flakes.
+
+When the wind lulled there could be heard the shout of Glam high up on
+the hillside.  Darkness closed in, and with the darkness the snow fell
+thicker. There was a church then at Thorhall’s farm; there is none there
+now, since the valley has been abandoned from its cold and ill name.
+
+The lights were kindled in the church, and every snowflake as it sailed
+down past the open door burned like a golden feather in the light.
+
+When the service was over, and the farmer and his party returned to the
+house, Glam had not come home.  This was strange; as he could not live
+abroad in the cold, and the sheep would also require shelter.  Thorhall
+was uneasy and proposed a search, but no one would go with him; and no
+wonder, it was not a night for a dog to be out in, and the tracks would
+all be buried in snow.  So the family sat up all night listening,
+trembling and anxious.
+
+Day broke at last faintly in the south over the great white masses of
+mountains.  Now a party was formed to search for the missing man.  A
+sharp climb brought them to the top of the moor above Tongue.  Here and
+there a sheep was found shivering under a rock or half buried in a
+snowdrift, but of Glam—not a sign.
+
+Presently the whole party was called together about a spot on the
+hilltop where the snow was trampled and kicked about, and it was clear
+that some desperate struggle had taken place there. There the snow was
+also dabbled with frozen blood. A red track led further up the mountain
+side, and the searchers were following it when a boy uttered a shriek of
+fear.  In looking behind a rock he had come on the corpse of the
+shepherd lying on its back with the arms extended.  The body was taken
+up and carried to the edge of the gorge, and was there buried under a
+pile of stones, heaped over it to the height of about six feet.  _How_
+Glam had died, _by whom_ killed, no one knew, nor could they make a
+guess.
+
+Two nights after this one of the thralls who had gone for the cows burst
+into the hall with a face blank from terror; he staggered to a seat and
+fainted.  On recovering his senses, in a broken voice he assured those
+who were round him that he had seen Glam walking past him, with huge
+strides, as he left the stable door.  The shepherd had turned his head
+and looked at him fixedly from his great gray staring eyes.  On the
+following day a stable lad was found in a fit under a wall, and he never
+after recovered his senses.  It was thought he must have seen something
+that had scared him.  Next, some of the women, declared that they had
+seen Glam looking in on them through a window of the dairy.  In the dusk
+Thorhall himself met the dead man, who stood and glowered at him, but
+made no attempt to injure his master, and uttered not a word.  The
+haunting did not end thus. Nightly a heavy tread was heard round the
+house, and a hand groping along the walls, and sometimes a hand came in
+at the windows, a great coarse hand, that in the red light from the fire
+seemed as though steeped in blood.
+
+When the spring came round the disturbances lessened, and as the sun
+obtained full power, ceased altogether.
+
+During the course of the summer a Norwegian vessel came into the fiord;
+Thorhall went on board and found there a man named Thorgaut, who had
+come out in search of work.  Thorhall engaged him as a shepherd, but not
+without honestly telling him his trouble, and what there was uncanny
+about his sheep-walks, and how Glam had fared.  The man did not regard
+this, he laughed, and promised to be with Thorhall at the appointed
+season.
+
+Accordingly he arrived in autumn, and he soon established himself as a
+favourite in the house; he romped with the children, helped his
+fellow-servants, and was as much liked as his predecessor had been
+detested.  He was such a merry careless fellow that he did not think
+anything of the risks that lay before him, and joked about them.
+
+When winter set in strange sights and sounds began to alarm the folk at
+the farm, but Thorgaut was not troubled; he slept too soundly at night
+to be disturbed by the heavy tread round the house.
+
+On the day before Yule, as was his wont, Thorgaut drove out the sheep to
+pasture.  Thorhall was uneasy.  He said to him: "I pray you be careful,
+and do not go near the barrow under which Glam was laid."
+
+"Don’t fear for me," laughed Thorgaut, "I shall be back in time for
+supper, and shall attend you to church."
+
+Night settled in, but no Thorgaut arrived.  There was little mirth at
+table when the supper was brought in.  All were anxious and fearful.
+
+The wind was cold and wetting.  Blocks of ice were driving about in the
+bay, grinding against each other, and the sound could be heard far up
+the valley.  Aloft, the aurora flames were lighting up the heavens with
+an arch of fire.  Again this Christmas night the dwellers in the farm
+sat up and did not go to bed, waiting for the return of Thorgaut, but he
+did not arrive.
+
+Next morning he was sought, and was found lying dead across the barrow
+of Glam, with his spine and one leg and one arm broken.  He was brought
+home and laid in the churchyard.
+
+Matters now rapidly became worse.  Outbuildings were broken into of a
+night, and their woodwork was rent and shattered; the house door was
+violently shaken, and great pieces of it were torn away; the gables of
+the house were also pulled furiously to and fro.
+
+Now it fell out that one morning the only man who remained in the
+service of the family went out early.  Not another servant dared to
+remain in the place, and this man remained because he had been with
+Thorhall and with his father, and he could not make up his mind to
+desert his master in his need. About an hour after he had gone out
+Thorhall’s wife took her milking cans and went to the cow-house that she
+might milk the cows, as she had now not a maid in the house, and had to
+do everything herself.  On reaching the door of the cow-house she heard
+a terrible sound from within, the bellowing of the cattle, and the deep
+bell-notes of an unearthly voice.  She was so frightened that she
+dropped her pails and ran back to the house and called her husband.
+Thorhall was in bed, but he rose instantly, caught up a weapon, and
+hastened to the cow-house.
+
+On opening the door he found all the cattle loose and goring each other.
+Slung across the stone that separated their stalls was the old
+serving-man, perfectly dead, with his back broken.  He had, apparently,
+been tossed by the cows, and had fallen on this stone backwards.
+
+Neither Thorhall nor his wife explained his death in this way; they
+thought that Glam must have been there, have driven the cattle wild, and
+that just as he had broken the back of Thorgaut, so had he now broken
+that of the poor old serving-man.
+
+It was impossible for the bonder to remain longer in that place; he and
+his wife therefore removed down to Tongue, which lies at the junction of
+the two rivers, and there things were quiet.  There he was hospitably
+received by Jokull.  Thorhall was able to persuade some of his runaway
+servants to come back to him, but no man all that winter would go near
+the moor where was the barrow of the shepherd Glam.
+
+Not till the summer returned, and the sun had dispelled the darkness,
+did Thorhall venture back to the Vale of Shadows.  In the meanwhile his
+daughter’s health had given way under the repeated alarms of the winter;
+she became paler every day; with the autumn flowers she faded, and was
+laid in the churchyard before the first snowflakes fell.  What was
+Thorhall to do through the winter?  He knew that it was not possible for
+him to secure servants if he remained on his own farm; besides, he did
+not know what loss might come to his stock.  Then, he could not spend
+the whole winter at Tongue, for that was another bonder’s house, and
+though the farmer there had kindly received him and entertained him for
+three months the winter before, he could not ask him to give him
+houseroom to himself, his cattle, and servants for a whole long winter.
+
+So he was in the greatest possible perplexity what to do.  Help came to
+him from an unexpected quarter.
+
+Grettir had heard the story of the hauntings, and he rode to Thorhall’s
+farm and asked if he might be accommodated there for the night.  He said
+that it was his great desire to encounter Glam.
+
+Thorhall was surprised, but not exactly pleased, for he thought that the
+family at Biarg would attribute the wrong to him were anything to happen
+to Grettir.
+
+Grettir put his horse into the stable, and retired for the night to one
+of the beds in the hall and slept soundly.
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER XV.*
+
+                    *HOW GRETTIR FOUGHT WITH GLAM.*
+
+
+    _Grettir awaits Glam—The Sound of Feet—Glam breaks into the
+    Hall—A Strange Figure—Grettir seizes Glam—Grettir’s Last
+    Chance—Glam’s Curse—The End of Glam—Was it True?_
+
+
+Next morning Grettir went with Thorhall to the stable for his horse.
+The strong wooden door was shivered and driven in.  They stepped across
+it; Grettir called to his horse, but there was no responsive whinny.
+Grettir dashed into the stall and found his horse dead; its neck was
+broken.
+
+"Now," said Thorhall, "I will give you a horse in exchange for that you
+have lost.  You had better ride home to Biarg at once."
+
+"Not at all.  My horse has been killed, and I must avenge it."  So
+Grettir remained.
+
+Night set in.  Grettir ate a hearty supper, and was right merry.  But
+not so Thorhall, who had his misgivings.  At bed-time the latter crept
+into a locked bedstead beside the hall; but Grettir said he would not go
+into a bed, he would lie by the fire in the hall.  So he wrapped himself
+up in a long fur cloak and flung himself on a bench, with his feet
+against the posts of the high seat.  The fur cloak was over his head,
+and he kept an opening through which he could look out.
+
+There was a fire burning on the hearth, a smouldering heap of glowing
+embers, and by the red light Grettir looked up at the rafters of the
+blackened roof.  The smoke escaped by a _louvre_ in the middle. The wind
+whistled mournfully.  The windows high up were covered with parchment,
+and admitted now and then a sickly yellow glare from the full moon,
+which, however, shone in through the smoke hole, silvering the rising
+smoke.  A dog began to bark, then bay at the moon.  Then the cat, which
+had been sitting demurely watching the fire, stood up with raised back
+and bristling tail, and darted behind some chests.  The hall-door was in
+a sad plight.  It had been so torn by Glam that it had to be patched up
+with wattles.  Soothingly the river prattled over its shingly bed as it
+swept round the knoll on which stood the farm.  Grettir heard the
+breathing of the sleeping women in the adjoining chamber, and the sigh
+of the housewife as she turned in her bed.
+
+Then suddenly he heard something that shook all the sleep out of him,
+had any been stealing over his eyes.  He heard a heavy tread, beneath
+which the snow crackled.  Every footfall went straight to Grettir’s
+heart.  A crash on the turf overhead. The strange visitant had scrambled
+on the roof, and was walking over that.  The roofs of the houses in
+Iceland are of turf.  For a moment the chimney gap was completely
+darkened—the monster was looking down it—the flash of the red fire
+illumined the horrible face with its lack-lustre eyes.  Then the moon
+shone in again, and the heavy tramp of Glam was heard as he walked to
+the other end of the hall.  A thud—he had leaped down.
+
+Then Grettir heard his steps passing to the back of the house, then the
+snapping of wood showed that Glam was destroying some of the outhouse
+doors. Presently the tread was heard again approaching the house, and
+this time the main entrance.  Grettir thought he could distinguish a
+pair of great hands thrust in over the broken door.  In another moment
+he heard a loud snap—a long plank had been torn out of place, and the
+light of the moon shone in where the gap had been made.  Then Glam began
+to unrip the wattles.
+
+There was a cross-beam to the door, acting as bolt. Against the gray
+light Grettir saw a huge black arm thrust in trying to remove the bar.
+It was done, and then all the broken door was driven in and went down on
+the floor in shivers.  Now Grettir could see a tall dark figure, almost
+naked, with wild locks of hair about the head standing in the doorway.
+That was but for a minute, and then Glam came in stealthily; he entered
+the hall and was illumined by the firelight.  The figure Grettir now saw
+was unlike anything he had seen before.  A few rags hung from the
+shoulders and waist, the long wolf-gray hair was matted.  The eyes were
+staring and strange.  Grettir could hear Thorhall within his locked bed
+trembling and breathing fast.
+
+Presently Glam’s eyes rested on the shaggy bundle by the high seat.  He
+stepped towards it, and Grettir felt him groping about him.  Then Glam
+laid hold of one end of the fur cloak and began to pull at it. The cloak
+did not come away.  Another jerk.  Grettir kept his feet firmly pressed
+against the posts, so that the fur was not pulled away.  Glam seemed
+puzzled; he went to the other end of the bundle and began to pull at
+that.  Grettir held to the bench, so that he was not moved himself, but
+the fur cloak was torn in half, and the strange visitant staggered back
+holding the portion in his hand wonderingly before his eyes.  Before he
+could recover from his surprise, Grettir started to his feet, bent his
+body, flung his arms round Glam, and driving his head into the breast of
+the visitor, tried to bend him backward and so snap his spine.  This was
+in vain, the cold hands grasped Grettir’s arms and tore them from their
+hold. Grettir clasped them again about his body, and then Glam threw his
+also round Grettir, and they began to wrestle.  Grettir saw that Glam
+was trying to drag him to the door, and he was sure that if he were got
+outside he would be at a disadvantage, and Glam would break his back.
+He therefore made a desperate effort not to be drawn forth.  He clung to
+benches and posts, but the posts gave way, and the benches were torn
+from their places.
+
+At each moment he was being dragged nearer to the door.  Sharply
+twisting himself loose, Grettir flung his arms round a beam of the roof,
+for the hall was low.  He was dragged off his feet at once. Glam
+clenched him about the waist, and tore at him to get him loose.  Every
+tendon in Grettir’s breast was strained; still he held on.  The nails of
+Glam cut into his side like knives, then his hands gave way.  He could
+endure the strain no longer, and Glam drew him towards the doorway, in
+so doing trampling over the broken fragments of the door, and the
+wattles that lay about.  Grettir knew that the last chance was come for
+saving himself.  Here, in the hall, he could hold to posts and beams,
+and so make some resistance; but outside he would have nothing to cling
+to, and strong though he was, his strength did not equal that of his
+opponent.
+
+Now the door-posts were of stone, and the beam that had served as bolt
+went across the door, slid into a hollow on one side cut in the
+door-post, and was pulled across and fitted into another hollow in the
+other post.  As the wrestlers neared the opening, Grettir planted both
+his feet against the stone posts, one against each, and put his arms
+round Glam.  He had the enemy now at an advantage; but then, he merely
+held him, and could not hold him so for ever.  He called to Thorhall,
+but Thorhall was too greatly frightened to leave his place of refuge.
+
+"Now," thought Grettir, "if I can but break his back!" Then drawing Glam
+to him by the middle, he put his head beneath the chin of his opponent
+and forced back the head.  If he could only drive the head far enough
+back he would break his neck.
+
+At that moment one or both of the door-posts gave way; down crashed the
+gable-trees, ripping beams and rafters from their places, frozen clods
+of turf rattled from the roof and thumped into the snow.
+
+Glam fell on his back outside the door, and Grettir on top of him.  The
+moon was, as I said before, at her full; large white clouds chased each
+other across the sky.  Grettir’s strength was failing him, his hands
+quivered in the snow, and he knew that he could not support himself from
+dropping flat on the mysterious and dreadful visitant, eye to eye, lip
+to lip.
+
+Then Glam said: "You have done ill matching yourself with me; now know
+that never shall you be stronger than you are to-day, and that, to your
+dying day, whenever you are in the dark you will see my eyes staring at
+you, so that for very horror you will not dare to be alone."
+
+At this moment Grettir saw his short sword in the snow, it had slipped
+from his belt as he fell. He put out his hand at once, clutched the
+handle, and with a blow cut off Glam’s head, and at once laid it beside
+his thigh.
+
+Thorhall came out at this juncture, his face blanched; but when he saw
+how the fray had ended, he joyfully assisted Grettir to roll the dead
+man to the top of a pile of faggots that had been collected for winter
+fuel.  Fire was applied, and soon far down the Waterdale the flames of
+the pyre startled folks, and made them wonder what new horror was being
+enacted in the Vale of Shadows.
+
+Next day the charred bones were conveyed a long way—some hours’
+ride—into the great desert in the interior, and in one of the most
+lonely spots there a cairn or pile of stones was heaped over them. I
+have seen this mound, which is still pointed out as that under which the
+redoubted Glam lies.
+
+And now we may well ask, what truth is there in the story?  That there
+is a basis of truth can hardly be denied.  The facts have been
+embellished, worked up, but not invented.  The only probable explanation
+of the story is this.
+
+As already said, further up the valley, in a spot difficult to be
+reached, stood the old fortress of some robbers, with many caves in the
+sandstone about it very convenient for shelter.  Now, it is not
+improbable that some madman may have taken refuge in this safe retreat,
+and may have come out at night in search of food, and carried off the
+sheep of Thorhall.  It may be that Glam caught him attempting to steal a
+sheep, and fought with him, and was killed, and that in like manner
+Thorgaut was killed. Then when people saw a great wild man wandering
+about they thought it was Glam, whereas it was the man who had haunted
+the region before Glam came there, and had killed Glam.  This is the
+simplest and easiest explanation of this wild and fearful tale.
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER XVI.*
+
+                    *HOW GRETTIR SAILED TO NORWAY.*
+
+
+    _Olaf the Saint—Slowcoach with the Nimble Tongue—Slowcoach
+    insults Grettir—Ill Words—Death of Slowcoach—In Search of Luck_
+
+
+Early in the spring of the year 1015, news reached Iceland of a change
+of rulers in Norway.  Olaf Harald’s son, commonly known as Olaf the
+Saint, had come to be King of Norway; Earl Sweyn had been defeated in
+battle and driven out of the country.  Now Grettir was remotely
+connected with the king, that is to say, his father’s grandfather was
+brother to the grandfather of Asta, Olaf’s mother.  The cousinship was
+somewhat distant; but in those days folk held to their kin more than
+they do now.  Grettir thought that a good chance had opened to him for
+doing well in Norway, so he resolved to leave Iceland, and enter the
+service of his relative, the king.  There was a ship bound for Norway
+lying in Eyjafiord, and Grettir engaged a berth in her, and made ready
+for the voyage.
+
+Now his father Asmund was very old and feeble, and was well nigh
+bedridden.  He had given over the entire management of the farm to his
+eldest son Atli, and to young Illugi, who was a few years younger than
+Grettir.  Atli was everywhere liked, he was such a prudent, peaceable,
+and kindly man.
+
+Grettir’s ill-luck still followed him; for, as it chanced, Thorbiorn,
+the Slowcoach, the relation of Thorbiorn Oxmain, had resolved to go to
+Norway also, and in the same ship.  Now the Slowcoach may have been
+overslow in his movements, but he was overnimble with his tongue, and he
+was strongly advised either not to go in the same boat with Grettir, or,
+if he did, to mind his words.
+
+Such advice was thrown away on the Slowcoach, who, instead of practising
+caution, in order to show himself off, began to brag of his strength,
+and to say scurvy things of Grettir, which were duly reported by
+tale-bearers to Grettir.  Consequently, when Grettir arrived in the
+Eyjafiord with his goods, he was not very amiably disposed towards the
+Slowcoach.  However Atli had impressed on him the necessity of
+controlling himself, and Grettir was resolved not to quarrel with the
+man unless he could not help it.
+
+At the side of the shore, those who were about to sail had run up booths
+and cabins for themselves and their stores.  Many of those going in the
+boat were chapmen, and they took with them goods with which to traffic
+in Norway.
+
+Just as the vessel was ready, and about to sail next day, Slowcoach
+arrived, slow as usual, and after every one else was ready, and their
+goods on board. As it was the last evening on shore, all the merchants
+and seamen were sitting about their booths, when Thorbiorn Slowcoach
+arrived, and rode along the lane between the wooden cabins.  The men
+shouted to him to know if he had any news to tell them.
+
+Thorbiorn’s eye caught that of Grettir, who was sitting on a bench, and
+he answered, "I don’t hear any news, except that the old idiot Asmund of
+Biarg is dead."
+
+This was not true; the old man was not dead, but very ill.  Some of
+those who heard him said, "That is sad news indeed, for he was a worthy
+and honourable old man, and he could ill be spared."
+
+"I don’t know that," said Thorbiorn with a scornful laugh.
+
+"But how did he die?  What did he die of?"
+
+"Die of?" repeated the Slowcoach loud enough to be heard by Grettir.
+"Smothered like a dog in the poky little kennel they call their hall at
+Biarg.  As for any loss in him, it is news to me that the world is not
+well rid of dotards."
+
+"These are ill words," said those who heard him. "No good man will speak
+slightingly of old and blameless chiefs.  Besides, such words as these
+Grettir will not endure."
+
+"Grettir!" scoffed Thorbiorn.  "Before I face him I must see him use his
+weapons better than he did last summer, when engaged with Kormak.  Then
+I put my elbow between them, and Grettir was but too ready to accept the
+interference.  I never saw a man before so shake in his shoes."
+
+Thereat Grettir stood up, and controlling himself, said, "If I have any
+faculty of foresight, Slowcoach, I see that you will not be smothered
+with smoke like a dog.  You should have done other than speak foul words
+of very aged men.  Gray hairs deserve respect."
+
+"I don’t think more of your foresight than I do of the wisdom of your
+old fool of a father," said Thorbiorn.
+
+The end was that they fought.  The insult was too gross to be endured,
+and Grettir felt it incumbent on him to strike for his father’s honour.
+The fight did not last long; the Slowcoach was slow in his fighting,
+slow of hand, only not slow of tongue, and Grettir’s sharp sword wounded
+him to death.
+
+Slowcoach was buried in the nearest churchyard; and the chapmen gave
+Grettir credit for having restrained himself as long as possible, and
+allowed that, according to the ideas of the time, he was justified in
+fighting and killing the Slowcoach for his spiteful and strife-provoking
+words.  But Grettir was not pleased, he regretted the contest, because
+he knew that it left occasion of strife behind, which might occasion
+Atli trouble.  Thorbiorn Oxmain would, lie feared, be sure to take up
+the quarrel, and then Atli would have to pay a heavy fine in silver to
+atone for the death.
+
+The vessel set sail, and reached the south of Norway.  There Grettir
+took ship in a trading keel, to go north to Drontheim, because he heard
+that the king was there, and his heart beat high with hopes that Olaf
+would acknowledge him as a cousin, and would take him into his
+body-guard, and treat him with honour; and that so, though he had had
+ill-luck in Iceland, good luck might attend him in Norway.
+
+
+
+
+                            *CHAPTER XVII.*
+
+                         *THE HOSTEL BURNING.*
+
+
+    _Aground in the Fiord—The Light over the Water—Grettir Swims
+    Across—The Fight for Fire—The Burned Hostel—At Drontheim_
+
+
+There lived a man named Thorir at Garth in Iceland who had spent the
+summer in Norway when Olaf returned from England, and he had stood in
+great favour with the king.  He had two sons, and at this time both were
+well-grown men.
+
+Thorir left Norway for Iceland, where he broke up his ship, not
+intending again to go a seafaring. But when he heard the tidings that
+Olaf was king over the whole of Norway, then he deemed it would be well
+for his sons to go there and pay their respects to the king, and remind
+him of his old friendship for their father.
+
+On reaching Norway much about the same time as had Grettir, they took a
+long rowing-boat, and skirted the coast on their way north to Drontheim.
+They preceded Grettir by a few days.  On reaching a fine fiord, in which
+there was shelter from the gales that began to bluster violently with
+the approach of winter, the sons of Thorir ran in their boat, and as
+there was a large wooden hostelry there built for the shelter of
+weather-bound travellers, they took refuge in it, and spent their days
+in hunting and their nights in revelry.
+
+Now it so fell out that Grettir’s merchant ship came into this same
+fiord one evening and ran aground on the opposite shore to that on which
+was the hostel.  The night was bitterly cold; storms of snow drove over
+the country, whitening the mountains.  The men from the ship were worn
+out and numbed with cold, and they had no means of kindling a fire.
+Then, all at once, they saw a light spring up on the opposite side of
+the firth, twinkling cheerfully between the trees.  This was a sight to
+make them more eager for a fire, and they began to wish that some one of
+their number would swim across and bring over a light.
+
+"In the good old times there must have been men who would have thought
+nothing of swimming across the streak of water at night," said Grettir.
+
+"No comfort to us to know that," said one of the crew.  "It does not
+concern us what may have been in the past, we are shivering in the
+present.  Why do you not get us fire?"
+
+Grettir hesitated.  The night was very like that on which he had fought
+with Glam: the same full moon, with snow-laden clouds rolling over its
+face for a while obscuring it, and then the full glare falling over the
+face of earth again; and, unaccountably, a sense of doubt and depression
+had come over him, as though that evil adversary were now about to
+revenge his downfall upon him.  He looked round suddenly, for he thought
+that the fearful eyes were staring at him from out of the black shadows
+of the fir-wood.
+
+The rest of the crew united in urging him, and at length, reluctantly,
+Grettir yielded.  He flung his clothes off, and prepared himself to
+swim.  He had on him a fur cape, and a pair of wadmal breeches. He took
+up an iron pot, and jumped into the sea and swam safely across.
+
+On reaching the further shore, he shook the water off him, but before
+long his trousers froze like boards, and the water formed in icicles
+about the cape. Grettir ascended through the pine-wood towards the
+light, and on reaching the hostel from which it proceeded, walked in
+without speaking to anyone, and striding up to the fire, stooped and
+began to scrape the red-hot embers into his iron pot.  The hall was full
+of revellers, and these revellers were the sons of Thorir and their
+boat’s crew.  They were already more than half intoxicated, and when
+they saw a wild-looking man enter the hall, half naked and hung with
+icicles, they thought he must be a troll or mountain-spirit.
+
+At once every one caught up the first weapon to hand, and rushed to the
+attack.  Grettir defended himself with a fire-brand plucked from the
+hearth; the sons of Thorir stumbled over the fire, and the embers were
+strewn about over the floor that was covered with fresh straw.
+
+In a few moments the hall was filled with flame and smoke, and Grettir
+took advantage of the confusion to effect his escape.  He ran down to
+the shore, plunged into the sea and swam across.
+
+He found his companions waiting for him behind a rock, with a pile of
+dry wood which they had collected during his absence.  The cinders were
+blown upon, and twigs applied, till a blaze was produced, and before
+long the whole party sat rubbing their almost frozen hands over a
+cheerful fire.
+
+Next morning the merchants recognized the fiord, and, remembering that a
+hostel stood on the further side, they crossed the water to see it,
+when—what was their dismay to find of it only a heap of smoking embers!
+From under some of the charred timber were thrust scorched human limbs.
+The chapmen, in alarm and horror, turned upon Grettir and charged him
+with having maliciously burned the house with all its inmates.
+
+"See, now," said Grettir, "I had a thought that this expedition would
+not bring luck.  I would I had not taken the trouble to get fire for
+such a set of thankless churls."
+
+The ship’s crew raked out the embers, pulled aside the smoking rafters,
+in their search for the bodies. Some of these were not so disfigured but
+that they could recognize them.  Moreover, they knew the ship that lay
+at anchor under the lee, hard by, and they saw that Grettir had brought
+the sons of Thorir to an untimely end.  The indignation of the merchants
+became so vehement, and their fear so great that they might be
+implicated in the matter, that they drove Grettir from their company,
+and refused to receive him into their vessel for the remainder of their
+voyage.  Grettir, in sullen wrath, would say no word of self-defence; he
+had to make his way on foot to Drontheim, where he resolved to lay the
+whole matter before the king.
+
+The vessel reached Drontheim before him, and the news of the hostel
+burning roused universal indignation against Grettir.
+
+
+
+
+                            *CHAPTER XVIII.*
+
+                         *THE ORDEAL BY FIRE.*
+
+
+    _Grettir tells his Story—Preparing for the Ordeal—The
+    Procession—Attacked by the Mob—The King Intervenes—Wicked or
+    Unlucky_
+
+
+One day, as King Olaf sat in audience in his great hall, Grettir strode
+in, and going before his seat, greeted the king.  Olaf looked at him and
+said:
+
+"Are you Grettir the Strong?"
+
+He answered: "That is my name, and I have come hither, kinsman, to get a
+fair hearing, and to clear myself of the charge of having burned men
+maliciously.  Of that I am guiltless."
+
+King Olaf replied: "I heartily trust that what you say is true, and that
+you will be able to rid yourself of a charge so bad."
+
+Grettir replied that he was ready to do whatsoever the king desired, in
+order to prove his innocence.
+
+Then said the king to him, "Tell me the whole story, that I may be able
+to judge."
+
+Grettir answered by relating the circumstances. He had simply taken fire
+from the hearth, when he was fallen upon by those who were drinking, and
+who were too tipsy to understand his explanation. He went away with the
+red-hot embers, and did not set fire to anything, but the drunken men
+kicked the glowing coals about amidst the straw.
+
+The king remained silent some moments, and then he said: "There are no
+witnesses either on your behalf or against you.  No man was by who is
+not dead. God and his angels alone know whether you speak the truth or
+not, therefore I must refer you to the judgment of God."
+
+"What must I do?" asked Grettir.
+
+"You will have to go through the ordeal of fire," said the king.
+
+"What is that?" asked the young man.
+
+"You must lift bars of red-hot iron, and walk with bare feet on
+ploughshares heated red in a furnace."
+
+"And what if I am burnt?"
+
+"Then will you be adjudged guilty."
+
+Grettir shrugged his shoulders: "If it must be so, let it be at once;
+but whether I be burnt or not, I declare that I am clear of all intent
+to hurt those men."
+
+"You cannot undergo the ordeal now," said the king.  "You would be
+burned to a certainty.  You must go through preparation first."
+
+"What preparation?"
+
+"A week of fasting and prayer," was the reply.
+
+Then Grettir was taken away and put in ward, and fed with bread and
+water for a week, and the bishop visited him and taught him to pray that
+if he were innocent, God would reveal his innocence by enabling him to
+pass unscathed through the ordeal.
+
+The day came, and Drontheim was thronged with people from all the
+country round, to see the Icelander of whom such tales were told.  A
+procession was formed; first went the king’s body-guard followed by the
+king himself, wearing his crown, then came the bishop, the choir, and
+the clergy, and last of all Grettir, his wild red hair flying loose in
+the breeze, his arms folded, and his eyes wandering over the sea of
+heads that filled the square before the cathedral doors.  The crowd
+pressed in closer and closer.  Opinions differed as to whether he were
+guilty or not.  Among the mob was a young man of dark complexion, who
+made a great noise, shouldering his way to the front, and shouting.
+
+"Look at the fellow!" he exclaimed.  "This is the man who, in cold
+blood, burnt down a house over helpless men, and now he is to be given u
+chance of escape."
+
+"But he says he is guiltless," argued one in the crowd.
+
+"Guiltless!" exclaimed the youth.  "If one of us had done the deed,
+should we have been trifled with?  The king wants him for his
+body-guard, because he is so strong."
+
+"He should be given a chance of clearing himself," said one who stood
+near.
+
+"Yes—of course—because he is a kinsman of the king.  So the irons have
+been painted red, to look as if hot.  I know how the trick is done.  But
+he shall not escape me."
+
+Thereupon the young man sprang at Grettir and drove his nails into his
+face so that they drew blood; at the same time he poured forth against
+him a stream of insulting names.
+
+This was more than the Icelander could bear; he caught the young man, as
+a cat catches a mouse, held him aloft, shook him, and then threw him
+away, when he fell on the ground and was stunned. It was feared he might
+be killed.  This act gave occasion to a general uproar; the mob wanted
+to lay hands on Grettir; some threw stones, others assaulted him with
+sticks; but he, planting his back against the church wall, turned up his
+sleeves, guarded off the blows, shouting to his assailants to come on.
+Not a man came within his reach but was sent reeling back or was felled
+to the ground. In the meantime the king and the bishop were in the choir
+waiting.  The red-hot ploughshares which had been laid on the pavement
+were gradually cooling, but no Grettir appeared.
+
+[Illustration: GRETTIR DEFENDS HIMSELF FROM THE MOB.]
+
+At last the sounds of the uproar reached the king’s ear, and he sent out
+to know the occasion. His messenger returned a moment after to report
+that the Icelander was fighting the whole town and had knocked down and
+well nigh killed several persons.  The king thereupon sprang from his
+throne, hastened down the nave, and came out of the great western door
+when the conflict was at its height.
+
+"Oh, sire," exclaimed Grettir, "see how I can fight the rascals!" and at
+the word he knocked a man over at the king’s feet.
+
+With difficulty the tumult was arrested, and Grettir separated from the
+combatants; and then he wanted to go with the king and try the ordeal of
+fire.
+
+"Not so," answered Olaf, "you have already incurred sin.  It is possible
+that some of those you have knocked down may never recover, so that
+their blood will lie at your door."
+
+"What is to be done?" asked Grettir.
+
+The king considered.
+
+"I see you are a very wicked or at all events a very unlucky man.  When
+you were here before you were the occasion of several deaths.  I do not
+desire to keep you in Norway, but as winter has set in you may tarry
+here till next spring, and then you shall be outlawed and return to
+Iceland."
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER XIX.*
+
+                        *THE WINTER IN NORWAY.*
+
+
+    _At Einar’s Farm—The Bearsarks—A Visit from Snœkoll—The
+    Bearsark’s Demand—Grettir Temporizes—The Bearsark has a
+    Fit—Death of Snœkoll—Dromund’s History—Grettir’s Arms—A Pair of
+    Tongs_
+
+
+King Olaf had decided that Grettir must leave Norway and return to
+Iceland.  If he was not a guilty man he was a most unfortunate one.
+Now, the Norse race, whether in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, or Iceland,
+believed in luck.  They said that certain men were born to ill-luck, and
+such men they avoided, because they feared lest the ill-luck that clung
+to them might attach itself to, and involve those who came in contact
+with them.
+
+It was not possible for Grettir to return that year to Iceland, for all
+the ships bound for his native land had sailed before winter set in, so
+King Olaf agreed to allow him to remain in the kingdom through the
+winter, but bound him to depart on the first opportunity next year.
+
+Somewhat sad at heart with disappointment, and with the impression that
+perhaps Olaf the king was right, and that ill-luck really did weigh on
+him, Grettir left the court, and went at Yule to the house of a bonder
+or yeoman called Einar, and remained with him awhile.  The farm was in a
+lonely place in a fiord opening back to the snowy mountains.  Einar was
+a kindly man, hospitable, and he did his best to make Grettir’s stay
+with him pleasant.  He had a daughter, a fair, beautiful girl, with blue
+eyes, and hair like amber silk, and her name was Gyrid.  Perhaps the
+beautiful Gyrid was one attraction to Grettir, but if so he never spoke
+what was on his heart, because he knew it would be useless.  He was an
+unlucky man; he had made himself a name, indeed, as one of great daring,
+but he had won for himself neither home, nor riches, nor favour.
+
+Now it fell out that at this time there were some savage ruffians in the
+country who were called Bearsarks.  They were outlaws in most cases, and
+they lived in secret dens in the dense forests, whence they issued and
+swooped down on the farms, and there challenged the bonders to fight
+with them, or to give up to them whatever they needed.  These ruffians
+wore bear-skins drawn over their bodies, and they thrust their heads
+through the jaws of the beasts, so that they presented a hideous and
+frightening appearance.  Then they worked themselves into paroxysms of
+rage, when they were like madmen; they rolled their eyes, they roared
+and howled like wild beasts, and foam formed on their mouths and dropped
+on the ground.  They were wont also, when these fits came on them, to
+bite the edges of their shields, and with their fangs they were known to
+have dinted the metal quite deep.  Some folks even said they had bitten
+pieces out of solid shields. It was usually supposed that these
+Bearsarks were possessed by evil spirits, and it is probable that in
+many cases they were really mad—mad through having given way to their
+violent passions, till they knew no law, and thought to carry everything
+before them by their violence.  It was even at one time thought by the
+superstitious that they could change their shapes, and run about at will
+in the forms of bears or wolves; but this idea grew out of the fact of
+their clothing themselves in bear or wolf skins, and drawing the skull
+of the beast over their heads as a rude helmet, and looking out through
+the open jaws that thus formed a visor.
+
+One day, just after Yule, to the terror and dismay of Einar, one of the
+most redoubtable of these Bearsarks, a fellow called Snœkoll, came
+thundering up to his door on a huge black horse, followed by three or
+four others on foot, all clothed in skins; but Snœkoll, instead of
+wearing the bear’s skin over his head, had on a helmet with great tusks
+of a boar protruding from it, and a boar’s head drawn over the metal.
+
+It is worth remark that the crests worn later by knights, and which we
+have still on our plate and on harness, are derived from similar
+adornments to helmets.  Some warriors put wings of eagles on their
+head-pieces, others put the paws of bears or representations of lions.
+These were badges of their prowess, or marks whereby they might be
+known.
+
+Snœkoll struck the door of the farmhouse with his spear, and roared to
+the owner to come forth. At once Einar and Grettir issued from the hall,
+and Einar in great trepidation asked the Bearsark what he wanted.
+
+"What do I want?" shouted Snœkoll.  "I want one of two things.  Either
+that you give me up your beautiful daughter to be my wife, and with her
+five-score bags of silver, or else that you fight me here. If you kill
+me, then luck is yours.  If I kill you, then I shall carry off your
+daughter and all that you possess."
+
+Einar turned to Grettir and asked him in a whisper what he was to do.
+He himself was an old man whose fighting days were over, and he had no
+chance against this savage.
+
+Grettir answered that he had better consult his honour and the happiness
+of Gyrid, and not give way to a bully.  The Bearsark sat on his horse
+rolling his eyes from one to another.  He had a great iron-rimmed shield
+before him.
+
+Then he bellowed forth: "Come!  I am not going to wait here whilst you
+consider matters.  Make your selection of the two alternatives at once.
+What is that great lout at your side whispering? Does he want to play a
+little game of who is master along with me?"
+
+"For my part," said Grettir, "the farmer and I are about in equal
+predicament; he is too old to fight, and I am unskilled in arms."
+
+"I see!  I see!" roared Snœkoll.  "You are both trembling in your shoes.
+Wait till my fit is on me, and then you will shake indeed."
+
+"Let us see how you look in your Bearsark fit," said Grettir.
+
+Then Snœkoll waxed wroth, and worked himself up into one of the fits of
+madness.  There can be no doubt that in some cases this was all bluster
+and sham.  But in many cases these fellows really roused themselves into
+perfect frenzies of madness in which they did not know what they did.
+
+Now Snœkoll began to bellow like a bull, and to roll his eyes, and he
+put the edge of the great shield in his mouth and bit at it, and blew
+foam from his lips that rolled down the face of the shield. Grettir
+fixed his eyes steadily on him, and put his hands into his pockets.
+Snœkoll rocked himself on his horse, and his companions began also to
+bellow, and stir themselves up into madness.  Grettir, with his eye
+fixed steadily on the ruffian, drew little by little nearer to him; but
+as he had no weapon, and held his hands confined, Snœkoll, if he did
+observe him, disregarded him.  When Grettir stood close beside him and
+looked up at the red glaring eyes, the foaming lips of Snœkoll, and
+heard his howls and the crunching of his great teeth against the strong
+oak and iron of the shield, he suddenly laughed, lifted his foot, caught
+the bottom of the shield a sudden kick upwards, and the shield with the
+violence of the upward shock broke Snœkoll’s jaw.  Instantly the
+Bearsark stopped his bellows, let fall the shield, and before he could
+draw his sword Grettir caught his helmet by the great boar tusks, gave
+them a twist, and rolled Snœkoll down off his horse on the ground, knelt
+on him, and with the ruffian’s own sword dealt him his death-blow.
+
+When the others saw the fall of their chief they ceased their antics,
+turned and ran away to hide in the woods.
+
+The bonder, Einar, thanked Grettir for his assistance, and the lovely
+Gyrid gave him also her grateful acknowledgments and a sweet smile; but
+Grettir knew that a portionless unlucky man like himself could not
+aspire to her hand, and feeling that he was daily becoming more attached
+to her, he deemed it right at once to leave, and he went away to a place
+called Tunsberg, where lived his half-brother, Thorstein Dromund.
+
+Now, to understand the relationship of Dromund to Grettir, you must know
+that his father, Asmund, had been twice married.  He had been in Norway
+when a young man with a merchant ship, and he had also gone with his
+wares to England and France, and had gained great wealth; and as he had
+many relations in Norway he was well received there in winter, when he
+came back from his merchant trips.  On one of these occasions he had met
+a damsel called Ranveig, whose father and mother were dead.  She was of
+good birth, and was wealthy. Asmund asked for her hand and married her,
+and settled on the lands that belonged to her in Norway. They had a son
+called Thorstein, who, because he was rather slow of speech and manner,
+was nicknamed Dromund; but as we meet with other Thorsteins in this
+story, to prevent confusion we will speak of him as Dromund.
+
+After a while Asmund’s wife Ranveig died, and then her relatives
+insisted on taking away all her lands and possessions and keeping them
+in trust for little Dromund.  Asmund did not care to quarrel with them,
+so he left Dromund with his late wife’s relatives and went home to
+Iceland, where, after a few years, he married Asdis, and by her became
+the father of Atli, Grettir, and Illugi, and of two daughters, one of
+whom he named after his first wife.
+
+Dromund grew up in Norway on his estates at Tunsberg, and became a man
+of wealth and renown, a quiet man, but one who held his own, and was
+generally respected.
+
+Now Grettir went to him, and his half-brother received him very
+affectionately, and insisted on his remaining with him all the rest of
+the winter till it was time for him to sail to Iceland.
+
+One little incident is mentioned concerning that time that deserves to
+be recorded.
+
+Grettir slept in the same apartment as did his brother.
+
+One morning Dromund awoke early, and he saw how that Grettir’s arms were
+out of bed, and he wondered at their size.
+
+Presently Grettir awoke, and then Dromund said to him: "Grettir, I have
+been amused with looking at your bare arms.  What muscles you have got!
+I never saw the like."
+
+"I need strong muscles to do what I have to do."
+
+"True enough, brother," said Dromund.  "But I could wish there were a
+little more luck as well as muscle attached to those bones."
+
+"Let me look at your arms," said Grettir.
+
+Then Dromund put his arms out of bed, and when he saw them Grettir burst
+out laughing, for they were so thin and scraggy.
+
+"Upon my word, brother, I never saw such a wretched pair of tongs in my
+life," he said.
+
+"They may be a pair of tongs, old boy," answered Dromund, "but they are
+tongs that shall ever be extended to help you when in need.  And," added
+Dromund in a lower tone, "if it should ever befall you that your
+ill-luck should overmaster you, and you not die in your bed; then,
+Grettir, I promise you, if I am alive, that I shall not let this pair of
+tongs rest till, with them, I have avenged you."
+
+No more is related of their talk together.  The spring wore on, and in
+summer Grettir took ship.
+
+The brothers parted with much affection, and they never again saw each
+other’s face.
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER XX.*
+
+                       *OF WHAT BEFELL AT BIARG.*
+
+
+    _Thorbiorn’s Servant—Ali at Biarg—Seeking a Quarrel—A Fair
+    Answer—Atli’s Dilemma—Thorbiorn’s Revenge—The Slaying of
+    Atli—Atli’s Grave_
+
+
+Whilst Grettir was in Norway, that ill-luck which pursued him did not
+fail to touch and trouble his Icelandic home as well.
+
+It will be remembered that Grettir had been forced to fight the
+Slowcoach, and had killed him. Now the cousin of this man was Thorbiorn
+Oxmain, who lived in the Ramsfirth.  This Thorbiorn had got a
+serving-man named Ali, a somewhat lazy man, strong, but unruly.  As he
+did his work badly, and was slow about it, his master rebuked him, and
+when rebukes failed, he threatened him.  Threats also proved unavailing,
+so Thorbiorn one day took the stick to his back, and beat him till he
+danced.  After this Ali would remain no longer in his service; he ran
+away, crossed the ridge to the Midfiord, and came to Biarg, where he
+presented himself before Atli, who asked him what he wanted.
+
+The fellow said that he was in quest of service.
+
+"But," said Atli, "you are, I understand, one of Thorbiorn’s workmen."
+
+"I was so, but I have left his service because I was badly treated.  He
+beat me till I was black and blue; no one can remain with him, he is so
+rough with his men, and he exacts of them too much work.  I have come
+here because I hear that you treat your servants well."
+
+Atli replied: "I have hands enough, you had better go back to Thorbiorn,
+for I do not want you."
+
+"I will never go back to him, that I declare," said the churl.  "If you
+turn me away, I have nowhere to which I can go."
+
+So he remained for a few nights at Biarg; and Atli did not like to turn
+him out of the house.  Then one day he went to work with Atli’s men, and
+worked hard and well, for he was a powerful man. So time passed.  Atli
+did not agree to pay him any wage, and he did not send him away.  He did
+not feel best pleased at having the man there, but he was too
+kind-hearted to drive him away.
+
+Not only did he remain there and work well, but he showed himself ready
+to turn his hand to anything, and was the most useful man about the
+place.
+
+Now Thorbiorn heard that his churl was at Biarg. The death of Slowcoach
+had rankled in his breast. He had felt that it was his duty to take up
+the case and demand recompense, yet he had not done so; now he was
+angered that Atli had opened his doors to his runaway servant.  He had
+covenanted with the man for a year, but the fellow was so disagreeable
+that he would have gladly dispensed with his service; but that Atli
+should have received him, and that the man should be making himself
+useful at Biarg,—that made him very angry indeed.
+
+So he mounted his horse and rode to Biarg, attended by two men, and
+called out Atli to talk with him.
+
+Atli came forth and welcomed him.
+
+Then Thorbiorn said: "You are determined to pick up fresh occasion of
+quarrel, and stir ill-will between us.  Why have you enticed away my
+servant?  You had no right to behave thus to me."
+
+Atli replied quietly: "You are mistaken.  I did not entice him away.
+The fellow came to me.  I did not know for certain that he was your
+servant, nor did I know for how long he was engaged to you. Show me that
+I have done wrong and I will make reparation.  If he is yours, reclaim
+him, I will not keep him.  At the same time I do not like to shut him
+out of my house."
+
+"I claim the man," said Thorbiorn; "I forbid him to do a stroke of work
+here.  I expect him returned to me."
+
+"Nay," said Atli, "take the man, you are welcome to him; but I cannot
+bind him hand and foot and convey him to your house.  If you can get him
+to go with you, well and good, I will not detain him."
+
+Atli had answered fairly, but this did not satisfy Thorbiorn; he knew
+that he could not drag the man back to his farm, nor could he persuade
+him to follow, so he rode home in a mighty bad temper, his heart boiling
+with anger against Atli.  And now he thought that he would at one and
+the same time punish Atli for taking away his servant, and wipe out the
+wrong of the slaying of the Slowcoach.
+
+In the evening when the men came in from work, Atli said that Thorbiorn
+had been there and had reclaimed his churl, and Atli bade the fellow
+depart and go back to his master.
+
+Then the man said: "That’s a true proverb, He who is most praised is
+found most faulty at the test. I came to you because I heard so much
+good of you, and now that I have toiled for you without wages all the
+early summer, as I have worked for none else, you want to kick me out of
+doors as winter draws on.  I will not go.  You will have to beat me as
+Thorbiorn beat me to make me leave this house, and then, even, I am not
+sure but that I shall remain in spite of being beaten."
+
+Atli did not know exactly what to do.  He did not wish to ill-treat the
+fellow, and yet without ill-treatment there was no getting rid of him.
+So he let him remain on.
+
+One day a warm wet rainy mist covered the land, the hills were enveloped
+in cloud; Atli sent out some of his men to mow at a distance where there
+was some grass, and others he sent out fishing.  He remained at home
+himself with only two or three men.
+
+That day Thorbiorn rode over the ridge that divided the dales, with a
+helmet on his head, a sword at his side, and a barbed spear in his hand.
+He came to Biarg, and no one noticed his approach. He went to the main
+door, and knocked at it.  Then he drew back behind the buildings, so
+that no one might see him from the door.  In Iceland the walls of a
+house between the gables are buttressed with turf—thick walls or
+buttresses that project several feet, and are about six or nine feet
+thick.  Such buttresses stood one on each side of the hall door at
+Biarg, and behind one of these Thorbiorn concealed himself.
+
+When he had knocked at the door, a woman came to it, unbarred and looked
+up and down the terrace or platform on which the house was built, but
+saw no one.  Thorbiorn peeped from behind the wall of turf and caught a
+glimpse of her, and then backed again into his hiding-place.  The woman
+then returned into the house, and told Atli that there was no one
+outside.
+
+She had hardly spoken before Thorbiorn knocked again.  Then Atli jumped
+up and said: "There must be someone there, and I will go and see myself
+who it is."
+
+Then he went forth and looked out of the door, but saw no one, as
+Thorbiorn had again retreated behind the bank of turf.  The water was
+streaming down, so Atli did not go from under cover, but laid a hand on
+each of the door-posts, and looked up and down the valley.
+
+Just as he was looking away from where Thorbiorn was concealed, that man
+suddenly swung himself round the bank of turf, and with all his might
+drove the spear against Atli, using both his hands. The spear entered
+him below the ribs, and ran right through him.  Atli uttered no cry, and
+fell forward over the threshold.  At that the women rushed forth, and
+they took Atli up, but he was dead.
+
+Then Thorbiorn, who had run to his horse, which was tied up behind the
+house, rode out on the terrace, and halting before the door proclaimed
+that he had done this deed.
+
+Now this was a formality which, according to Icelandic law, made his act
+to be not regarded as a murder.  A murder by law was the slaying of a
+man by one who concealed his name.
+
+Then Thorbiorn rode home.
+
+The goodwife, Asdis, sent for her men, and Atli’s body was laid out, and
+he was buried beside his father, old Asmund, who had died during the
+winter. There was a church in those days at Biarg, but there is none
+there now.  When I was there I asked of the farmer now living in Biarg
+where was the old churchyard, but its site was lost; so I could not tell
+where were the graves of Atli the kind-hearted, honourable man, and the
+rest of the family.
+
+Great was the lamentation through the district at the death of one so
+loved and respected, and hard things were said of Thorbiorn for what he
+had done.
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER XXI.*
+
+                        *THE RETURN OF GRETTIR.*
+
+
+    _An Old Charge—Trial in Absence—Three Messengers of Ill—Grettir
+    and his Mother—Grettir goes to Revenge Atli_
+
+
+That same summer news reached Iceland of the burning of the hostel by
+Grettir.  When Thorir of Garth heard of the death of his sons he was
+furious.  He rode to the great annual assize at Thingvalla, with a large
+retinue, and charged Grettir with having killed his boys maliciously;
+and he demanded that for this offence Grettir should be outlawed.
+
+Then Skapti the judge said: "If things are as reported, then surely
+Grettir has committed an evil deed; but we have only heard one side of
+the story, and we only know of what has happened at third hand, by
+report; there are two ways of telling every story.  Let us wait till
+Grettir returns to Iceland. There will be time enough for this action to
+be taken.  I will not give my word that Grettir is guilty till we have
+heard what he has to say for himself."
+
+But Thorir was such a powerful chieftain that he overbore all
+resistance.  It was said that he could not lawfully take action against
+a man in his absence; but this was overridden by Thorir, who by packing
+the court was able to carry out what he wanted.  Moreover, owing to the
+death of Atli there was no one to oppose him vigorously.
+
+He pushed on matters so hard that nought could avail to acquit Grettir,
+and he was proclaimed an outlaw throughout the whole of Iceland, and
+Thorir also put a price on his head of many ounces of silver, which he
+said he would pay to that man who would kill him in Norway or Iceland,
+or wherever he might find him.
+
+Towards the close of the summer Grettir arrived in a vessel off the
+mouth of the White-river, an exile from Norway.
+
+It was a still summer night when the ship dropped anchor.  A boat came
+from the shore, and was rowed to the ship.  Grettir stood watching it
+from the bows, leaning on his sword.  As it touched the side of the
+ship, he called, "What news do you bring?"
+
+"Are you Grettir, Asmund’s son?" asked a man rising in the boat.
+
+"I am," replied Grettir.
+
+"Then we bear you ill news: your father is dead."
+
+Another man stood up in the boat, and said: "Grettir, he was an old man,
+and you can hardly have expected to hear that he was still alive.  But
+what I have to say concerns you as closely, and is unexpected.  Your
+brother Atli has been slain by Thorbiorn Oxmain."
+
+Then a third man rose and said: "But these tidings concern others first
+and you secondly.  What I have to say concerns you mainly.  You have
+been made an outlaw throughout the length and breadth of the land, and a
+price is set on your head."
+
+It is said that Grettir did not change colour, nor did a muscle in his
+whole body quiver; but he lifted up his voice and sang this strain—
+
+    "All at once are showered
+    Round me, the Rhymer,
+    Tidings sad—my exile,
+    Father’s loss and brother’s,
+    Branching boughs of battle!
+    Many a blue-blade-breaker
+    Shall suffer for my sorrow."
+
+
+The branching bough of battle is a periphrasis for a man, so also is a
+blue-blade-breaker; and it is the use of such periphrases that
+constituted poetry to Icelandic ideas.  One night Grettir swam ashore.
+He thought that his enemies would be awaiting him, and should he venture
+to land in a boat would fall on him in overwhelming numbers; so he took
+to the water and swam to a point at some distance. Then he took a horse
+that he found in a farm near where he came ashore, and he rode across
+country to the Middle-firth, and reached home in two days.  He reached
+Biarg during the night when all were asleep; so instead of disturbing
+the household, he opened a private door, stepped into the hall, stole up
+to his mother’s bed, and threw his arms round her neck.
+
+She started up, and asked who was there.  When he told her, she clasped
+him to her heart, and laid her head, sobbing, on his breast, saying.
+"Oh, my son!  I am bereaved of my children!  Atli, my eldest, has been
+foully murdered, and you are outlawed; only Illugi remains."
+
+Grettir remained at home a few days in close concealment.  Even the men
+of the farm were not suffered to know that he was there.  He heard the
+story of how Thorbiorn Oxmain had basely and in cowardly manner slain
+his brother, when Atli was unarmed; and Grettir considered that it was
+his duty to avenge his death.
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER XXII*
+
+                        *THE SLAYING OF OXMAIN.*
+
+
+    _By the Boiling Spring—Grettir knocks the Nail from his
+    Spear—Oxmain places his Son in Ambush—The Fight with
+    Oxmain—Grettir’s Spear-head—The Law concerning Manslaying—A
+    Rising Black Cloud_
+
+
+One fine day, soon after his return, Grettir mounted a horse, and
+without an attendant rode over the hill to the Ramsfirth, and came down
+to Thorod’s-stead.  This is still a good farm, the best on the fiord,
+and it is by far the best built pile of buildings thereabouts.  It faces
+the south and is banked up with turf to the north, to shelter it against
+the cold and furious gales from the Polar Sea.  The soil is
+comparatively rich there, and there are tracts of good grass land on the
+slope of the hill by the side of the inlet of sea.  The farm buildings
+consists at present of a set of wooden gable ends painted red, and the
+roofs are all of turf, where the buttercups grow and shine luxuriantly.
+
+Grettir rode up to the farmhouse, about noon, and knocked at the door.
+Some women came out and welcomed him; they did not know who he was, or
+they would have been more sparing in their welcome.  He asked after
+Thorbiorn, and was told that he was gone to the meadow, a little way
+further down the firth, where he had gone to bind hay, and that he had
+taken with him his son, called Arnor, who was a boy of sixteen.
+
+When Grettir heard this, he said farewell to the women, and turned his
+horse’s head to ride down the fiord towards a boiling spring that
+bubbles up out of the rock, throwing up a cloud of steam, and running in
+a scalding rill into the sea.  Now the rock is perhaps warm there, or
+the warm water helps vegetation; certain it is that thereabouts the
+grass grows thickly, and there it was that Thorbiorn was making his
+bundles of hay.  As Grettir rode along near the water, below the field,
+Thorbiorn saw him. He had just made up one bundle of hay, and he was
+engaged on another.  He had set his shield and sword against the load,
+and his lad Arnor had a hand-axe beside him.
+
+Thorbiorn looked hard at Grettir as he came along, and he said to the
+boy: "There is a fellow riding this way.  I wonder who he is, and
+whether he wants us. Leave tying up the hay, and let us find out what
+his errand is."
+
+Then Grettir leaped off his horse; he had a helmet on his head, and was
+girt with the short sword, and he bore a great spear in his hand that
+had a long sharp blade but no barbs.  The socket was inlaid with silver,
+and a nail went through the socket fastening it on to the staff of the
+spear.  He sat down on a stone, and knocked the nail out.  His reason
+was that he intended to throw the spear at Thorbiorn, and if he missed
+him, he thought the spear-head and the haft would come apart, and would
+be of no use to Thorbiorn to fling back at him.
+
+Oxmain said to his son: "I verily believe that is Grettir, Asmund’s son,
+he is so big; I know no one else so big.  He has got occasion enough
+against us, and if he is come here it is not with peaceable intentions.
+Now we must manage cunningly.  I do not know that he has seen you; so
+you hide behind the bundle of hay, and lie hid till you see him engaged
+with me.  Then you steal up noiselessly behind with your axe, and strike
+him one blow with all your might between the shoulder-blades.  When I
+see you coming up, I will fight the more furiously so as to draw off his
+attention, that he may not be able to look round.  Have no fear, he
+cannot hurt you, as his back will be turned to you.  Get close enough to
+make sure, and you will kill him with one blow."
+
+Now Grettir came uphill into the field, and when he came within a
+spear-throw of them, he cast his spear at Thorbiorn; but the head was
+looser on the shaft than he had expected it would be, and it became
+detached in its flight, and fell off and dropped into a marshy place and
+sank, and the shaft flew on but a little way and then fell harmlessly to
+the ground.
+
+Then Thorbiorn took his shield, put it before him, drew his sword and
+ran against Grettir and engaged him.  Grettir had, as already said, the
+short sword that he had taken out of the barrow, and with that he warded
+off the blows of Thorbiorn and smote at him.  Oxmain was a very strong
+man, and his shield was covered with well-tanned hide stretched over
+oak, and the blade of Grettir fell on it, hacked into it, and sometimes
+caught so that he could not at once withdraw it.  Thorbiorn now began to
+deal more furious blows.  Now just as Grettir was wrenching his sword
+away from the shield, into which it had bitten deep, he saw someone
+close behind him with an axe raised.  Instantly he tore out his sword
+and smote back over his head to protect his back from his assailant
+behind, and the blow came on Arnor just as he was on the point of
+driving his axe in between the shoulders of Grettir, so that he
+staggered back, mortally wounded.  Thorbiorn, whose eye was on his son,
+retreated a step, lost his presence of mind for a moment, and thereupon
+down came Grettir’s sword on his shield and split it in half.  Grettir
+pursued his advantage, pressed on him, and struck him down at his feet,
+dead at a blow.
+
+Then he went in search of his silver-inlaid spear-head, but could not
+find it.  So he mounted his horse again, rode on to the nearest
+farmhouse, and there told what he had done.  Many, many years after,
+about 1250, the spear-head was found in the marsh.  When I was in
+Iceland I also obtained a very similar spear-head, only not
+silver-inlaid, that was found in the volcanic sand; it had probably been
+lost in a very similar manner.
+
+It seems to us in these civilized times very horrible this continual
+slaying that took place in Iceland; but we must remember that, as
+already said, there were in those days not a single policeman, soldier,
+or officer of justice in the island.  When a trial took place, the
+prosecutor was the person aggrieved, or the nearest akin.  The court
+pronounced sentence, and then the prosecutor was required to carry out
+what the law had ordered.  He was to be constable and executioner.  Now
+the law, or custom which was the same as law, for there was no written
+code, was that when one man had been killed, the next of kin was bound
+to prosecute the slayer and obtain from him money compensation, or
+outlawry, or else he might kill the slayer himself, or one of his kin.
+This latter provision seems to us outrageous, that because A kills B,
+therefore that C, who is B’s brother, may kill D, who is brother to A.
+But so the law or custom stood and was recognized as binding, and not to
+carry out the law or custom was regarded as dishonourable.  It must be
+remembered that Iceland was colonized about A.D. 900, and that Grettir
+was born only about 97 years after, and that Christianity was adopted in
+1000; that is to say, it was sanctioned by law, but no one was forced to
+become a Christian unless he liked.  Also, that there was no government
+in the island, no central authority, and that the colonists lived much
+as do the first settlers now in a new colony which is not under the
+crown, or like the diggers at the gold mines.
+
+When Grettir had slain Thorbiorn Oxmain, he went home to Biarg and told
+his mother, who said it was well that Atli’s blood was wiped out by the
+death of the man who had so basely and in such cowardly fashion slain
+him; but she said she foresaw more trouble coming like a rising black
+cloud, and that this would make it more difficult for Grettir to get
+relief from his outlawry.
+
+
+
+
+                            *CHAPTER XXIII.*
+
+                             *AT LEARWOOD.*
+
+
+    _At Hvamsfiord—Iceland Scenery—An Iceland Paradise—One Lucky
+    Chance—Kuggson’s Story—Onund’s Voyage—In Search of Uninhabited
+    Land—The Landing—Eric’s Gift—A Cold Back!—Better than Nothing—An
+    Oversight—Death of Onund—Planning a Murder—Killing the Curd
+    Bottle—The Churl’s Axe—The Red Stream—Hard Times—The
+    "Wooden-tub"—The Stranded Whale—The Fight over the Whale—Retreat
+    of the Coldbackers—Before the Assize—The Judgment—An Evil
+    Act—Ill-luck follows Ill_
+
+
+After the slaying of Thorbiorn Oxmain, Grettir would not remain at home,
+lest trouble should come on his mother; so he rode across the Neck first
+of all to his brother-in-law, at Melar, at the head of the Ramsfirth, to
+ask his advice.  His brother-in-law there was called Gamli; he was not
+very rich or powerful, and he represented to Grettir that it would never
+do for him to remain in such near proximity to Thorod’s-stead, in the
+same valley, at the head of the same firth.  This Grettir acknowledged,
+so he stayed there but a few days, and then rode over the high
+table-land to the Lax, or Salmon-dale, where was the watershed, and the
+river of the salmon ran west into Hvamsfiord.  One of the most
+interesting and best written of the Icelandic sagas relates to the
+history of this valley.  The Hvamsfiord is by nature wonderfully
+protected against western storms, for the entrance is almost blocked to
+the west by a countless multitude of islands, of which only one is
+moderately large, and to the north-west is not only a grassy promontory,
+but also a natural breakwater of three long narrow islands.
+
+Outside the cluster of islands are eddies and whirlpools, and the
+passage between them is not always safe; but when a vessel has passed
+through between the islets it enters as into a wide beautiful inland
+lake, the shape of which is that of a boot, with the sole to the east
+and the toe turned up north.  Moreover, along the north side of this
+sheltered firth are high and steep hills that screen from the water all
+gales sweeping from the Pole; and in the glens and under the crags of
+these hills exposed to the south are beautiful woods of birch.
+
+Formerly in Iceland the woods were much more extensive than they are
+now; for the old settlers found in them plenty of fuel, and the
+birch-trees grew to a fair size.  Now, alas, with fatal want of
+consideration, the trees have been so cut down that the woods are rare
+and the trees are small.  There is hardly a birch-tree whose top one
+cannot touch when riding through a wood on a little pony no bigger than
+a Shetlander.
+
+Exactly at the toe of the boot is a rich grassy basin, where two streams
+flow into the fiord, and here is a beautiful view from the water.  One
+sees in front the green basin, and above it rise the mountains to
+Skeggoxl, a cone covered with eternal snows and with glaciers streaming
+down its flanks.  Here, in a sweet sheltered nook, basking in the sun,
+in spring with the river-side and the marshes blazing with immense
+marigolds, and with the short grass slopes speckled with blue tiny
+gentianella, is the farm, and near it the wooden church of Hvam.  In
+another part of the basin is a settlement called Asgard, the "Home of
+the gods;" for those who settled there first thought the spot so
+delightful, so warm, that they named it after the sunny land of fable,
+where it was said that their ancestors, the hero-gods of the northern
+race, had lived in the east before ever they crossed Russia and settled
+in Norway.  Asgard to their minds was Paradise.
+
+Paradise in Iceland is not a paradise elsewhere; nevertheless, to one
+who has travelled over barren hills and between glaciers, this warm nook
+with its green grass and woods of glistening birch was a place of
+inexpressible charm.  Now, just to the east, where would come the ball
+of the toe, looking across the end of this still blue lake-like fiord,
+up the valleys to the snows of Skeggoxl, is the farm of Learwood, in a
+grassy flat by the water, backed by birchwood and hills, and screened
+from the east as well as from the north winds.  Here lived Thorstein
+Kuggson. Kuggson’s mother was the daughter of Asgeir, the father of
+Audun of Willowdale, with whom Grettir had a tussle on the ice, and whom
+he afterwards upset with his foot when he was carrying curds. Kuggson
+through his father was related to the influential and wealthy family in
+the Laxdale, whose history is well known through the noble saga that
+relates the story of that valley.
+
+Grettir spent the autumn with his relative Kuggson.  Now, whilst he was
+there he fell to talking one day with Kuggson about his trial of
+strength with Audun, and Grettir said how glad he was that nothing had
+come of it.  It was said that he was a man of ill-luck; yet luck had
+befriended him on that occasion in sending Bard to interrupt the
+struggle before both lost their tempers and the quarrel became serious.
+
+Then said Kuggson: "You remind me of the story of Bottle-back, which, of
+course, you know."
+
+"It is many years since I have heard the tale," answered Grettir; "for,
+indeed, I can be little at home now, and am out of the way of hearing
+stories of one’s forefathers.  Tell me the tale."
+
+Then Kuggson told Grettir
+
+
+
+                       *The Story of Bottle-Back*
+
+
+"You know very surely, Grettir, that your great-grandfather was Onund
+Treefoot.  He was so called because in the great battle of Haf’s fiord,
+fought against King Harald, he had one of his legs cut off below the
+knee.  You have been told how that Onund had first to wife Asa, and that
+he settled at Cold-back; and he had by his first wife two sons, Thorgeir
+and Ufeig, who was also called Grettir, and it is after him that you are
+named.  Onund’s second wife was the mother of Thorgrim Grizzlepate, your
+grandfather.
+
+"The story I am going to tell you relates to Thorgeir, the eldest son of
+Onund, and how he got the name of Bottle-back.  You might think he
+acquired the designation from a rounded back.  It was not so, he had a
+back as straight as yours.
+
+"But to understand the story of how he got the name, I must go back to
+the time when Onund, your great-grandfather, came to Iceland.  That was
+in the year of Christ 900; he was unable to remain any longer in Norway,
+because the king, Harald, was in such enmity with him.  So he resolved
+that he would come to Iceland and seek there a new home. Now this was
+somewhat late, for the colonization of this island had begun some five
+or six and twenty years before, and there had come out great numbers of
+Norwegian chiefs, who fled from the rapacity and the vengeance of King
+Harald Fairhair, who outlawed every man who took up arms against him."
+
+But the story shall be told not in Kuggson’s words, but in mine.
+
+Onund sailed to Iceland from Norway in the summer of A.D. 900, and he
+had a hard voyage and baffling winds from the south that drove him far
+away to the north into the Polar Sea, till he came near the pack-ice;
+and then there came a change, and he made south, and after much beating
+about, for he had lost his reckoning, he made land, and found that he
+had come upon the north coast of Iceland, and those who knew the looks
+of the land said he was off the Strand Bay.  To the west rose the rocks
+and glaciers of the Drang Jokull, and to the east the long promontory
+that separated the Hunafloi from Skagafiord.
+
+Presently a ten-oared boat put off from shore, rowed by six men, and
+approached Onund’s vessel, and the men in the boat hailed the vessel and
+asked whose it was.  Onund gave his name and inquired to whom the men
+belonged.  They said they were servant men belonging to a farm at
+Drangar, just under the mighty field of glacier of Drang Jokull. Onund
+asked if all the land was taken up by settlers, and the men answered
+that along the north coast all such land as was worth anything was taken
+already, and that most was also settled to the south.
+
+Then Onund consulted with his shipmates what was to be done, whether
+coast along the north protuberance of Iceland in search of uninhabited
+land, or go into the great bay and see whether any chance opened for
+them there.  They had arrived so late in Iceland after the main rush of
+settlers that they could not expect to get any really favourable
+quarters. The men advised against exploring the north, exposed to the
+cold gales from the Polar Sea, where the fiords would be blocked with
+ice half the year; and thought there would be no harm trying what they
+could find further south.
+
+So Onund turned his vessel in towards the head of the splendid bay
+Hunafloi; but seeing a creek that seemed fairly sheltered, having on the
+north some quaint spikes of rock, and a great mountain to the south like
+a horn, and finding that this fiord gave a turn northwards under the
+shelter of the mountains, the men with Onund’s consent ran in there, and
+having anchored the vessel, entered a boat and rowed ashore.  On
+reaching the strand they were met by men who asked them who they were
+and what they did there.  Onund said he had come with peaceable
+intentions, and then he was told that all that fiord was occupied, and
+that the owner of the land was Eric Trap, a wealthy man.  Eric came to
+the beach and hospitably invited Onund and his ship’s crew to his house.
+There Onund told him his difficulty.  He had come to Iceland too late,
+and he feared that he would be able nowhere to find unclaimed lands.
+
+Eric considered a while, and then said there was more land that he had
+claimed than he could well keep in hand, and that he would be pleased to
+accommodate a man of such noble family and character as was Onund.
+Onund pressed him to receive payment for the land, but this Eric
+generously refused. When he had come there, said Eric, the country had
+been unpeopled, and he had just claimed what he liked, and had claimed
+more than he wanted.  Now he desired to have neighbours, and if Onund
+would be friendly none would be better pleased than himself to have him
+near.
+
+This gratifying offer satisfied Onund, but, as the saying is, ’Don’t
+look a gift-horse in the mouth,’ he did not at once close with the
+offer, but asked to be allowed to see the land Eric was so ready to part
+with.
+
+Accordingly he rode with Eric along the coast, passed the headland where
+was the horn-shaped mountain, and came upon a fiord where some boiling
+springs poured up in the sea out of its depths; the mountains on the
+north came down so abruptly to the water’s edge that the only habitable
+ground lay at the head of the firth and on the south side, having a
+northern aspect.  Moreover there was a lofty range to the south, so that
+in winter the sun would never light up this firth.  Onund did not much
+like it, he thought that Eric had offered him the place because he did
+not care for it himself; so he went across the mountain range and down
+into the little bay south of it.  As they rode it was over snow, a long
+descent of wintry mountain, till they reached a valley in which was a
+hot spring, a little lake, and some grass.  The situation was somewhat
+more inviting than that Onund had already seen, but it was not very
+attractive, and looking back on the long dreary slope of snow he said,
+"A cold back! a cold back! I would like to have had one warmer."  "That
+is not easily acquired," answered Eric.  "Further south there is no
+fiord for many miles till you come to one occupied by a man called
+Biarni.  That I can tell you is a fertile settlement, there are woods
+and pastures, and hot springs and good anchorage; but that is not my
+land to give you."
+
+Then Onund sang a stave:
+
+    "All across life’s strands do run,
+    I who many war-wagers won,
+    Meadows green and pastures fair
+    Once were mine, and woods to spare.
+    Left behind, I rid the steed
+    That o’er wave, with wind doth speed.[#]
+    Cold—cold, icy back behind,
+    This is what alone I find,
+    Hard the lot that fate doth yield
+    To the bearer of the shield."
+
+[#] _i.e._ a ship.
+
+
+Eric answered, "Many men have lost everything in Norway, and have got
+nothing in exchange. Cold may be the back against which to lean; but
+better cold back than none at all."
+
+This was true.  Onund had not received Eric’s offer graciously; but he
+now accepted it, and he called the second bay he saw—that into which he
+had descended over snow—Coldback, and that remains the name to this day.
+
+Eric behaved very nobly; he gave up to Onund the whole tract of land
+from the Horn-headland to the limit where Biarni’s land began.  He
+received the whole of Reykjafiord, Fishless Creek, and Coldback Bay.
+
+Then Onund built himself a house at Coldback; and there was no
+difficulty about wood, for the Gulfstream flowed up past the great
+north-west promontory of Iceland, curled round into Hunafloi, and
+deposited a quantity of American timber as drift all along that coast.
+Indeed, the drift was so abundant that neither Eric nor Onund made any
+agreement about it.  Now, as it happened in the sequel, this was an
+oversight.
+
+Onund prospered at Coldback, and even set up for himself a second farm
+at the head of the firth to the north, called Reykja-firth, from the
+boiling springs that puffed and bubbled up in the sea at the entrance;
+and a hot spring is in Icelandic—Reykr.
+
+Now, a few years after Onund had settled in Iceland, his good wife Asa
+died.  He had by her two sons—the elder was called Thorgeir, and the
+younger Ufeig Grettir.  After a while Onund went courting a woman called
+Thordis, in Middle-firth, and he married her, and by her had a son
+called Thorgrim; he grew to be a big man, very strong, wise, and a
+capital man at husbandry.  When he was twenty-five years old his hair
+grew gray, and so he went by the name of Thorgrim Grizzle-pate, and he
+was the grandfather of Grettir.  After the death of Onund, his widow
+married, as already said, Audun of Willowdale, and their son was Asgeir,
+the father of Grettir’s cousin Audun, with whom he had that affray on
+the ice, and then with the bottle of curds.
+
+When Onund was a very old man, then he died in his bed, and he was
+buried under a great mound, which you may see at Coldback if you go
+there.  It is called Old Treefoot’s cairn.  When he was dead, then
+Thorgrim Grizzlepate and his half-brothers, Thorgeir and Ufeig Grettir,
+lived together on the best of terms at Coldback, and managed the
+property between them.
+
+In time Eric Trap of Arness died also, and left his lands to his son
+Flossi.  He had remained in friendship with Onund all his life; but
+Flossi, his son, was a grasping man, and he was often heard to grumble
+about the Coldback family, and say that they were squatters on his
+father’s land, and had no title to show for the land they held.
+Thorgrim Grizzlepate and his half-brothers did not wish to quarrel with
+Flossi, so they kept out of his company; and when there were sports of
+hurling, and wrestling, and horse-fighting, strayed away, so as not to
+be involved in a quarrel with him.
+
+Now, Thorgeir was the eldest of the three brothers at Coldback, and he
+was mightily fond of fishing.  This was known to Flossi, and he made a
+plot for slaying him; for he was envious of the brothers, and wanted to
+get back all their lands into his own possession.  He had got a
+house-churl called Finn, and he and Finn had some talk together. The end
+of this talk was that Finn started secretly for Coldback armed with a
+hatchet, and he hid himself in the boat-house at Coldback.
+
+Early in the morning Thorgeir got ready to go out fishing, for the
+weather was good, the sea calm and was alive with fish.  His nets were
+in the boat, and before sunrise he left his bed and dressed, and went to
+the boat-house to start on his excursion. He had not the smallest
+suspicion of mischief, and as he was like to be on the water for a long
+time, he flung a great leather bottle of curds over his back. As already
+said, these leather bottles were no other than the hides of goats or
+sheep, sewn up and converted into receptacles for liquid.
+
+So Thorgeir went to the boat-house with the bottle of curd over his
+back, opened the door, and went in.  He did not look round, he had no
+suspicion of evil, and he did not see Finn lurking in the dark corner.
+It was, moreover, very dark in the boat-house.  Thorgeir stooped to get
+hold of the boat and thrust her out, when all at once out from the dark
+corner leaped the churl, and brought the axe down on Thorgeir’s back.
+The blow made the bottle squeak, and all the curds gushed out.  That was
+enough for Finn.  He made sure he had killed Thorgeir, so he ran away as
+fast as he could back to Arness, burst into the house, and shouted to
+his master "I have killed him!  I have killed him!  And he squeaked!  he
+squeaked!"
+
+"Let me look at the axe," said Flossi.  Then, when he had the axe in his
+hand he turned it about and laughed, and said, "Verily, I did not think
+that Thorgeir had milk in his veins instead of blood. That accounts for
+it, that you have been able to slay him."
+
+This affair was a subject of much comment, and much laughter did it
+provoke.  Thorgeir had not received the smallest wound, only his bottle
+was split, and ever after he went by the name of Bottle-back.
+
+But a song was made about this event which was never forgotten.  It runs
+thus:—
+
+      "Of the days of old
+      Great tales are told
+    How heroes went forth to fight,
+      Their shields, for show
+      Were whitened as snow,
+    And their weapons were burnished bright
+      The battle began,
+      In the weapon-clang,
+    The red blood flowed apace
+      In rivers shed
+      It dyed red
+    The shields o’er all their face.
+      But nowaday
+      We tune our lay
+    To tell a different story.
+      The churls who fight
+      Bring axes white,
+    With curds and whey made gory."
+
+
+When Kuggson ceased, Grettir laughed heartily. "Ah!" said he, "that
+cannot be said now, for indeed there flows much blood."
+
+"You speak the truth," answered Kuggson; "and I wish that this red
+stream flowed less abundantly."
+
+"That may be," said Grettir; "but I would fain hear the rest of the
+story.  I have not heard it told me for a long time; and, indeed, to
+speak the truth, much of it I have clean forgotten, though I did hear it
+when I was a boy at home."
+
+"If you will hear what follows, it must be as a new story," said
+Kuggson.  Again I will tell it in my own words.
+
+
+
+                   *The Story of the Stranded Whale*
+
+
+Hard times came to Iceland, such as had not been known since it was
+settled, for the timber that had been thrown up by the sea came to an
+end, or very nearly so.  There had been great accumulations, and these
+were exhausted, and for some reason or other that cannot now be
+explained the Gulf-stream ceased to carry on its current the amount of
+timber it had formerly, the wreckage of the forests on the Mississippi,
+swept down into the great Mexican Gulf, and thence washed out over the
+vast Atlantic, borne on the warm stream to the north, to give fuel to
+those lands which were by nature unprovided with trees.  At this time
+the axe was laid against the largest and finest birch that grew in the
+forests in Iceland.  But none of that timber was big and good enough for
+building purposes.
+
+This deficiency in drift-wood continued for many seasons, and if men
+required building timber they were constrained to send to Norway for it.
+Now, it happened that about this time a great merchant vessel was
+wrecked in the fiord in the lap of which was Arness, where lived Flossi,
+and he took four or five of the chapmen to his house, and lodged them
+there well and hospitably, and the other wrecked men were quartered in
+other farmhouses near.  All winter the men were engaged in building a
+new ship out of the wreck and what other timber they could get; but they
+were not skilful over their work, and they built a badly-proportioned
+vessel, over small at the stem and stern and over big amidships; and
+this vessel was much laughed at, and men called it the Wooden-tub, and
+that bay where Flossi lived was ever after called Wooden-tub Bay,
+because this broad-beamed, comical vessel was built there.[#]
+
+[#] It is still so called, Trèkyllis-víc.
+
+Now, it fell out that at the spring equinox there was a great storm from
+the north, and it lasted a week.  The waves came in huge rollers against
+the cliffs, and spouted like geysers into the air, and all the air was
+in a haze with spray, and was full of the noise of the sea.  Those who
+lived on the coast were not sorry for the storm, because they hoped it
+would blow in drift-wood and other spoils of the deep upon the shores;
+and sure enough, when it abated, a man who lived out on Reykja-ness came
+and told Flossi that there was a great whale washed ashore there. Then
+Flossi sent word to all the farms round to the north.  But hard-by where
+the whale had come ashore lived a farmer named Einar, who was a tenant
+under the brothers at Coldback, so he took a boat and rowed off to
+Coldback, and told them about the monster that was stranded.
+
+When Thorgrim and his brothers Thorgeir and Ufeig heard this, they got
+ready at once, and were twelve in a ten-oared boat, with axes and knives
+for cutting up the whale.  Another boat put off from another of their
+farms, with six men in it, and others were sure to come as soon as they
+could get ready.
+
+In the meantime, Flossi and all his company, his kindred, servants, and
+tenants, had hurried to the spot, and were already engaged in cutting up
+the whale, when round the ness came the boat of the brothers.  Now, the
+shore where the whale was cast up belonged to the brothers, and they
+called out to Flossi to assert their right to whatever was found on the
+strand.  Flossi answered that if they had any right to the drift they
+must show their claim. They had, he said, been allowed by his father to
+squat on his land, but his father had never given over to them all his
+rights, certainly not the lordship over the strand, and claim to flotsam
+and jetsam. Whilst the dispute continued, up came other boats of the
+Coldback party, and then a long boat, that contained a fellow called
+Swan, who lived in Biornfiord, to the south of Coldback, a very warm
+friend of the brothers, and a plucky, resolute man.
+
+Thorgrim was hesitating what to do, when Swan told him it would be mean
+to allow himself to be robbed.  Moreover, this assault on his rights, if
+not resisted would establish a precedent, and Flossi would claim
+everything found on their strand, even at their very doors.
+
+So a fight began.  The Coldback men came ashore, and Thorgeir
+Bottle-back mounted the carcase of the whale, to drive off the servants
+of Flossi. Among these was Finn; he was near the head of the whale, and
+stood in a foothold he had cut for himself.  Then Thorgeir Bottle-back
+said, "Ah!  I owe you a stroke of the axe, which has not been repaid as
+yet," and he smote at him, and felled him.
+
+Flossi egged on his men, and a desperate fight ensued; some fought on
+the body of the whale, some about it.  There were hardly any present who
+had other weapons save choppers and axes, and they hewed at each other
+with these.  But some had no other weapons than the ribs of the whale,
+and it is even said that some of the churls flourished great strips of
+blubber, with which they banged each other about, nearly smothering each
+other in oil, but not doing much harm.
+
+The battle was going ill with Flossi, when there arrived a contingent of
+men from Drangar, with many boats, and gave help to Flossi, and then
+those of Coldback were borne back overpowered; but they did not retreat
+till they had loaded their boats. Swan shouted to the Coldbackers to get
+on board as quickly as they could, for he saw more men coming against
+them from the north.  Flossi received a wound, but Ufeig, one of the
+three brothers, was dealt his death-wound before he could get into the
+boat, and he fell on the strand.  Thorgeir Bottle-back at once leaped
+out of the vessel, ran to his brother, heaved him up in his arms and
+plunged back through the surf with him, and lifted him into the boat,
+where he died.  It is told that in this battle one man was beaten to
+death by the rib of a whale, and that was one of the chapmen of the
+wrecked vessel.
+
+After this, the matter was brought before the assize, for the question
+of the right to the shore had to be decided one way or the other.  And
+it was decided in this manner: Flossi was condemned to outlawry for his
+high-handed proceeding, and because of the death of Ufeig Grettir; but
+the question of the rights was thus settled by the judge, Thorkel Moon.
+He said, "I cannot see that the claim made by the Coldback men is
+established, for no money passed between Onund and Eric.  I know this
+about the land that was possessed by my grandfather Ingolf, and which is
+now my own.  He received it from Steinver the Old; but then he gave her
+a mottled cloak, and that was a pledge of sale; and this has never been
+contested.  In the matter of the lands inhabited by the Coldback men, as
+far as I can learn, not even a straw was given in exchange.  However, it
+is proved that they have held the land, and have taken the drift for a
+long time; and that the original owner, Eric, did not dispute their
+doing so.  I therefore decide that a compromise shall hold good.  The
+Coldback brothers must surrender all the Reykja-firth, and content
+themselves with the land south of that.  And I also decide that they
+shall exercise full and undisputed rights to the land, to all that grows
+on it, to the sea and what it throws up, along that bit of strand that
+remains to them."
+
+
+Now when Kuggson had finished this story, then Grettir said, "You have
+not told how my grandfather and great-uncle parted."
+
+"No," said Kuggson.  "There is not much to tell about that.  The two
+brothers agreed to separate, as your grandfather wanted to marry in the
+Middlefirth. Bottle-back remained at Coldback."
+
+"Now that you have spoken so much about Coldback," said Grettir, "I will
+tell you something, though it is to my discredit."
+
+"Say on," answered Kuggson.  "Men are generally more ready to boast than
+to discredit themselves."
+
+"When I was a little boy," said Grettir, "my father suffered from a cold
+back and great pains in it, in winter, and he only got ease when it was
+rubbed with a hot flannel.  I was a bad, idle boy, and I was set in
+winter to rub his cold back.  This I resented.  I thought it was a work
+fit only for servants, and one day when my father had made me rub his
+old back till I was tired, then he said to me, ’You are growing slack;
+rub harder, that I may feel your hand.’  ’Do you so want to feel my
+hand, father,’ I said.  Then I saw a wool-comb hard by that the women
+had used for carding wool, and I caught it and rubbed down my father’s
+back with that—so that he shrieked with pain, and I made the blood flow.
+It was a wicked act.  I think of it now the old man is dead, and I am
+sorry."
+
+"Yes," said Kuggson, "it was an evil act.  Men say that you are an
+unlucky man.  Now, I do not wonder at your ill-luck, for none ever
+raised his hand against his father but there followed him ill in
+consequence of so doing all his days."
+
+
+
+
+                            *CHAPTER XXIV.*
+
+                         *THE FOSTER-BROTHERS.*
+
+
+    _Grettir’s Promise—The Yule Ox—Holding the Boat—A Hard
+    Pull—Grettir and the Ox—Thorgeir’s Hatred—The Concealed Axe—Evil
+    Sport—An Iceland Moor_
+
+
+Now, the kinsmen of Oxmain heard where Grettir was, so they resolved to
+form a party, and fall upon him at Learwood.  But Grettir’s
+brother-in-law was aware of this and forewarned Grettir, so he went away
+to the north, and he followed Gilsfiord till he reached Reyk-knolls,
+where was a pleasant farm near the sea, where also were a great number
+of ever-boiling springs, that poured and squirted and fizzed out of
+mounds of red-clay.  Here lived a man called Thorgils Arison, and he
+asked this man if he would give him shelter through the winter.
+
+Arison said that he would.  "But," said he, "there is only plain fare in
+my house."
+
+"I am not choice as to my food, so long as I have a roof over my head,"
+answered Grettir.
+
+"There is one matter further," said Arison. "Somehow or other I get men
+come to me and offer to become my guests who cannot settle elsewhere,
+and I get a rough lot at times.  That comes of being too good-hearted to
+bid them pack.  Even now I have two such good-for-naughts guesting with
+me, two foster-brothers, Thorgeir and Thormod; rough, unkempt men, of
+bad tempers both, and I wot not how you will agree together.  You may
+come and put your head within my doors if you will, but on one
+condition, that there be no fighting and knocking about of my other
+guests."
+
+Grettir answered that he would not be the first to raise strife, and
+that if the foster-brothers provoked him beyond endurance he would go
+elsewhere, and not give his host annoyance by a brawl in his house.
+
+With this promise Arison was content.
+
+Thorgils Arison was a firm man, and he told the foster-brothers that he
+would have no disturbance whilst they were with him, and they also
+promised to be orderly.  Thorgeir did not like Grettir.  He scowled at
+him and contradicted him, but did not pursue his rudeness beyond bounds;
+and when Grettir was ruffled, a word from the master of the house served
+to appease the rising blood.
+
+So the early winter wore away.
+
+Now, the good man, Thorgils Arison, owned a cluster of islands in the
+firth that are called Olaf’s Isles; they lie a good sea-mile and a half
+beyond the ness.  On them grass grows, and there the bonder kept his
+cattle to fatten in autumn.  Now, there was an ox on one of these isles
+that Arison said he must have home before the snows and storms of winter
+came on, as he intended to kill the beast for the feastings of Yule.  So
+the foster-brothers and Grettir volunteered to go out to the island, and
+fetch the ox home.
+
+They went down to the sea and got out a ten-oared boat, and there were
+but these three to man it.  The weather was cold, and the wind was
+shifting from the north and not settled.  They rowed hard, and reached
+the island; but the sea was running and foaming over the shore, and they
+saw it would be no easy matter to get the ox on board with such a surf.
+So the brothers told Grettir he must hold the boat, whilst they got the
+ox in.  He agreed, and went into the water, and stood amidships on the
+side out to sea, and thrust the boat towards the shore, whilst the
+brothers laboured to get the ox in.  Thorgeir took up the ox by the hind
+legs, and Thormod by the fore legs, as the beast refused to be driven on
+board, and so they carried the animal into the boat; but Grettir, who
+held the craft, had the sea up to his shoulder-blades, and he held her
+perfectly fast.
+
+When the ox was hove in, Grettir let go and got into the boat.  Thormod
+took oar in the bows, Thorgeir amidships, and Grettir aft, and so they
+made out into the open bay.  As they came out from the lee of the island
+the squall caught them, the waves leaped and foamed, and Thorgeir
+shouted "Now then, stern!  Have you gone to sleep?  Why are you
+lagging?"
+
+Grettir answered, "The stern will not lag when the rowing afore is
+good."
+
+Thereupon Thorgeir fell to rowing so furiously that both the tholes were
+broken.  So he called to Grettir, "Row on steadily whilst I mend the
+thole-pins."
+
+Then Grettir rowed so mightily, whilst Thorgeir was engaged mending the
+pins, that he wore through the oars, and when Thorgeir was ready they
+snapped like matches.
+
+"Better row with less haste and more caution," growled Thormod.
+
+Then Grettir stooped and picked out of the bottom of the boat two
+unshapen oar-beams that lay there; but as they were too big to go
+between the thole-pins, he bored large holes in the gunwales, and thrust
+the oars through, and rowed thus so mightily that every rib and plank of
+the boat creaked, and the foster-brothers were in fear lest with his
+rowing he would tear the craft to pieces.  However, they reached the
+shore in safety.
+
+Then Grettir asked whether the brothers would rather haul up the boat,
+or go home with the ox. They preferred to haul the boat ashore, and
+found that it was hung with icicles, for the water had frozen on the
+sides; but Grettir led home the ox, which was very fat, and very
+unwilling to be dragged along, so that Grettir became impatient.
+
+When the foster-brothers had finished bailing out the boat, and had put
+her under cover, they went up to the house, and on reaching it Thorgeir
+inquired after Grettir, but Arisen the bonder said he had not seen him
+or the ox.  Then he sent out men in quest of him, for he supposed
+something must have befallen him; and when they came to where the land
+dipped towards the sea they saw a strange object indeed coming towards
+them, and did not know at first whether what they saw was a human being
+or a troll.[#]  On approaching nearer they saw that this strange object
+was Grettir, who was carrying the ox on his back, and striding up the
+hill with the beast, which had the head hanging over his shoulder, the
+tongue out, and was lowing plaintively.  The sight was infinitely
+comical, and the men who saw it burst out laughing, and this made
+Grettir also laugh, so that he dropped the ox.
+
+
+[#] A troll is a mountain demon or giant.
+
+
+Now, it must be known that this story is not manifestly absurd, for the
+Icelandic cattle are very small, like Brittany cows, and bear the same
+relation to a good English ox that a pony does to a horse. Nevertheless
+the feat was only such as a strong man could have accomplished.  It had
+taken the two brothers to carry the ox down into the boat, and here was
+Grettir alone carrying him up hill.
+
+This deed of Grettir was much talked of, and this made Thorgeir, the
+elder of the foster-brothers, very jealous of Grettir, and he hated him,
+and sought to do him an injury.  One day after Yule, Grettir went down
+to the bath that was made by turning a stream of hot water from one of
+the natural boiling springs into a walled basin into which also cold
+water could be turned from a rill.  In former times the Icelanders were
+very particular about bathing, and were a clean people.  At the present
+day they never bathe at all, and such of the old baths as remain are out
+of order and full of grass and mud.
+
+Thorgeir said to his brother, "Let us go now and try how Grettir will
+start, if I set upon him as he comes away from his bath."
+
+"I do not like this," answered Thormod; "you will vex our host, and get
+no advantage over Grettir."
+
+"I will try what I can do," said the elder; and he took his axe, hid it
+under his cloak, and went down towards the bathing-place.
+
+When he had reached it he said, "Grettir, there is a talk that you have
+boasted that no man could make you take to your heels."
+
+"I never said that," answered Grettir, "but anyhow you are not the man
+to make me run."
+
+Then Thorgier swung up his axe and would have cut at Grettir; but
+Grettir suspected that the man meant mischief, and he was ready, so that
+the instant he drew out the axe and swung it, Grettir clashed forward at
+him, struck him in the chest and sent him staggering back, so that he
+sprawled his length on the ground.
+
+Then Thorgeir shouted to his brother, "Why do you stand by and let this
+savage kill me?"
+
+Thormod then laid hold of Grettir, and endeavoured to drag him away, but
+his strength was not sufficient to effect this.
+
+At that moment up came Arison, the bonder, and he bade them be quiet and
+have nought to do with Grettir.
+
+So the brothers stood up, and Thorgeir pretended it was all sport, that
+he had only proposed giving Grettir a fright; but the bonder hardly
+believed him.  As for the younger of the brothers, it was well seen that
+he had been drawn into the matter against his will.  So the winter
+passed, and peace was kept.  This little struggle with Grettir had shown
+Thorgeir that it would be ill for him to have dealings with a man so
+prompt and strong as Grettir, and he controlled himself and did not seek
+to pick a quarrel with him any more.  At the same time he did not like
+him any better.  Thorgils Arison got great credit, when it was reported
+that throughout an entire winter he had maintained such turbulent men as
+the foster-brothers and Grettir under his roof without their having
+fought.[#]
+
+
+[#] There is an entire saga relating to the history of these brothers,
+called the Foster-Brothers’ Saga.
+
+
+But when spring came then they went away, all of them, away over the
+heaths and moors of the interior.
+
+When we say that Grettir was on the heaths and moors, it must not be
+supposed that the region so called was at all like the moors of Scotland
+or England.  The heaths and moors of Iceland are upland desert regions
+with only here and there a scanty growth of vegetation, a little
+whortleberry, no heath at all, but vast tracts of broken stone and mud
+and black sand, with perhaps here and there an occasional hill of yellow
+sandstone.  Most of the rock is perfectly black, and breaks into pieces
+with sharp angles.  What is called Icelandic moss is a black lichen that
+grows on the stones, and there is a very little gray moss to be seen.
+Where there is a burn or a stream a little grass may grow, but the
+amount is small indeed.
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER XXV.*
+
+                   *HOW GRETTIR WAS WELL-NIGH HUNG.*
+
+
+    _The Law-man’s Judgment—Snorri’s Compromise—The Compromise
+    Declined—Grettir Helps Himself—The Spy—Thirty to One—An
+    Undesirable Prisoner—The Gallows for Grettir—Thorbiorg Saves
+    Grettir—Grettir Conquers Himself_
+
+
+Now, after the slaying of Thorbiorn Oxmain, his kinsman Thorod took the
+matter up, and rode to the great assize with a large train of men.
+
+The relatives of Grettir also appeared at the assize, and they took
+advice of Skapti, the law-man; and he said that Atli was slain a week
+before the sentence of outlawry was pronounced against Grettir, that
+Thorbiorn Oxmain was guilty of that, and his relatives must pay a heavy
+fine for the murder.  But he said that Grettir was an outlaw when he
+slew Thorbiorn.  Now being an outlaw he was outside the cognizance of
+the law, he was as one not a native of the country, as one over whom the
+law had no longer jurisdiction; that, therefore, his slaying of
+Thorbiorn could not count as expiation of the slaying of Atli; that,
+moreover, no suit against an outlawed man could stand—it was illegal:
+that the only way in which Grettir could be brought into court was by
+the removal of the sentence of outlawry, when at once he could be
+prosecuted.
+
+Thorod was disconcerted at this; for he could not bring an action
+against Grettir, and the Biarg people did now bring an action against
+him for the slaying of Atli, and the court gave sentence that he should
+pay down two hundred ounces of silver as blood fine for Atli.
+
+Now, at this court, Snorri the judge proposed a compromise.  He
+suggested that the fine should be let drop, and that Grettir should be
+held scatheless, that the outlawry should be set aside, and the slaying
+of Thorbiorn be put against the slaying of Atli, and so reconciliation
+be made.
+
+Thorod did not at all want to pay down two hundred ounces of silver, and
+the Biarg family were very willing to have the outlawry done away with;
+so both parties were quite willing to accept this compromise, but Thorir
+of Garth had to be reckoned with.  Grettir was outlawed at his suit for
+the burning of his sons, and he must be brought to consent, or this
+arrangement could not take place.
+
+But Thorir was not to be moved.  In vain did the law-man Snorri urge
+him, and represent to him that Grettir, at large, an outlaw, was a
+danger menacing the country, that he was driven to desperation, Thorir
+absolutely refused to allow the sentence to be withdrawn.  Not only so,
+but he said he would set a higher price on his head than had been set on
+the head of any outlaw before, and that was three marks of silver.  Then
+Thorod, not to be behind with him, offered three more.
+
+Grettir resolved to get as much out of the way of his enemies as he
+could, so he went into that strange excrescence, like a hand joined on
+by a narrow wrist to Iceland, that extends to the north-west.  In this
+peninsula are two great masses of snow and glacier mountain, called
+Glam-jokull and Drang-jokull.  They do not rise to any great height,
+hardly three thousand feet, but they are vast domes of snow, with
+glaciers sliding from them to the firths, and these fall over the edges
+of the precipitous cliffs in huge blocks of ice that float away on the
+tide as icebergs. The largest of all the fiords that penetrates this
+region is called the Ice-firth, and it runs between these great
+mountains of snow and glaciers.  At the extremity of the estuary the
+valleys are well-wooded—that is to say, well-wooded for Iceland—with
+birch-trees, for their valleys are very sheltered, and the sea-water
+that roll in bears with it a certain amount of heat, for it has been
+affected by the Gulf-stream.
+
+One of these valleys is called Waterdale, and at the time of our story
+there lived there a man named Vermund the Slim, and his wife’s name was
+Thorbiorg; she was a big, fine woman.  Another valley is Lang-dale.
+Grettir went to Lang-dale—there he demanded of the farmers whatever he
+wanted, food and clothing, and if they would not give him what he asked,
+he took it.  This was not to their taste at all, and they wished that
+they were rid of Grettir.  He could not remain long in one place, so he
+rode along the side of the Ice-firth demanding food, and sleeping and
+concealing himself in the woods.  So in his course he came to the upland
+pastures and dairy that belonged to Vermund Slim, and he slept there
+many nights, and hid about in the woods.
+
+The shepherds on the moors were afraid of him, and they ran down into
+the valleys and told the farmers everywhere that there was a big strange
+man on the heights, who took from them their curd and milk, and dried
+fish, and that they were afraid to resist his demands.  They did not
+quite know what he was, whether a man or a mountain spirit.
+
+So the farmers gathered together and took advice, and there were about
+thirty of them.  They set a shepherd to watch Grettir’s movements, and
+let them know when he could be fallen upon.  Now, it fell out one warm
+day that Grettir threw himself down in a sunny spot to sleep.  The
+glistening beech leaves were flickering behind him, the rocks were
+covered with the pale lemon flowers of the dry as, and between the
+clefts of the stones masses of large purple-flowered geranium stood up
+and made a glow of colour deep into the wood.
+
+It is a mistake to suppose that Iceland is bare of flowers; on the
+contrary, there are more flowers there than grass.  Beneath Grettir the
+turf was full of tiny deep-blue gentianellas, just as if the turf were
+green velvet, with a thread of blue in it coming through here and there.
+
+The shepherd stole near enough to see that Grettir really was fast
+asleep, and then he ran and told the bonders, who came noiselessly to
+the spot.  It was arranged among them that ten men should fling
+themselves on him, whilst the others fastened his feet with strong
+cords.
+
+They made a noose, and cautiously without waking him managed to get it
+about his legs; then, all at once, ten of them threw themselves on his
+body, and tried to pin down his arms.  Grettir started from his sleep,
+and with one toss sent the men rolling off him, and he even managed to
+get to his knees. Then they pulled the noose tighter and brought him
+down, he, however, kicked out at two, whom he tumbled head over heels,
+and they lay stunned on the earth.  Then one after another rushed at
+him, some from behind.  He could not get at his weapons, which they had
+removed, and though he made a long and hard fight, and struggled
+furiously, they were too many for him, and they overcame him in the end,
+and bound his hands.
+
+Now, as he lay on the grass, powerless, they held a council over him
+what should be done.  The chief man of that district was Vermund Slim,
+but he was from home.  So it was settled that a farmer named Helgi
+should take Grettir and keep him in ward till Vermund came home.
+
+"Thank you gratefully," said Helgi; "but I have other business to attend
+to than to keep sentinel over this man.  My hands are fully occupied
+without this.  Not if I know it shall he cross my threshold."
+
+So the farmers considered, and decided that another man who lived at
+Giorvidale should have the custody of Grettir.
+
+"You are most obliging," said he; "but I have only my old woman with me
+at home, and how can we two manage him?  Lay on a man only such a burden
+as he can bear."
+
+They considered again, and came to the conclusion that one Therolf of
+Ere should have the charge of Grettir.
+
+But he replied, "No, thank you, I am short of provisions, there is
+hardly food enough at my house for my own party."
+
+Then they appointed that he should be put with another farmer; but he
+said, "If he had been taken in my land, well and good, but as he has
+not, I won’t be encumbered with him."
+
+Then every farmer was tried, and all had excuses why they should not
+have the care of Grettir; and consequently, as no one would have him,
+they resolved to hang him.  So they set to work and constructed a rude
+gallows there in the wood, and a mighty clatter they made over it.
+
+Whilst thus engaged, it happened that Thorbiorg, Vermund’s wife, was
+riding up to her mountain dairy, attended by five servants.  She was a
+stirring, clever woman, and when she saw so many men gathered together
+and making such a noise, she rode towards them to inquire what they were
+about.
+
+"Who is that lying in bonds there?" she asked.
+
+Then Grettir answered and gave his name.
+
+"Why, now, is it, Grettir," she said, "that you have given so much
+trouble in this neighbourhood?"
+
+"I must needs be somewhere," he answered.  "And wherever I am, there I
+must have food."
+
+"It is a piece of ill-luck that you should have fallen into the hands of
+these bumpkins," said she. Then turning to the farmers she asked what
+they purposed doing with Grettir.
+
+"Hang him," answered they.
+
+"I do not deny that Grettir may have deserved the rope," said Thorbiorg;
+"but I doubt if you are doing wisely in taking his life.  He belongs to
+a great family, and his death will not be to your quietness and content
+if you kill him."  Then she said to Grettir, "What will you do if your
+life be given you?"
+
+"You propose the conditions," said he.
+
+"Very well, then you must swear not to revenge on these men what they
+have done to you to-day, and not to do any violence more in the
+Ice-firth."
+
+Grettir took the required oath, and so he was loosed from his bonds.  He
+said afterwards that never had he a harder thing to do than to control
+his temper, when set free, and not to knock the farmers’ heads together
+like nuts and crack them, for what they had done to him.
+
+Then Thorbiorg invited him to her house, and he went with her to the
+Water-firth, and there abode till her husband returned, and when Vermund
+heard all, then he was well pleased; and deemed that his wife had acted
+with great prudence and kindness. He asked Grettir to remain there as
+long as was consistent with his safety, and Grettir accepted his
+hospitality, and continued there as his guest till late in the autumn,
+when he went south to Learwood, where was Kuggson, with whom he purposed
+spending the winter.  However, he was not able to stay there, for it
+soon became known where he was, and his enemies prepared to take him.
+He accordingly left and went to a friend in another fiord, and remained
+a short while with him, but was obliged for the same reason to fly
+thence also; and so he spent the winter dodging about from place to
+place, never able to remain long anywhere, because his enemies were so
+resolved on his death, and were on the alert to fall on him wherever
+they heard he was sheltering.
+
+
+
+
+                            *CHAPTER XXVI.*
+
+                            *IN THE DESERT.*
+
+
+    _The Center of the Island—Ice, Desert, and Volcanoes—The
+    Bubble-Caves—A Dweller in the Desert—Grettir Stops the
+    Rider—Hall-mund Stronger than Grettir—Grettir Seeks Skapti’s
+    Advice—Grettir’s Night Fears—Grettir Builds a House_
+
+
+The island of Iceland is one-third larger than Ireland, but then the
+population is entirely confined to the coast.  All the centre of the
+island is desert and mountain.  One mighty mass of mountain covered with
+eternal snow and ice occupies the south of the island and approaches the
+sea very closely in the south-east.  Much of this is unexplored; it has
+of recent years been traversed once, across the great Vatna-jokull, but
+there are passes west of the Vatna.  The mountain masses are broken into
+three main masses.  The vast Vatna-jokull is to the east, then comes a
+pass, and next the circular Arnafells-jokull, then another pass, and
+lastly the jumble of snow mountains that form the Ball-jokull and the
+Lang-jokull, the Goatland and the Erick’s-jokull. North of the
+Vatna-jokull is a vast region, as large as a big county, covered with
+lava broken up into bristling spikes and deep clefts of glass-like rock,
+which no one can possibly get across.  In the midst of it, inaccessible,
+rise the cones of volcanoes that have poured forth this sea of molten
+rock.  East and west of this mighty tract of broken-up lava come
+extensive moors also quite desert, covered with inky-black sand which
+has been erupted by volcanoes, burying and destroying what vegetation
+there was. The extent of desert may be understood when you learn that
+there are twenty thousand square miles of country perfectly barren and
+uninhabitable, and only partially explored.  There are but four thousand
+square miles in Iceland that are inhabited; the rest of the country is a
+chaos of ice, desert, and volcanoes. The great lava region mentioned
+north of the Vatna covers one thousand one hundred and sixty square
+miles, and the Vatna envelopes three thousand five hundred square miles
+in ice.  Now, here and there in this vast region there are certain
+sheltered spots where some grass grows, valleys that have escaped the
+overflow of the molten rock, or the thrust of the glacier; and during
+the ninety years that Iceland had been inhabited, every now and then a
+churl who got tired of service, or a murderer afraid of his life, ran
+away into the centre of the island, and lived a precarious existence on
+the wild birds, their eggs, and on the fish that abounded in the
+countless lakes. Probably also they stole sheep, and carried them away
+to the mysterious recesses of the desert where they had made for
+themselves homes.  They lived chiefly in caverns, of which there are
+plenty thus formed:—When the lava poured as a fiery stream out of the
+volcanoes, in cooling great bubbles were formed in it, sometimes these
+bubbles exploded, blew the fragments into the air, which fell back and
+made a mass of broken bits of rock like an exploded soda-water bottle;
+but all the bubbles did not burst, and such hardened when the rock
+became cool.  These bubbles remain as great domed halls, and some of
+them run deep underground, forming a succession of chambers.  I have
+explored one where a band of outlaws once lived, and found numbers of
+sheep-bones frozen up in ice in the place where, after they had eaten
+the mutton, they threw away what they could not devour.  At the end of
+the cave they had erected a wall so as to inclose a space as a store
+chamber.
+
+These men, living in the desert and rarely seen, were the subject of
+many tales, and it was not clearly known who and what they really were,
+whether altogether human, or half mountain-spirits. Imagination invested
+them with supernatural powers.
+
+When spring came and the snows melted, then Grettir left the farmhouse
+where he had been last in hiding, and went into the desert, to find food
+and shelter for himself.
+
+One day he saw a man on horseback alone riding over a ridge of hill.  He
+was a very big man, and he led another horse that had bags of goods on
+his back.  The man wore a slouched hat so that his face could not
+clearly be seen.
+
+Grettir looked hard at the horse and the goods on the pack-saddle, and
+thought he would probably find some of these latter serviceable to him,
+and in his need he was not particular how he got those things which he
+wanted.  So he went up to the rider and peremptorily ordered him to
+stand and deliver.
+
+"Why should I give you things that are my own?" asked the stranger.  "I
+will sell some of my wares if you can pay for them."
+
+"I have no money," answered Grettir, "what I want I take.  You must have
+heard that by report."
+
+"Then I know with whom I have to deal; you are Grettir the outlaw, the
+son of Asmund of Biarg."  Thereat he struck spurs into his horse and
+tried to ride past.
+
+"Nay, nay!  We part not like this," said Grettir, and he laid his hands
+on the reins of the horse the stranger rode.
+
+"You had better let go," said the mounted man.
+
+"Nay, that I will not," answered Grettir.
+
+Then the rider stooped and put his hands to the reins above those of
+Grettir, between them and the bit, and he dragged them along, forcing
+Grettir’s hands along the bridle to the end and then wrenched them out
+of his grasp.
+
+Grettir looked at his palms and saw that the skin had been torn in the
+struggle.  Then he found out that he had met with a man who was stronger
+than himself.
+
+"Give me your name," said he.  "For, good faith! I have not encountered
+a man like you."
+
+Then the horseman laughed and sang:
+
+    "By the Caldron’s side
+    Away I ride,
+    Where the waters rush and fall
+    Adown the crystal glacier wall
+    There you will find a stone
+    Joined to a hand—alone."
+
+
+This was a puzzling answer.  The meaning was that he lived near a
+waterfall that poured out of the Ice mountain, and that his name was
+Hall-mund, _hall_ is a stone and _mund_ is the hand.
+
+Grettir and he parted good friends; and as he rode away Hall-mund called
+out to Grettir that he would remember this meeting, and as it ended in
+friendliness he hoped to do him a good turn yet,—that when every other
+place of refuge failed he was to seek him "by the Caldron’s side, where
+the waters rush and fall, adown the crystal glacier wall" under
+Ball-jokull, and there he would give him shelter.
+
+After this Grettir went to the house of his friend the law-man Skapti,
+and asked his advice, and whether he would house him for the ensuing
+winter.
+
+"No, friend," answered Skapti, "you have been acting somewhat lawlessly,
+laying hands on other men’s goods, and this ill becomes a well-born man
+such as you.  Now, it would be better for you not to rob and reive, but
+get your living in other fashion, even though it were poorer fare you
+got, and sometimes you had to go without food.  I cannot house you, for
+I am a law-man, and it would not be proper for me who lay down the law
+to shelter such a notorious law-breaker as yourself.  But I will give
+you my advice what to do.  To the north of the Erick’s-jokull is a
+tangle of lakes and streams.  The lakes have never been counted they are
+in such quantities, and no one knows how to find his way among them.
+These lakes are full of fish, and swarm with birds in summer.  There is
+also a little creeping willow growing in the sand, and some scanty
+grass.  It is only one hard day’s ride over the waste to Biarg, so that
+your mother can supply you thence with those things of which you stand
+in absolute need, as clothing, and you can fish and kill birds for your
+subsistence, and will have no need to rob folk and exact food from the
+bonders, thereby making yourself a common object of terror and dislike.
+One more piece of advice I give you—Beware how you trust anyone to be
+with you."
+
+Grettir thought this advice was good—only in one point was it hard for
+him to follow.  He was haunted with these fearful dreams at night which
+followed the wrestle with Glam, and in the long darkness of winter the
+dreadful eyes stared at him from every quarter whither he turned his, so
+that it was unendurable for him to be alone in the dark.
+
+Still—he went.  He followed up the White River to the desert strewn with
+lakes from which that river flowed, and there found himself in utter
+solitude and desolation.
+
+A good map of Iceland was made in 1844, and on that fifty-three lakes
+are marked, but the smaller tarns were not all set down.  In such a
+tangle of water and moor Grettir might be in comparative security.  He
+settled himself on a spot of land that runs out into the waters of the
+largest of the sheets of water, which goes by the name of the Great
+Eagle Lake, and thereon he built himself a hovel of stones and turf, the
+ruins of which remain to this day, and I have examined them.
+
+
+
+
+                            *CHAPTER XXVII.*
+
+                       *ON THE GREAT EAGLE LAKE.*
+
+
+    _The Ruins of the Hut—Erick’s-jokull—A Craving for
+    Companionship—A Traitor—Grim Tries to Kill Grettir—Redbeard
+    Undertakes the Task—Redbeard’s Stratagem—A Base Fellow—Grettir
+    sinks to the Bottom—Caught in his own Trap—Grettir attacked by
+    Thorir—The Attack Baffled—The Guardian of Grettir’s Back—A
+    Summer with Hallmund_
+
+
+Grettir was settled now on the Great Eagle Lake.  This lake is shaped
+like the figure 8, only that the spot of land between the upper and
+lower portion of the lake does not run quite across. On one side of this
+spot the rock falls away precipitously into the water, whereas it slopes
+on the other. If I had had a spade and pick, and if there had been more
+grass on the moor so as to allow of a longer stay, I would have dug
+about the foundations of Grettir’s hut, and, who can tell!  I might
+perhaps have found some relic of him.  There is no record of anyone else
+having inhabited it since he was there, and in the middle of the 13th
+century, when the Saga of Grettir was committed to writing, there
+remained the ruins of his hut, but no one lived at the place.  Now there
+is no human habitation for many miles; the lake was a day’s journey on
+horseback from the nearest farm, where I had spent the night.  You must
+get some idea of the place where now for some years Grettir was to live.
+
+The moor is made up of rock split to fragments by the frost, and with
+wide tracts between the ridges of rock strewn with black volcanic ash
+and sand.  It lies high; when I camped out there at the end of June,
+there was no grass visible, only angelica shoots, and a little trailing
+willow, so that my horses had to feed on these.  The willow does not
+rise above the surface of the ground, but its roots trail long distances
+under the surface, groping for nutriment; and for fuel one has to dig
+out these roots with one’s fingers, and employ those which are dryest.
+Every dip in the moor is filled with a lake, and every lake has in it a
+pair of swans; in addition there are abundance of other wild fowl, and
+on the moor are ptarmigan that live on the flowers of the whortle or
+blae-berry.
+
+Above the rolling horizon of moor, to the south rises the great snowy
+dome of Erick’s-jokull.  This is in reality a huge volcano, with
+precipitous sides of black lava towering up like an immense giant’s
+castle.  The great crater has been choked up with the snow of centuries,
+and the snow in falling had piled up a vast cupola of snow and ice
+standing high above the black walls, and sliding and falling over the
+edges in a succession of avalanches.  When, at eleven o’clock at night,
+I looked out of my tent at Erick’s-jokull, the scene was sublime.  The
+sun had just gone under the northern horizon of snow and hill, but shone
+on the great dome of Erick’s-jokull, turning it to the purest and most
+delicate rose colour, and the walls of upright basalt that sustained the
+dome were of the purple of a plum.  Grettir obtained nets and a boat
+from home, and such things as he wanted for his hut.  One great
+advantage of his present situation was that three different roads or
+rather tracks led to it from Biarg, so that those who wanted to come to
+him from home could select their way and avoid observation, till they
+got among the lakes, when they were in a labyrinth in which anyone might
+easily be lost, and any one could escape a pursuer. It is true that it
+was a long and arduous day’s ride from Biarg to the Eagle Lake, but the
+whole of the course along each of the ways lay through uninhabited land.
+
+Now, when other outlaws heard that Grettir was on the Eagle Lake Heath,
+they had a mind to join themselves to him, and Grettir was not unwilling
+to have a companion, so lonely did he feel on this waste, and also so
+fearful was he of being by himself in the dark.
+
+There was a man called Grim, who was an outlaw; and Grettir’s enemies
+made a bargain with him, that he should go to the Eagle Lake Heath,
+pretend to be friends with Grettir, seek opportunity, and kill him. They
+on their side undertook, if he would do this, to get his sentence of
+outlawry reversed, and to furnish him liberally with money.
+
+Accordingly he went to the moor, and after some trouble, found Grettir,
+and asked if he might live with him.
+
+Grettir replied, "I do not much relish such company as yours, for you
+have got into outlawry through very infamous deeds.  I mistrust you;
+nevertheless I will suffer you to remain if you work hard and be
+obedient. I do not want idle hands here."
+
+Grim said he was willing, and prayed hard that he might dwell there, and
+carried his point.  He remained with Grettir the whole of the winter;
+there was not much friendship between them.  Grettir mistrusted him all
+along, and was never parted from his weapons, night or day, and Grim did
+not venture to attack him whilst he was awake.
+
+But one morning, when Grim came in from fishing, he went into the hut
+and stamped his foot and made a noise, seeing that Grettir lay in his
+bed asleep; and he was desirous to know how soundly he slept. Grettir
+did not start and open his eyes, but lay quite still.  Then Grim made
+more noise, thinking that if Grettir were awake he would chide him; but
+Grettir made no motion.  Then Grim made sure that he was fast asleep,
+and he stepped to his side.  Now, the short sword that had been taken
+out of the barrow of Karr the Old hung above the bed-head.  Grim leaned
+over Grettir and laid hold of the sword, and put both hands to it to
+draw it out of the sheath. At that instant Grettir started up, caught
+Grim round the waist and flung him backwards so that he was stunned, and
+the sword fell from his hand.  So Grettir made him confess that he had
+been bribed to set on him and murder him.  And then Grettir would have
+no more of him, and resolved to live entirely alone.  Yet—directly he
+was alone, his dreams, and his horror of the dark, returned on him. Now,
+Thorir of Garth heard of an outlaw named Thorir Redbeard, a very big
+man, who for murder had been outlawed, and was therefore in hiding
+somewhere.  Thorir of Garth sent out messengers in search of him, and at
+last brought about a meeting, and then he offered him a great deal of
+money if he would kill Grettir.  Redbeard said it was no easy task, for
+that Grettir was wise and wary.
+
+"It is because it is no easy task that I set you to do it," said Thorir
+of Garth.  "You are no milksop to do easy jobs."
+
+This flattered Redbeard, and he undertook to do what was required.  He
+came out on the Eagle Lake Heath in the autumn after that winter when
+Grim had been with Grettir and made the attempt on his life.  Grettir
+was feeling uneasy and troubled, as the days grew shorter, with the eyes
+that he thought stared at him from every quarter, and although his
+judgment prompted him to refuse hospitality to Redbeard, yet his dread
+of being alone in the dark induced him to disregard his doubts.  So he
+reluctantly admitted Redbeard to be an inmate of his cot.
+
+"Now, mind this," said Grettir.  "I let a man be with me here last
+winter, and he lay wait for my life.  If I find that you are false, then
+I shall not spare you."
+
+Redbeard said he wished for nothing else; and so Grettir received him,
+and found him to be a very powerful man, and so energetic that he was of
+the greatest assistance to Grettir.
+
+Redbeard was with him all that winter (1019-1020) and found no occasion
+on which he could take Grettir unawares.  Then set in the next winter
+1020-1021, and Redbeard had begun to loathe his life on the heath, and
+no wonder, for he saw no one save Grettir; the cold and desolation of
+the spot was surpassingly wretched.  Now he became impatient to kill
+Grettir and get away.
+
+One night a great storm broke over the moor whilst he and Grettir were
+asleep.  The roar of the wind woke Redbeard and he ran outside the hut,
+down to the water-side, and with a huge stone he smashed the
+fishing-boat, so that it sank; and the oars and bits he had broken off
+he threw away into the lake.  So did he with the nets.
+
+When he came in Grettir was awake also, and he asked how fared the boat.
+
+"She has broken from her mooring," answered Redbeard, "and has been
+dashed to bits on the rocks."
+
+Then Grettir jumped up, and taking his weapons ran out to the end of the
+spit of land on which his hut was built, and saw how the nets were
+drifting in the waves and were entangled with the oars.
+
+"Jump in, swim out, and bring them to shore," said he to Redbeard.  The
+man shook his head and answered:
+
+"I can do anything save swim.  I have not held back from any other work
+you have set me, but swim I cannot."
+
+Then Grettir laid his weapons down by the waterside and prepared to jump
+in.  But he mistrusted Redbeard, so he said, "I will get in the nets, as
+you cannot; but I trust you will not deal treacherously by me."
+
+Redbeard answered, "I should be a base fellow and unworthy to live if I
+were false to you now—after you have housed me so long."
+
+Then Grettir put off his clothes, and went into the water, and swam out
+to the nets.
+
+He swept them up together and brought them towards the land, and cast
+them up on the bank; but the moment he attempted to land Redbeard caught
+up the short sword, drew it hastily and ran at Grettir and smote at him,
+just as he was heaving himself up out of the water.  The blade would
+have cut into his neck, or between his shoulder-blades, had not Grettir
+instantly let go, and fallen backwards into the water and sunk like a
+stone.  Sinking thus headlong he reached the bottom, and instead of
+rising to the surface again he clung to the rocks under water, and
+groped his way along as close as he could to the bank, so that Redbeard
+might not see him till he had reached the back of the creek and got
+aland.
+
+Now, Redbeard stood at the end of the promontory, looking into the
+water, much puzzled.  He had not cut Grettir with the sword, and yet
+Grettir was gone down, and did not rise.  He thought he must have struck
+his head against a stone, and so have sunk, and he looked out into the
+water wondering where and when he would rise.  Meanwhile Grettir had
+come ashore behind him and was approaching stealthily.  Redbeard was
+unaware of his danger till Grettir had his arms about him, had heaved
+him over his head and dashed him down on the rocks, so that his skull
+was broken.  After that Grettir resolved not to take another outlaw into
+his house, though he could hardly endure to be alone.
+
+Thorir of Garth did not hear of the death of Redbeard till next summer
+at the great assize; and then he was so angry, and so resolved to make
+an end of Grettir, that he collected a body of resolute men, his
+servants and others whom he hired for the purpose, to the number of
+nearly eighty, to sweep the Eagle Lake Heath and take and kill Grettir.
+
+One day, when Grettir was out on the moor, he saw a large body of armed
+men riding towards the lake.  He had time to fly to a hill that rises at
+a little distance, where there is a rift in the rock that traverses the
+top of the hill.  When I read the account in the saga I could not quite
+understand what follows, but no sooner was I on the spot than all
+appeared quite clear.  One could see, at once, that Grettir, taken by
+surprise, would run to this very spot and no other.  It was the nearest
+available place of vantage, with stone and crag.  The situation was not
+the best that might have been chosen, as it left Grettir’s back
+unprotected; however, he had no time to seek a better.
+
+[Illustration: GRETTIR ATTACKED IN THE RIFT BY THORIR’S PARTY.]
+
+Thorir came with his men to the bottom of the hill, and shouted to
+Grettir and taunted him.
+
+Grettir replied, "Though you may have put the spoon to your lips you
+have not swallowed the broth."
+
+Then Thorir egged on his men to go up the slope at Grettir, but this was
+not easy.  It was steep, and the rocks were close on either side so that
+Grettir could not be surrounded.  Only one man could get at him from
+before at once.  Several attempts were made, but all failed; some of the
+assailants were killed, some wounded.  Then Thorir broke up his party
+into two, and sent one detachment round to the back of the rocks, to
+fall on Grettir from behind. Grettir saw the manoeuvre, and did not see
+how to meet it.  All he could do would be to sell his life dearly.  He
+could not hold out long when assailed simultaneously from before and
+behind.
+
+Thorir bade the attack slacken till he thought those sent to the rear
+would be ready, and then he ordered a grand, and, as he believed, a
+combined assault.  Grettir fought with desperation, expecting every
+moment to be cut down from behind, but to his surprise and that of
+Thorir he was left unmolested in the rear.
+
+Thorir called off his men, and went round the hill to inquire why the
+attack from behind had not taken place.  To his amazement he came on a
+discomfited party bleeding, faint, and baffled, and to find that twelve
+men had fallen in it.[#]
+
+
+[#] At the time, or rather shortly after I had been on the spot, I
+wrote, "There is a nook like a sentry-box in the side of the cleft, and
+it was in this that Hallmund ensconced himself, so that he could hew
+down anyone who attempted to pass through this cleft to get at Grettir’s
+back, whilst remaining himself screened from observation. I could not
+understand the saga account before I saw the spot, and how it was that
+those attacking Grettir from behind did not see Hallmund. The sight of
+the place made all plain."
+
+
+Then he bade a retreat.  "Oft," he said, "have I heard that Grettir is a
+man of marvel for prowess, but I never knew before that he was a wizard,
+and able to kill as many at his back as he does in front of him."
+
+When he numbered his men, Thorir found that he had lost eighteen.  Then
+he and his retinue rode away, and they carried on them many and grievous
+wounds.
+
+Now Grettir was no less perplexed with the event than was Thorir, and
+when the latter had withdrawn he went through the rift in the rocks to
+see why he had not been fallen on from the rear,—and he lighted on a
+tall strong man leaning against the rocks, sore wounded.
+
+Grettir asked his name, and the tall man replied that he was Hallmund.
+
+"Do you remember meeting me on the heath one day?" asked the wounded
+man, "when you tried to stop my horse, and I pulled the reins through
+your hands so as to skin the palms’?  Then I promised if I had the
+chance to back you up."
+
+"Indeed," said Grettir, much moved, "I remember that right well, and now
+I thank you with all my heart, for this day you have saved my life."
+
+Then Hallmund said, "You must now come with me, for time must drag with
+you solitary here on the heath."
+
+Grettir said he was glad to accept the offer; so they went together
+south to the Ball-jokull, and there Hallmund had a great cave, and his
+daughter, a big muscular girl, lived there with him; there the girl
+applied plasters to the wounds of her father and healed him.
+
+Grettir remained with them in the cave all the ensuing summer.  But when
+summer came to an end, he wearied of being so long in the desert, and
+longed to see and be with his fellow-men in inhabited parts once more;
+so he bade farewell to Hallmund, and went away to the west to Hit-dale
+that opens on the Marshland, through which six or seven large rivers
+flow.  Here he had a friend named Biorn living at Holm.
+
+
+
+
+                           *CHAPTER XXVIII.*
+
+                             *ON THE FELL.*
+
+
+    _The Hollow of Fairwood Fell—Above the Shale Slide—The Outlaw’s
+    Lair—The Boaster—A Dandified Warrior—Hunter and Hunted—A
+    Skin-dressing—Sadder and Wiser_
+
+
+Biorn when asked by Grettir to give him shelter declined to do so, not
+that the will was lacking, but that he had not the power to protect him.
+"You have made," he said, "enemies on all sides, and if I were to take
+you under my roof all your enemies would become mine also, and I would
+be involved in endless and bitter quarrels.  I cannot give you direct
+assistance and shelter, but indirectly I will do what I can for you.
+There is a long hill, called Fairwood Fell, that runs in front of my
+house on the other side of the river, and ends just above the marshes.
+Now, in one place there is a steep shale slide, and above this is a
+hollow through the mountain, that might very well be made into a dry and
+comfortable place of abode.  From the entrance every one who passes
+along the highway, all who come across the marshes, can be seen.  I can
+supply you with a few necessaries to fit the place up, but when there
+you must shift for yourself.  I must not risk too much by supporting
+you."
+
+Grettir consented to this.  So he went up to Fairwood Fell and built up
+the cave, and hung gray wadmal before the entrance, so that no one below
+could notice that there was anything peculiar or anyone living there.
+In this eagle’s nest among the rocks Grettir spent the time from the
+autumn of 1022 to the spring of 1024, that is, two winters. Whatever
+fuel he wanted, all he had to eat, everything he wanted, had to be
+carried up this slippery and steep ascent by him.  Down the shale slide
+he came when short of provisions, and went over the marshes to this or
+that farm and demanded or carried off, sometimes a sheep, sometimes
+curds, dried fish, in a word what he required; and a very great nuisance
+the men of the district found him.  Heartily did they wish they were rid
+of him, yet they could not drive him from his place of abode, for it was
+so difficult of access and so easy of defence.
+
+Now, some years ago, in the summer of 1862, the year after I was in
+Iceland, a very similar lair which Grettir inhabited a little later in
+the east of Iceland was explored by an Icelandic farmer.  This is his
+description of it: "The lair stands in the lower part of a slip of
+stones beneath some sheer rocks. It is built up of stones, straight as a
+line 4-3/4 ells long and 10 inches wide, and is within the walls 7/8 of
+an ell deep.  Half of it is roofed over with flat stones, small thin
+splinters of stone are wedged in between these to fill up the joints,
+and these are so firmly fixed that they could not be removed without
+tools. One stone in the south wall is so large that it requires six men
+to move it.  The north wall is beginning to give way.  On the outside
+the walls are overgrown with black lichen and gray moss."
+
+Something like this was the den of Grettir on the Fairwood Fell, but it
+was less built up, as he had the natural rock for two of the sides and
+for the roof.
+
+Whilst Grettir was there, there came a ship into harbour, in which was a
+man named Gisli, a merchant, very fond of wearing smart clothes, and an
+inordinately vain man.  He heard the farmers talking about Grettir, and
+what a vexation it was to them to have him in their neighbourhood.
+
+"Don’t talk to me about Grettir," said Gisli; "I’ve had battles with
+harder men than he.  I hope he may came in my way, that I may dress his
+skin for him."
+
+The farmer to whom he said this shook his head. "You don’t know of whom
+you are speaking.  If you were to kill him you would be well off,—six
+marks of silver were set on his head, and Thorir of Garth has added
+three more, so that there stand on him nine marks of silver."
+
+"All things can be done for money," said Gisli; "and as I am a merchant
+I’ll see to it.  And when we meet—I’ll dress his skin for him."
+
+The farmer said it would be well not to talk about the matter.  Gisli
+agreed.  "I will abide this winter in Snowfell-ness," he said.  "If his
+lair is on my road thither I’ll look out for him, and dress his skin as
+I go along."
+
+Now, whether he talked in spite of the caution given him, or whether
+some one overheard what he said, who was a friend of Biorn of Holm, is
+uncertain.  Any how Gisli’s threat reached the ears of Biorn, who at
+once warned Grettir to be on his guard against the merchant.
+
+"If he comes your way," said Biorn, "teach him a lesson; but don’t kill
+him."
+
+"No," said Grettir with a grim smile, "I’ll merely dress his skin for
+him."
+
+Now it happened one day that Grettir was looking out of the entrance to
+his lair, when he saw a man with two attendants riding along the
+highway.  His kirtle was of scarlet, and his helmet and shield flashed
+in the sun.  Then it occurred to him that this must be the dandified
+Gisli, of whom he had heard, so he came running down the shale descent
+to the road. He reached the man, and at once he went to his horse,
+clapped his hand on a bundle of clothes behind the saddle, and said,
+"This I am going to take."
+
+"Nay, not so," answered Gisli, for it was he. "You do not know whom you
+are addressing."
+
+"Nor do I care," said Grettir.  "I have little respect for persons.  I
+am in poor and lowly condition myself, so low that I am driven to be a
+highway robber."
+
+Then Gisli drew his sword, and called to his men to attack Grettir, who
+gave way a little before them. But he soon saw that Gisli kept behind
+his servants, and never risked himself where the blows fell; so Grettir
+put the two churls aside with well-dealt strokes, and went direct upon
+the merchant, who, seeing that he was menaced, turned and took to his
+heels.  Grettir pursued him, and Gisli in his fear cast aside his
+shield, then, a little further, threw away his helmet, and so as he ran
+he cast away one thing after another that he had with him.  There was a
+heavy purse of silver at his girdle.  This encumbered him, and as he ran
+he unbuckled his belt and dropped it and the purse with it.  Grettir did
+not purposely come up with him; he could have outstripped him had he
+willed, but he let the fellow run a couple of horse lengths before him.
+The end of the Fell is above an old lava bed that has flowed from a
+crater called Eldborg or the Castle of Fire, and like an old ruined
+castle it looks.  Gisli ran over this lava bed, jumping the cracks, then
+dived through a wood of birch that intervened between the lava and the
+river Haf.  The stream was swollen with ice, and ill to ford.  Gisli
+halted hesitating before plunging in, and that allowed Grettir to run in
+on him, seize him and throw him down.
+
+"Are you the Gisli who were so eager to meet Grettir Asmund’s son?"
+asked the outlaw.
+
+"I have had enough of him," gasped the fallen man.  "Keep my saddle-bags
+and what I have thrown away, and let me go free."
+
+"Hardly yet," said Grettir grimly.  "I think something was said about
+skin-dressing, that is not to be overlooked."
+
+Then Grettir drew him back to the wood, took a good handful of birch
+rods, pulled Gisli’s clothes up over his head, and laid the twigs
+against his back in none of the gentlest fashion.  Gisli danced and
+skipped about, but Grettir had him by his garments twisted about his
+head and neck, and continued to flog till the poor fellow threw himself
+down on the ground screaming.  Then Grettir let go, and went quietly
+back to his lair, picking up as he went the purse and the belt, the
+shield, casque, and whatever else Gisli had thrown away, also he had the
+contents of his saddle-bags.
+
+Gisli never came back to Fairwood Fell to ask for them.  When he got on
+his legs he ran up the river to where it was not so dangerous, swam it,
+and reached a farmhouse, where he entreated to be taken in.  There he
+lay a week with his body swollen and striped; after which he went home,
+and much was he laughed at for his adventure with Grettir.
+
+
+
+
+                            *CHAPTER XXIX.*
+
+                       *THE FIGHT ON THE RIVER.*
+
+
+    _Angry Farmers—A Large Band of Men—The Marshmen are Driven
+    Back—The Attacking Party Reinforced—Fighting in
+    Desperation—Wearied but Unwounded—The Song of Victory_
+
+
+Now, whilst Grettir was on Fairwood Fell, favoured by Biorn of Hit-dale,
+his presence after a while became unendurable to the bonders who lived
+in the marshes.  He had been for two winters in his den on the hill, and
+when they saw that he intended to remain there a third winter, and rob
+them of sheep and whatever he needed, then they took counsel together
+how they might rid themselves of the annoyance.
+
+One day in the winter of 1023, Grettir came down from his place of
+vantage, and went over the marshes to a farm called Acres, and drove
+away from it two bullocks fit for slaughtering, and several sheep, and
+he had got on with them some way over the marshes, on his way to his
+lair, before the farmer at Acres was aware of his loss; he had taken six
+wethers beside from another farm named Brookbend. This angered the
+farmers greatly, and they sent a message to the chief man of the
+district, Thord at Hitness, and urged him to waylay Grettir before he
+could reach his den.  Thord shrank from doing anything; however, they
+pressed him so much that at last he consented to let his son Arnor go
+with them.  Then messengers were sent throughout all the country side,
+to every farmer who was concerned.  And it was so planned that two
+bodies of men should march to the taking of Grettir, one on the right,
+the other on the left bank of the Hit River, so as to take him for
+certain.
+
+Grettir was soon aware that the country was roused.  He was not alone,
+he had two men with him—one the son of the farmer at Fairwood Fell, with
+whom he was on good terms, the other a farm-servant. They advised him to
+desert the cattle and sheep and run for it, cross the river and take
+refuge in his place of vantage; but this Grettir was too proud to do.
+
+Presently he could see coming on behind him a large band of men, about
+twenty in all, under Thorarin of Acres and Thorfin of Brookbend.  Now,
+as these were pursuing him over the marshes, up the opposite side of the
+river came Arnor, the son of Thord of Hitness, and with him a farmer
+named Biarni of Jorvi.
+
+Grettir managed to reach the river before his enemies came up with him,
+and he had also time to secure a place of vantage.  This was a ness of
+rock that ran out into the river, or round which the river swept, so
+that he was protected by the water on all sides but one.  Grettir said
+to the two men with him, that they must guard his back, see that none
+came up the sides in his rear, and then he took his short-sword in both
+his hands, planted his feet wide apart on the rock, and prepared to sell
+his life dear.
+
+The party headed by Thorarin of Acres and Thorfin of Brookbend came up,
+twenty in all,—but more were coming, for Thorarin had begun the pursuit
+before all the farmers were collected, and he knew that a body of some
+twenty or thirty more would arrive before long.  Thorarin himself was an
+old man, and he did not enter into the fray, but urged on his men.
+
+The fight was hard.  Grettir was not easily reached where he stood, and
+he smote at all who approached.  Some of the Marshmen fell, and several
+were wounded.  In vain did they attempt to dislodge him by combined
+rushes, he drove them over the edge into the water, or cut them down
+with his sword.  At last his arm was weary, and he called to the
+farmer’s son to step into his place.  He did so, and held the ground
+valiantly, whilst Grettir rested.  Then the party drew back,
+discomfited.  At that moment up came the fresh body of men under Thrand,
+the brother of Thorarin of Acres, and Stonewolf of Lavadale.  These
+egged on their men eagerly, and they thought they would obtain an easy
+victory, for Grettir had been fighting for some time, and was weary.
+
+Then Thorarin of Acres called out and advised delay.
+
+"For," said he, "the third party of men under Arnor and Biarni of Jorvi
+have not come up on the other side of the river."
+
+This piece of advice was rejected by the newcomers.  What did they want
+with more men? They were a large party, fresh and untired, and Grettir
+had but two men with him, and they were wearied with fighting.  So the
+signal was given for the onslaught.
+
+Then Grettir saw that he must either jump into the river, swim across,
+and desert the sheep and bullocks he had driven there, or use almost
+superhuman exertions to defend himself.
+
+His position was, indeed, desperate; for, even if he did hold his own
+against this second body of men, a third was on its way up the other
+bank of the river to intercept him on his way up to the Fell.  For one
+moment he hesitated, and then was resolved.  No, he would not run.  He
+would die there, and die only after having strewn the ground with his
+foes.  Foremost among his assailants was Stonewolf of Lavadale, and
+Grettir made a sudden rush at him, and with a tremendous stroke of his
+sword he clove his head down to the shoulders. Thrand, who sprang
+forward to avenge him, Grettir struck on the thigh, and the blow took
+off all the muscle, and he fell, crippled for life.  Then Grettir fell
+back to his place of safety, and dared others to come on.  They sprang
+out on the neck of rock, but would not meet his weapon, one after
+another fell or was beaten back.
+
+Then Thorarin cried out, and bade all draw off.
+
+"The longer ye fight," said he, "the worse ye fare.  He picks out what
+men among you he chooses."
+
+The party withdrew, and there were ten men fallen, and five had received
+mortal wounds, or were crippled; and hardly one of the two parties was
+without some hurt or other.
+
+Grettir, moreover, was marvellously wearied, but had received no wounds
+to speak of.
+
+Now, hardly had the men withdrawn, carrying their dead and wounded, than
+up came the third detachment under Arnor and Biarni, on the other side
+of the river.  There can be no question but that, had they crossed and
+fallen on Grettir, he could not have defended himself longer, so
+overcome was he with weariness; but Arnor knew that his father had
+entered on the matter reluctantly, and he was discouraged by the
+ill-success of the other companies. Consequently, he neither waded
+through the river at the ford, a little higher, nor did he maintain his
+ground and cut off Grettir’s retreat.  Instead, he withdrew with all his
+men, and left Grettir to recover his strength, and cross and escape to
+the Fell. This conduct of Arnor provoked much comment; and he was
+accused of cowardice, an accusation that clung to him through life.
+Even his father rebuked him, for the father saw what discredit he had
+brought upon himself.
+
+The point on the river Hit where this affray took place is still shown;
+and is called Grettir’s-point to this day.
+
+When the fight was over Grettir and the two men went to the Fell, and as
+they passed the farm the farmer’s daughter came out of the door, and
+asked for tidings.
+
+Then Grettir sang:—
+
+    "Brewer of strong barley-corn,
+    Pourer forth of drinking-horn,
+    Lo! to-day the Stonewolf fell,
+    Ne’er again his head be well.
+    Many more have got their bane,
+    Many in their blood lie slain;
+    Little life has Thorgils now,
+    After that bone-breaking blow.
+    Eight upon the river’s bank
+    In their gore expiring sank."
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER XXX.*
+
+                          *A MYSTERIOUS VALE.*
+
+
+    _The Dome of Snow—Cold Dale—A Fair Valley—The Mottled Ewe—With
+    Thorir and his Daughters—The Stone on Broad-shield—Thorir’s
+    Cave_
+
+
+In the spring of 1024 Grettir went away from Fairwood Fell; for he had
+been there so long, and had preyed for such a time on the bonders of the
+marshes, that he himself saw that it would be best for him to remove
+into quite another part of the island.  So he visited his friend
+Hallmund once more, under the ice of Ball-jokull, and Hallmund advised
+him where to go.  He could not give him hospitality himself that winter,
+because his stock of goods was run so short that it would hardly suffice
+for his daughter and himself; but he told him of a valley unknown to
+anyone, save a friend of his called Thorir and himself.  And he informed
+him how it was to be reached.
+
+Now, as already said, there are passes in Iceland between the several
+blocks of ice mountains, and such a pass exists between Goatland-jokull
+and a curious domed snowy mountain called Ok.  The pass is called the
+Cold Dale, because it lies for many hours ride between ice mountains,
+and under the precipitous Goatland-jokull, whose rocks are crowned with
+green ice that falls over incessantly in great avalanches.  It is seven
+hours’ ride from one blade of grass to another through that dale.  I
+went through it on midsummer-day, and saw the bones of horses lying
+about that had died unable to get through; perhaps becoming lame or
+exhausted on the way.
+
+Half through this long trough of the Cold Dale stands up a buttress of
+rock, or rather a sort of ness, projecting from Goatland-jokull, so
+precipitous that hardly any snow rests on it, and this is called the
+Half-way Fell.
+
+Now, Hallmund told Grettir he must go through the Cold Dale till he
+reached the Half-way Fell, and there he must strike up over the snow and
+glaciers of Goatland-jokull, due south, and he would all at once drop
+into a valley known to few.
+
+So Grettir went up the moor till he struck the White River, that flowed
+out of the Eagle Lakes he knew so well, and under the cliffs and icy
+crown of Erick’s-jokull, then he climbed over broken trachyte rocks for
+several hundreds of feet, till he found himself in the Cold Dale, and
+along that he trudged till he had reached Half-way Fell, standing up
+like a wall as though to stop the pass.  There he turned to the left,
+and as at this point Goatland is no longer precipitous, but slopes in a
+series of steps to the Cold Dale, he climbed up through the snow, a long
+and tedious ascent, till he stood on the neck of the mountain, and there
+he saw that the snow slopes fell away rapidly to the south, and he
+descended and soon beheld before him a valley in which were a great many
+boiling springs that threw up clouds of steam, and he saw also, what
+greatly pleased him, that there was rich and abundant grass in this
+valley. This is what the saga says: "The dale was long and somewhat
+narrow, locked up by glaciers all round, in such a manner that the ice
+walls overhung the dale.  He scrambled down into it, as best he could,
+and there he saw fair hillsides grass-grown and set with bushes.  Hot
+springs were there, and it appeared to him that it was the earth-fires
+which prevented the ice walls from closing in on the valley.  A little
+river ran down the dale, with level banks.  The sun rarely shone into
+the valley; but the number of sheep there could hardly be reckoned, they
+were so many; and nowhere had he seen any so fat and in such good
+condition."
+
+Grettir did not see Thorir, Hallmund’s friend, at first; so he built
+himself a hut of such wood as he could get, and with turf.  He killed
+the sheep he wanted, and found that there was more meat on one of them
+than on two elsewhere.
+
+The Saga says:—
+
+"There was one ewe there, brown mottled, with a lamb, and she was a
+beauty.  Grettir killed the lamb, and took three stone of suet off it,
+the meat was some of the best he had ever eaten.  But when the mottled
+ewe missed her lamb, she went up on Grettir’s hut every night, and
+bleated so plaintively as to trouble his sleep, and made Grettir quite
+troubled that he had killed her lamb."
+
+Now Grettir noticed that at evening the sheep ran in one direction, and
+once or twice he heard a call; so he went after the sheep one evening,
+and was led by them to the hut where Thorir dwelt.  He was a strange
+man, who had spent so many years away from the society of his fellow-men
+as not to care any more to meet them, so he did not welcome Grettir very
+warmly.  However he had three daughters, and they were glad to have
+someone to talk to, and as the winter crept on Thorir himself became
+more amiable, and so the winter did not pass as drearily as Grettir had
+feared it would.  He sang his songs and related stories, and the party
+played draughts with knuckle-bones of sheep.
+
+When spring came, however, he was fain to go; and he did not leave by
+the way he came, but followed the little river, and it led him out
+between rock and glaciers into a piece of desert, covered with lava beds
+that have poured out of a volcano, or rather two that stand opposite
+this entrance to Thorir’s valley.  These two volcanoes are quite unlike
+each other, though side by side, one, called Hlothu-fell has upright
+walls, like Erick’s-jokull, and a crater filled up and brimming over
+with ice; but the other Skialdbreith, or the Broad-shield, is like a
+conical round silver shield laid on the ground. The entrance to Thorir’s
+Dale is completely hidden by a round snowy mountain that blocks it, and
+then a second snowy mountain stands further out in front of the opening,
+so that not a sign of any valley can be seen from anywhere.
+
+So difficult did Grettir think it would be to find it, that he ascended
+on Broad-shield and set up a stone there with a hole in it, so that
+anyone looking through this hole would see directly into the narrow
+entrance of Thorir’s Dale.  This stone still stands where Grettir had
+placed it; but has sunk on one side, so that by looking through the hole
+the eye is no longer directed to the entrance.
+
+No one had ever visited Thorir’s Dale since Grettir left it till the
+year 1654, when it was explored by two Icelandic clergymen, and an
+account of their expedition in Icelandic is to be found in the British
+Museum.[#]  The valley as far as I know has not been explored since.  It
+is marked on the map of Iceland, but apparently from the description
+left by the two clergymen, not from any visit made to it by the
+map-maker.
+
+
+[#] I have given a translation of it in my _Curiosities of Olden Times_,
+London, Hayes, 1869.
+
+
+When the two men visited the valley they went to it in the same way as
+did Grettir.  They found no hot springs, and the valley was utterly
+barren; but then they had no time to descend it, they only looked down
+on it from above.  They found the cave with a door, and a window to it,
+which was probably the habitation of Thorir and his daughters.
+
+
+
+
+                            *CHAPTER XXXI.*
+
+                        *THE DEATH OF HALLMUND.*
+
+
+    _Grim’s Fish Disappear—The Thief Wounded and Tracked—Death of
+    Hallmund_
+
+
+Now, there was a man called Grim, who was an outlaw for his ill-deeds,
+and he thought that as Grettir no longer abode in his hut on the Eagle
+Lake, he might go there and occupy it.  This did not please Hallmund,
+for Grettir had left him his nets, and he was wont to fish in the lake.
+
+Grim had supplied himself with nets, and he one day caught a hundred
+char, large red-fleshed fish, delicious eating; so he piled them up
+outside his hut.  Next morning to his great surprise all his char had
+disappeared.  Then he went fishing again, and caught even more fish, and
+he brought them to land, and heaped them up as before.
+
+Next morning they also had disappeared.
+
+He could not understand it; so he fished again, and had on this occasion
+extraordinary luck: he must have netted nearly three hundred fish.  He
+brought them home, and put them in the same place as before; but he did
+not go to sleep this time: he remained within, and watched his store
+through a peep-hole in the door.
+
+During the night he heard someone who trod heavily coming along the
+ness, and then he saw a man picking up his fish, and putting them into a
+basket he had on his back.  Grim watched till he had filled the basket,
+which he now heaved upon his shoulders.  Instantly Grim threw open the
+door, rushed out, and whilst the man was still stooping adjusting his
+load, he swung up a very sharp axe he held, holding it in both hands,
+and smote at the man’s neck.  The axe hit the basket, and that somewhat
+broke its force, but it glanced aside and sank into the shoulder.  Then
+the man started aside, and set off running with the basket to the south,
+skirting a lava field that had flowed out of Erick’s-jokull, and which
+now goes by the name of Hallmund’s Lava-bed.
+
+Grim ran after him, and saw that he was making for Ball-jokull; but the
+man, who was of great size and strength, though wounded and losing
+blood, ran on, and did not stay till he reached a cave in the face of
+the cliff, above which was the ice, and with long icicles hanging over
+the front.  Into this he entered.  There was a fire burning inside, and
+a young woman sitting by it.
+
+Grim heard her welcome the man, and call him her father, and name him
+Hallmund.  He cast his basket of fish down, and groaned aloud.
+
+Then the girl saw that blood was flowing from him, and she asked him
+what had happened.
+
+Hallmund told what had befallen him, and said that he was wounded to the
+death, and that he trusted Grettir would avenge him, for he had no other
+friend to do so.
+
+After that Hallmund began a lay, and sang the history of his life, the
+achievements he had wrought, and he sang on till his breath failed, and
+either he was unable to finish his lay, or Grim could not remember all
+of it.  A good deal, however, of Hallmund’s death-song has been retained
+and is given in the saga.
+
+But Hallmund’s hope or expectation that Grettir would avenge him was
+disappointed, for Grim managed to get away from Iceland, and did not
+return to it again during the lifetime of Grettir.
+
+
+
+
+                            *CHAPTER XXXII.*
+
+                 *OF ANOTHER ATTEMPT AGAINST GRETTIR.*
+
+
+    _Thorir raises a Party against Grettir—Grettir plays the
+    Herdsman—A Daring Trick—Thorir a Laughing-Stock_
+
+
+Now, during the summer, tidings came to Thorir of Garth that Grettir was
+somewhere about on Reekheath in the north-east.  There was his lair
+which was examined a few years ago, and which remains in tolerable
+condition, as already mentioned when his lair at Fairwood Fell was
+described.  Now, Thorir of Garth, when he got this tidings was resolved
+to make another attempt to kill him; and no wonder, for with singular
+audacity Grettir had come into his neighbourhood.  Grettir no doubt
+thought that he had preyed long enough on men who had not harmed him,
+and that now he would prey on the goods and cattle of the man who had
+made an outlaw of him, and who pursued him with such remorseless
+hostility.  Thorir gathered a number of men together and went in pursuit
+of Grettir. Grettir was not at that time in his den but out on the moor,
+and he was near a mountain-dairy that stood back somewhat from the
+wayside, and there was another man with him, when they spied the party
+of Thorir, all armed, coming along.  They had not been observed, so they
+hastily led their horses into the shed attached to the dairy, and
+concealed themselves.  Thorir came along, went to the dairy, looked
+about to see if anyone were there who could inform him if Grettir had
+been seen, noticed only a couple of horses tied up, but supposed they
+belonged to the farmer whose summer dairy this was, and, without looking
+further, went on.
+
+As soon as Thorir and his band had gone out of sight, Grettir crept from
+his place of hiding, and said to his companion:
+
+"It is a pity they should have come such a ride to see me, and should be
+disappointed.  You watch the horses, and I will go on and have a word
+with them."
+
+"You surely will not be so rash?" exclaimed the other man.
+
+"I cannot let them come all this way without exchanging words with me,"
+said Grettir, and leaving the horses under the care of his comrade, he
+strode away over the moor to a place where he was sure he could be
+observed.  Now, Grettir had a slouched hat on and a long staff in his
+hand, and at the dairy he had found some clothes belonging to the
+herdsman usually there, and these he had put on.
+
+Directly Thorir and his party saw a man with a staff striding about on
+the moor they rode to him. None of them knew Grettir’s face, for,
+indeed, they had not been given the chance.  So they thought this great
+rough man was the herdsman, and they asked him if he had seen the outlaw
+Grettir.
+
+"What sort of man is he?" asked Grettir.  "Is he armed?"
+
+"Armed indeed is he, with a casque on his head, a long sword, and also a
+short one in his girdle."
+
+"Is he riding?"
+
+"Most certainly he is."
+
+"Then," said Grettir, "you had better get you along after him due south;
+he has gone that way not so long agone."
+
+When they heard this Thorir and his party struck spurs into their
+horses, put them into a gallop, and away they went as hard as they could
+in the direction indicated.  Now, Grettir knew the country very well,
+and he was well aware that south of where he stood were impassable bogs.
+Thorir and his fellows were too eager in pursuit to attend to the nature
+of the ground over which they rode; besides, they thought that if
+Grettir had ridden that way they could ride it as well.  They were
+speedily mistaken, for in they floundered into a bottomless morass; some
+of the horses were in to their saddles; the men got off and got out with
+difficulty, and they had much ado to get their horses out at all.
+Indeed, some were wallowing there more than half the day. Many curses
+were heaped on the churl who had befooled them, but they could not find
+him when the went after him to chastise him.
+
+Grettir hastened back to the dairy, mounted his horse, and rode to Garth
+itself, whilst the master was floundering in the bog.  As he came to the
+farm he saw a tall, well-dressed girl by the door, and he asked who she
+was.  He was told this was Thorir’s daughter.  Then Grettir sang a stave
+to her, the meaning of which was that he who came there was the man whom
+Thorir was vainly pursuing.
+
+Much laughter was occasioned by this failure of Thorir to take Grettir
+when he was in his own neighbourhood, and by his being so deceived and
+befooled by Grettir when he had him in his power.
+
+
+
+
+                           *CHAPTER XXXIII.*
+
+                            *AT SANDHEAPS.*
+
+
+    _A Deadly Enemy—In the Service of Steinvor—The Way to
+    Church—Crossing the Quivering Flood—The Priest’s Caution—A Weird
+    Tale—The Old Hag—The Stream-churl—Steinvor’s Husband’s Death—The
+    Foundation of the Story—The Troll-woman of Grettir—The Basaltic
+    Troll-wife—The Search under Goda-foss—Grettir’s Dive—The Fight
+    with the Stream-churl—Runes of the Fight—A Bag of Bones_
+
+
+The summer was passing away, and Grettir could not remain without
+shelter through the winter; so he considered what was best to be done.
+He could not ask any farmer in the north-east to shelter him, because
+they were all afraid of Thorir of Garth, who would have pursued with
+implacable animosity the man who befriended and housed the outlaw.
+Moreover, Thorir had his spies everywhere, and Grettir found he had to
+shift quarters repeatedly to escape his deadly enemy.
+
+Now, when the first snows fell Grettir sent his man away with his horses
+across country to Biarg, and he went further away from where Thorir was;
+but never stayed long anywhere, nor gave his real name.  He had no
+relatives in this part of the island, and no friends.
+
+Now, a little before Yule—that is Christmas—he came to a farm called
+Sandheaps, on that river which is called the Quivering Flood.  This farm
+belonged to a widow woman called Steinvor, who had recently lost her
+husband.
+
+Grettir came and offered his services; he said his name was Guest, that
+he was out of work, and that he had come there because he heard she was
+short of hands.
+
+Steinvor looked at him, and saw that he was a very powerfully-built man,
+and that there was a certain dignity and nobility in his face; so she
+accepted him, against the opinion of the rest in the house, who were
+frightened at the appearance of Grettir, and did not know what to make
+of him, whether he were an ordinary human being or a wild man, half
+mountain-goblin or troll.
+
+It came to pass on Christmas-eve that the widow Steinvor was very
+desirous to go to church, but the church was on the further side of the
+river, and there was no bridge.
+
+Grettir heard Steinvor lament that she could not go to church, so he
+said bluntly: "You can go.  I will attend you and see you over the
+water."
+
+Then she made ready for worship, and took her little daughter with her.
+Now, at times the river froze hard across, and then it was possible to
+cross on the ice.  At other times it might be traversed at a ford.  But
+when Grettir came to the side of the Quivering Flood, it was plain to
+him that by the ice the water could not be crossed.  For there had been
+a rapid thaw, and now the river was overflowed and very full of water;
+and, moreover, it was rolling down great masses of ice.
+
+When Steinvor saw the condition of the river, she said, "There is
+plainly no way across for horse or man."
+
+"I suppose there is a ford somewhere," said Grettir.
+
+"Yes," answered Steinvor, "there is a ford at this place; but I do not
+see how it is to be traversed."
+
+"I will carry you across," said Grettir.
+
+"Carry over the little maiden first," said the widow.  "She is the
+lightest."
+
+"I don’t care about making two journeys when one will suffice," answered
+Grettir.  "Come, jump up; I will carry you in my arms."
+
+[Illustration: FORDING THE QUIVERING FLOOD.]
+
+The widow crossed herself, and said, "That will never do.  How can you
+manage such a burden?"
+
+But without more ado Grettir caught up Steinvor on his arm, and then he
+picked up the little girl and set her on her mother’s lap, and strode
+into the water; they were on his left arm, but he kept the right free.
+They were so frightened that they durst not cry out.  He waded on in the
+river, and the water foamed up to his breast; and then he saw a great
+ice-floe coming bearing down upon him.  He put out his right hand, gave
+the mass of ice a thrust, and it was whirled past them by the current.
+Then he waded further, and the water washed about his shoulders, and
+that was the deepest point.  After that the river shallowed, and he bore
+the mother and child safely to the shore and set them down.
+
+Now Grettir turned to go back, and he took up a great stone and set it
+on his head, and so waded back.  If he had tried to go through the water
+without a stone he would have been washed away; but the great stone on
+his head enabled him to stand firm and resist the current of the water.
+Those who have not been through an Icelandic river can hardly imagine
+the intensity of the cold.  I have ridden through these rivers, my horse
+swimming under me, and when I reached the further side have thrown
+myself off and lain on the sand for a quarter of an hour before I could
+recover from the numbness caused by the deadly cold; for some of these
+rivers are as broad as the Thames at London Bridge, and the water is
+milky because full of undissolved snow.
+
+When Steinvor reached the church every one was astonished to see her,
+and asked how she had managed to get across the Quivering Flood.  But
+when the priest heard the story, he called Steinvor aside, and said:
+
+"Mind and do not say too much about your new man; do not talk about his
+strength, and set folk a-wondering who he may be.  I have my own
+opinion, and I think you will do well to house him, and say nothing to
+anyone about his being in any way remarkable."
+
+And now there comes into the saga of Grettir a story which is certainly
+untrue, but how it comes in can be made out pretty easily.
+
+The real truth was, as the saga writer confesses, that Grettir remained
+hidden at Sandheaps all that winter, and no one in the country round
+knew that he was there.  But then, the saga writer did not feel
+satisfied with such a dull winter, in which nothing happened; so, to
+fill out his story and say something interesting, he worked into his
+history a wonderful tale.  The story, which I tell in my own words, is
+this:—
+
+
+
+                    *The Story of the Stream-Troll*
+
+
+There is on the Quivering Flood some miles below Sandheaps a mighty
+foss, or waterfall.  The whole river pours over a ledge in a thundering,
+magnificent cascade.  The stream in the middle is broken by an island.
+You can hear the roar of the falling water for a long way around, and
+see the spray thrown up from the fall like a cloud or column of steam
+rising high into the air.  This waterfall is called Goda-foss, and was
+long supposed to be the finest in the island; but there is another,
+which I was the first to see, on the Jokull-river, called Detti-foss,
+which is infinitely finer, but which is in a region of utter desert of
+sand and volcanic crater, many miles from any human habitation.
+
+It happens that there is a curious black lava rock standing near the
+river, higher up than the fall, which bears a quaint resemblance to an
+old woman, and this stone is called The Old Hag; and the story goes that
+it is a troll-woman turned to stone.
+
+Now, you must know that throughout Norway and Iceland, and, indeed,
+wherever the Scandinavian race is found, a superstition exists that
+every river has its spirit, that lives in the river; and it was held
+that these river-spirits demanded a sacrifice of a human life, at least
+once a year.  If a sacrifice were not given to them, then they took some
+man or woman, when crossing the water, and carried the victim away.  And
+in heathen times there can be no doubt whatever that human sacrifices
+were offered to every river; generally an evildoer or a prisoner was
+thrown in and drowned, to propitiate the Stream-churl, as he was called,
+so that he should not snap at and carry off other and more valuable
+lives.  Wherever there was a cataract, there the Stream-churl was
+believed to live, hidden away behind the curtain of falling water.  If
+the stream was small, then this spirit or demon was small; if, however,
+it were a mighty river, then the spirit was a great troll or giant.
+Even to this day in Iceland and Norway, the ignorant and superstitious
+believe that there are these Stream-churls, and tell stories about them,
+and cannot but suspect that, when anyone is drowned, it is the
+Stream-churl exacting his toll.
+
+Now, it is quite certain that Steinvor, although she was a Christian,
+believed in there being a great Stream-churl living under Goda-foss; and
+as she had lost her husband and one of her servants who had been drowned
+in the Quivering Flood, she held that they had been carried off by the
+Troll of the waterfall.
+
+There had been, as it happened, something mysterious about the death of
+Steinvor’s husband.  Two years before Grettir came to Sandheaps, on
+Christmas-eve, he had disappeared.  She had gone off to see some friends
+at a distance, and when she returned home next day she heard that her
+husband had not been seen—he was gone, and not a trace of him remained.
+It occurred to her that in all probability he had gone across the river
+to church, and had been carried off by the river—that is, by the
+Stream-churl. But she could be certain of nothing, and she was greatly
+distressed because she could not give his body burial.  A year passed
+and not a word about her husband could she hear.  His body had not be
+found anywhere washed up by the river, supposing he had been drowned.
+
+Next year she lost one of her men-servants in the same way.  He
+vanished, and none knew how or whither he had gone.  If he had run away,
+she would probably have had tidings of him; but she heard none, and his
+body was also never found.
+
+I have no doubt that she told Grettir about this, and also that she
+believed that the Stream-churl who lived under Goda-foss had carried off
+both her husband and the servant.  I believe also that, to satisfy her,
+Grettir undertook to look, and that he actually dived under the fall,
+and came up and searched between the sheet of falling water and the
+rock, and found—nothing.
+
+That is the foundation of a wonderful story which has found its way into
+the saga.  It did not satisfy those who told the tale of Grettir that he
+should have spent the winter at Sandheaps and done nothing—that he
+should have dived under Goda-foss and found nothing.
+
+So by degrees old nursery tales got mixed up with this incident about
+Grettir’s search for the Stream-churl, and all was worked into a
+wonderful story, which you shall hear.
+
+On that night on which Grettir had carried Steinvor across the river, he
+returned to the farm, and lay down in his bed.
+
+When midnight arrived, then a great din was heard outside, and presently
+the hall door was thrown open and in through it came a gigantic woman, a
+Troll-wife, with a trough in one hand and a huge chopper in the other.
+
+As she entered she peered about her, and saw Grettir where he lay, and
+she ran at him.  Then he jumped up and went to meet her, and they fell
+a-wrestling terribly, and struggled together so furiously, that all the
+panelling of the hall side was broken.
+
+She was the stronger, and she dragged Grettir towards the door, and
+forth towards the entrance, in spite of all his efforts.  She had got
+him as far as the entrance, when there he made a final struggle, and in
+the struggle the door-posts and fittings were torn from their place, and
+fell outwards.
+
+Then the Troll-woman laboured away with him towards the river, and right
+down towards the gulfs.
+
+Grettir was exceedingly weary, yet he saw that his only chance was to
+make a last effort, or be flung by her over the edge into the deep,
+boiling river.
+
+All night they contended in such fashion, and ever was he drawing nearer
+to the edge.  But just as she was preparing to fling him into the water,
+he got his right hand free, and he swiftly seized his short-sword, and
+struck off her arm; and at that moment the sun rose, and the Troll-woman
+was turned into stone.  There she stands with her amputated arm-socket,
+as a mass of black basalt or lava to this day.
+
+If the reader will recall the story of Grettir’s struggle with Glam at
+Thorod’s-stead, in the valley of Shadows, he will see that this is only
+the same story over again almost in every particular,—except that the
+first fight was with a man, and this is with a woman.  The reason why
+this story was concocted and put in here, was to account for the stone
+figure which stands by the river, and which is called the Troll-wife.
+So far the story carries its character on its face.
+
+Now we will go on to the next part of the tale. It did not satisfy
+people that Grettir should have dived under Goda-foss and found nothing,
+so the story was thus told:
+
+When the goodwife, Steinvor, came from church, she thought that her
+house had been rudely handled; so she went to Grettir and asked him what
+had occurred.  Then he told her all, and she prayed him to go and make a
+search for her husband’s bones, under Goda-foss.
+
+Grettir consented, but he asked that the priest might be sent for.  His
+name was Stone.  Steinvor sent for him, and Stone was curious to know
+whether his suspicions about this stranger were true.  So he asked him
+questions, but Grettir answered that if the priest wanted to know who he
+was, he must find out.  The priest laughed at the story of the
+Troll-wife, and said he did not believe a word about the struggle.
+
+Then Grettir said, "Well, priest, I see that you have no faith in my
+tale; now I propose that you accompany me to Goda-foss, and we will
+search for the Troll himself, and see if we can recover the bones of
+Steinvor’s husband."
+
+The priest, Stone, agreed, and they went together to the side of the
+waterfall, and they had a rope with them.
+
+Stone shook his head, and he said, "It would be too risky for anyone to
+venture down there."
+
+"I will go," said Grettir.  "But you mind the rope."
+
+The priest drove a peg into the sward on the cliff, and heaped stones
+over it, so as to make the end firm, and then he seated himself by the
+heap.
+
+Then Grettir made a loop in the end of the rope, and put a stone through
+the loop, and threw the stone down, and the end of the rope went to the
+bottom of the gulf.
+
+"How are you going down?" asked Stone.
+
+"I shall dive," said Grettir.
+
+Then he stripped, but girt on a short-sword, and so leaped off the cliff
+into the foss.  The priest saw only the soles of his feet as he went
+into the water, and then saw no more.
+
+Now, Grettir had gone in below the fall, and he dived and went under the
+curtain of water and came up near the rock.  The whirlpool below the
+falls was so strong that he had a desperate struggle with the water
+before he could reach the rock.
+
+When he rose, he saw that the water fell over a lip of rock, quite
+clear, and that in the face of the rock was a cavern, and that smoke
+issued from this cave, and mingling with the spray and foam passed away,
+and was not discerned beyond.
+
+Grettir climbed over the stones into the cave, and there he saw a great
+fire flaming from amidst brands of drift-wood; and there was the
+Stream-churl seated there, a great Troll with a hideous face.  When he
+saw Grettir he roared and jumped up, and caught a glaive that was near
+him, and smote at the newcomer.  Grettir hewed back at him with his
+short-sword, and smote the handle of the glaive and broke it.  Then the
+giant stretched back for a sword that hung up to a peg against the side
+of the cave, but as he was thus leaning back Grettir smote him across
+the breast, and cut through to the ribs, and gashed open his belly.  The
+blood poured forth out of the cave and mingled with the stream.  When
+the priest saw the bloody foam beneath the fall, he was so frightened
+that he ran away, for he made sure that Grettir was dead.
+
+Grettir remained in the cave, standing across the giant, till he had
+killed him.  Then he took up a flaming brand and searched the cave
+through.  He found nothing more than dead men’s bones, and these he put
+together into a bag, threw that over his shoulder, and went again into
+the water.
+
+He rose beyond the foss and looked up, but could see nothing of the
+priest; so he caught the rope, and by means of that he swarmed up to the
+top of the cliff.
+
+Then he sat down, and with a sharp knife he cut runes on a staff.  And
+what he wrote was this:
+
+    "Down into the gulf I went,
+    Where the rocks are widely rent;
+    Where the swirling waters fall
+    O’er the black basaltic wall;
+    Where, with voice of thunder, leap
+    In the foaming darkling deep.
+    There the stream with icy wave
+    Washes the grim giant’s cave."
+
+He had cut as much as he could on one stick, so now he took another, and
+on that he cut:
+
+    "Dreadful dweller in the cave
+    Underneath the falling wave,
+    Fierce at me he brandished glaive;
+    Full of rage at me he drove,
+    Desperate we together strove.
+    Lo!  I smote his halft in twain,
+    Lo!  I smote and he was slain,
+    Bleeding from each riven vein."
+
+
+Then Grettir carried the bag of bones and the staves to the church, and
+laid them in the porch.
+
+Next morning when the priest came to the church he found the bag of
+bones and the staves.
+
+Such is the story.
+
+Now, it is clear that a good bit of it is simply transferred from the
+story of Grettir going down into the cairn of Karr the Old.
+
+The real truth of the tale is no more than what has been stated, that
+Grettir went under the waterfall and found nothing.  It is, of course,
+possible that he may have hoaxed the priest; but I think it more
+probable that all this marvellous matter is simply tacked on to one
+simple fact, and that it was taken, partly from the story of Grettir in
+the barrow of Karr, and partly from that of his struggle with Glam.
+
+What the saga writer does admit is that the versions of the story do not
+quite agree, and that—in spite of this wonderful achievement, folks did
+not know that Grettir was at Sandheaps that winter.
+
+
+
+
+                            *CHAPTER XXXIV.*
+
+                    *HOW GRETTIR WAS DRIVEN ABOUT.*
+
+
+    _Thorir comes too Late—The Needle of Basalt—The Island of
+    Drangey—The Terrors of the Dark—Brother holds to Brother_
+
+
+After a while rumours reached Thorir of Garth that either Grettir, or
+someone very like Grettir,—a tall, powerful man with reddish hair, and
+one who gave no account of whence he came,—was lodging at Sandheaps, and
+Thorir made ready to go there after him.  Fortunately Grettir, or rather
+the housewife Steinvor, heard of his intention, and so Grettir made off
+out of the valley of the Quivering Flood before Thorir came there in
+quest of him.
+
+He escaped to Maddervales, in the Horg-river Dale.  This is a noble
+valley of the Horg River, with chains of snowy peaks on each side, of
+peculiar shape, barred with precipices of basalt, on which lie slopes of
+snow.
+
+Some way up this valley are some very remarkable spires of basaltic
+rock, one of which that is like a needle is said to have been climbed by
+Grettir whilst staying in this valley.  It is not so said in the saga,
+but I was told so on the spot, and the tale goes that when he climbed to
+the top he slipped his belt round the needle, and there it hangs round
+it still—but no one has been up since to find if it be there where he
+left it.
+
+He could not remain long there, for Gudmund the Rich, who was farmer at
+Maddervales, was afraid to house him for long.  Thorir of Garth would
+come and burn his house if he harboured Grettir.  However, he kept him
+for some little while, and then he gave him advice what he should do.
+
+It had come to such a pass with Grettir now that no one dared to shelter
+him for long, and Thorir had spies everywhere to inform him where
+Grettir was.
+
+Gudmund the Rich said to Grettir: "You can find no safety anywhere that
+men dwell; for if there be not treachery, yet the news flies about that
+you are there.  So I advise you to go where you shall be alone."
+
+"Where shall I go?" asked Grettir.  "I am hunted like a dog."
+
+"There is an island," answered Gudmund, "lying in the Skagafirth, called
+Drangey.  It is a place excellent for defence, as no one can reach it
+without a ladder.  If you could get upon Drangey, no one could come on
+you unawares.  You would see anyone who came by boat to the island, and
+you could pull up a rope-ladder, without which no one would be able to
+ascend."
+
+"I will try that," said Grettir; "but I have become so fearsome in the
+dark that not even at the risk of my life can I endure to be alone."
+
+"Well," said Gudmund, "that is my counsel. Trust none but yourself.
+Treachery lies where least expected."
+
+Grettir thanked him for his advice, and went away west to see his
+mother.  And he was most joyfully welcomed by her and his young brother
+Illugi at Biarg.  There he remained some nights—not many; for Ramsfirth
+was only over a brow of hill, and the tidings of his return home was
+sure in a few days to reach the relatives of Oxmain, when he would again
+be set on.
+
+I said, after giving an account of Grettir’s adventure at
+Thorhall’s-stead with Glam, that there must have been something of fact
+in that story, and not pure fiction; and now it has been seen how that
+event coloured and affected his whole after life, leaving his nerves so
+shaken, that he could not drive off the impression then made on him, and
+he was ready to run serious risks rather than be subject to the terrors
+that came on him in the dark when alone.
+
+He told his mother and Illugi how it was with him, and how that he had
+been advised to go to Drangey, but that he could not; he dare not, in
+the long winter night, be on that lonely islet by himself.
+
+Then Illugi his brother said, "Grettir, I will be with you."
+
+"Brother holds to brother as hand clasps hand," answered Grettir, and so
+they parted.  All that summer he wandered about in wild places, shifting
+his quarters repeatedly, and living how he could.
+
+
+
+
+                            *CHAPTER XXXV.*
+
+                             *ON THE ISLE.*
+
+
+    _Illugi will go to Drangey—Asdis gives Consent—Asdis prophesies
+    Woe—Within Sight of Drangey—Glaum becomes Grettir’s
+    Servant—Thorwald rows Grettir to Drangey—Thorbiorn Hook—The
+    Bonders visit the Island—Grettir in Possession—An Inaccessible
+    Spot_
+
+
+When summer was now over, and the first snow of winter began to fall,
+when the days were rapidly shortening, and the sun had gone out of the
+north to the south, where it began to move in a rapidly narrowing arc,
+Grettir returned to Biarg and remained there a while.  "But," says the
+saga, "so great grew his fear in the dark that he durst go nowhere as
+soon as dusk set in."  We can see that the many years strain on his
+nerves had broken them.  Hunted about as a wild beast, always forced to
+be on his guard, never able to sleep without fear of being murdered in
+his sleep, the trial had told on him.  This was now the winter of 1028.
+He was aged but thirty-one; his strength of body was not abated, only
+his nervous force.  He had been in outlawry altogether fifteen years,
+three for the slaying of Skeggi, then he had been outlawed by King Olaf
+in 1016.  On his return to Iceland he had been outlawed in 1017; this
+was the eleventh year of his outlawry at the suit of Thorir of Garth, an
+outlawry not only unjust, but according to general opinion illegal,
+because he had been tried and sentenced in his absence, and without any
+witnesses having been called to establish his guilt—condemned on hearsay
+evidence, and he never allowed to defend himself.
+
+Now Illugi, Grettir’s sole surviving brother, was aged fifteen, and was
+a very handsome, honest-looking boy.
+
+"Grettir," said he, "you know what I said.  I will go with you to
+Drangey, if you will take me. I know not that I will be of much help to
+you, but this I know, that I will be ever true to you, and will never
+run from you so long as you stand up. Besides, I shall like to be with
+you, for here at home we are ever in anxiety for news about you, always
+fearing the worst; but if I am at your side, I shall know how you fare."
+
+"I would rather have you with me than anyone else," answered Grettir.
+"But I cannot take you unless our mother consent."
+
+Then said Asdis, "Now I can see that I have the choice of evils.  I can
+ill spare Illugi; yet I know your trouble, Grettir, and that something
+must be done for you.  It grieves me, my sons, to see you both leave me;
+yet I will not withhold my youngest from you, Grettir.  It is right that
+brother should help brother."
+
+That rejoiced Illugi.  Then Asdis gave her sons what things she thought
+they might want on the island, and they made them ready to depart.
+
+She led them outside the farm inclosure, and then she took farewell of
+them, saying, "My two sons! There you depart from me, and I dreamed last
+night that you left me for ever, and would fall together. What is fated
+none may fly from.  Never shall I see you again, either of you.  Be it
+so, that one fate overtake you both.  In my dream I saw your bones
+whitening on Drangey.  Be careful and watchful. My dreams have troubled
+me greatly.  Above all beware of witchcraft.  None can cope with the
+craft of the old."
+
+When she had said this she wept sore.
+
+Then said Grettir, "Weep not, mother, for if we be set on with weapons
+it will be said of thee that thou hadst men and not girls for thy
+children.  Live on well, and be hale."
+
+So they parted.  Grettir and Illugi went to their relatives and visited
+them, never, however, staying long in any place, and so on by Swine
+Lake, a long sheet of water in a shallow basin, to the Blend River. This
+river is of the colour of milk and water, because it is so full of
+undissolved snow, and milk and water is called Bland, _i.e._ Blend, in
+Icelandic.  Another river enters it that is called the Black Stream,
+because of the dark colour of the water.  Grettir turned up the valley
+of the Black River and then over a pass by a pretty lake lying in a
+mountain lap, down into a broad marshy valley in which are three or four
+rivers, and boiling springs pouring forth clouds of steam on the
+hill-slopes.  The valley is commanded by a beautiful mountain peak,
+called the Measuring Peak, because the natives thereabouts reckon
+distances from it.
+
+Grettir and Illugi went down this valley till they reached the sea, and
+now there opened before them a glorious view of the fiord, extending out
+north about forty miles, and from ten to fifteen miles across, between
+mountains and precipitous cliffs.  A little way back from the eastern
+shore stood up the Unadals Jokull, crowned with perpetual snows and with
+glaciers rolling down the sides, and on the west, close to the sea,
+seeming to rise in a wall out of it and running up into fantastic peaks,
+was the range of Tindastoll, famous for its cornelians and agates and
+other precious stones.  In the offing, fifteen miles out, right in the
+midst of the fiord, stood up the isle of Drangey with sheer cliffs,
+about which the sea perpetually danced and foamed.
+
+Grettir and Illugi skirted the shore on the west. The wind was blowing
+cold, and snow was driving before it, as they passed a farm.  The farmer
+stood in his door, and saw a great man stride by with an axe over his
+shoulder, his hood thrown back, and his wild red hair blowing about in
+the gale.  "Verily," said the farmer, "that must be a strange fellow not
+to cover his head with his hood in such weather as this."  Near this
+little farm the brothers stumbled upon a tall, thin man, dressed in rags
+and with a very big head.  They asked each other’s names, and the fellow
+called himself Glaum.  He was out of work, and he went along with the
+brothers chatting, and telling them all the gossip of the neighbourhood.
+Then Glaum asked if they were in want of a servant, and Grettir gladly
+accepted him, and the man became thenceforth his constant attendant. But
+the fellow was a sad boaster, and most people thought him both a fool
+and a coward.  He was not fond of work, and he spent his time strolling
+about the country picking up and retailing news.
+
+Grettir and his brother and Glaum reached a farm called Reykir as the
+day closed in, where was a hot spring in the farm paddock.  The farmer’s
+name was Thorwald; and Grettir asked him to put him across in a boat to
+Drangey.  Thorwald shook his head and said, "I shall get into trouble
+with those who have rights of pasturage on the island. I had rather
+not."
+
+Then Grettir offered him a bag of silver which his mother had given him,
+and at the sight of this, Thorwald raised his eyebrows and thought that
+he might perhaps do what was asked.  The distance was just five miles.
+
+So on a moonshiny night Thorwald got three of his churls and they rowed
+Grettir and the two who went with him over.  On reaching his destination
+Grettir was well pleased with the spot, for it was covered with a
+profusion of grass, and the sides were so precipitous that it seemed a
+sheer impossibility for anyone to ascend it without the aid of the
+rope-ladder that hung from strong staples at the summit. In summer the
+place would swarm with sea-birds, and at the time there were eighty
+sheep left on the island for fattening.
+
+A good many farmers had rights of pasturage on the island.  Hialti of
+Hof was one, whose brother’s name was Thorbiorn Hook, of whom more
+hereafter. Another was Haldor, who lived at Head-strand; he had married
+the sister of these brothers.  Biorn, Eric, and Tongue-stone were the
+names of three others.
+
+Thorbiorn Hook was a hard-headed, ill-disposed fellow.  His father had
+married a second time, and there was no love lost between the stepmother
+and Thorbiorn.  It is said that one day as The Hook was sitting at
+draughts, she passed, and looking over his shoulder laughed, because he
+had made a bad move. Thorbiorn Hook thereupon said something abusive and
+insulting; this so enraged her that she snatched up a draught-man, and
+pressing it against his eye-socket, drove the eyeball out.  He started
+to his feet, and with the draught-board struck her over the head such a
+blow that she took to her bed, and died of the injury.  The Hook now
+went from bad to worse, and leaving home settled at Woodwick on the
+fiord, a small farm.  It will be understood from this story that he was
+a violent and brutal fellow, and that, indeed, the life in his father’s
+house had not been of an orderly description.
+
+As many as twenty farmers claimed rights to turn out their sheep on
+Drangey in summer.  The way they managed it is the way still employed by
+their successors.  They take the sheep out in boats, and then put them
+over their shoulders, with the feet tied under their chins, and so they
+climb the rope-ladder, carrying the sheep up on their backs. Though all
+these farmers claimed rights on Drangey, The Hook and his brother had
+the largest share, that is to say, the right to turn out more sheep than
+the rest.
+
+Now, about the time of the winter solstice, that is just before Yule,
+the bonders made ready to visit the island, and bring home their sheep
+for slaughtering for the Christmas feasting.  They rowed out in a large
+boat, and on nearing the island were much surprised to see figures
+moving on top of the cliffs.  How anyone had got there without their
+knowledge puzzled them, for Thorwald had kept his counsel, and told no
+one what he had done for Grettir.  They pulled hard for the
+landing-place, where hung the ladder, but Grettir drew it up before they
+landed.
+
+The bonders shouted to know who were on the crags, and Grettir, looking
+over, told his name and those of his companions.  The farmers then asked
+how he had got there? who had put him across?
+
+Grettir answered, "If you very much wish to know, it was not one of you
+below now speaking to us.  It was someone else, who had a good boat and
+a pair of lusty arms."
+
+"Let us fetch our sheep away," called the bonders, "then you come to
+land with us.  We will not make you pay for the sheep you have eaten,
+and we will do you no harm."
+
+"Well offered," answered Grettir; "but he who takes keeps hold; and a
+bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.  Believe me, I will not leave
+this island till the time of my outlawry is expired, unless I be carried
+from it dead."
+
+The bonders were silenced, it seemed to them that they had got an ugly
+customer on Drangey, to get rid of whom would be no easy matter; so they
+rowed home, very ill-satisfied with the result of their expedition.
+
+The news spread like wildfire, and was talked about all through the
+neighbourhood.  Thorir of Garth was the more embittered, because he
+could see no way in which Grettir could be reached and overmastered in
+this inaccessible spot.
+
+
+
+
+                            *CHAPTER XXXVI.*
+
+                      *OF GRETTIR ON HERON-NESS.*
+
+
+    _Grettir goes to Heron-ness—At the Games—The Hook’s
+    Challenge—Amongst Strangers—The Oath of Safe-conduct—An old
+    Formula—A Surprise for the Bonders—Regretting the Oath—The two
+    Brothers—Grettir returns to Drangey_
+
+
+Winter passed, and at the beginning of summer the whole district met at
+an assize held on the Herons’-ness, a headland in the Skaga-firth,
+between the rivers that discharge into the fiord. It is, in fact, the
+seaward point of a large island in the delta of the river that divides
+about eight miles higher up, inland.  The gathering was thronged, and
+the litigations and merry-makings made the assize last over many days.
+Grettir guessed what was going on by seeing a number of boats pass to
+the head of the fiord.  He became restless, and at last announced to his
+brother that he intended being present at the assize, cost what it
+might.  Illugi thought it was sheer madness, but Grettir was resolute.
+He begged his brother and Glaum to watch the ladder and await his
+return.
+
+Now, Grettir was on very good terms with the farmer at Reykir, and with
+some others on that side of the firth, and they were not unwilling to
+help him.  Sometimes his mother sent things to the brothers that she
+thought they would need, and then there were not wanting men to take
+these over to the island.  So Grettir got put across by his friend
+Thorwald to the mainland, and he borrowed of him a set of old clothes,
+and thus attired he went along the coast boldly to Heron-ness.  He had
+on a fur cap, which was drawn closely over his eyes, and concealed his
+face, so that no one might recognize him.  Now, in parts of Iceland, the
+flies are such torments that men have to wear literally cloth helmets,
+with only nose and eyes showing, the cloth fitting tight to the head,
+and round over the ears and neck, exactly like a helmet, or a German
+knitted sledging cap.  When I was in Iceland, when the flies were
+troublesome, I put my head into a butterfly net, and buckled it round my
+neck tightly with a leather strap.  Now, Grettir’s cap was something
+like those I have described, and no one was surprised at his wearing it,
+as the whole of that valley is one vast marsh, and is infested with
+flies that blacken the air and madden men and beasts.
+
+Grettir thus attired sauntered between the booths erected on the
+headland, till he reached the spot where games were going on.
+
+Now, Hialti and Thorbiorn Hook were the chief men in these sports.  Hook
+was specially noisy and boisterous, and drove men together to the
+sports, and whether men liked it or not, he insisted on their
+attendance.  He would take this man and that by the hands and drag him
+forth to the field, where the wrestling and other games went on.
+
+Now, first wrestled those who were weakest, and then each man in turn,
+and great fun there was. But when most men had tried their strength
+except the very strongest, it was asked who would be a match for Hialti
+and The Hook.  These two being the strongest and the roughest of all,
+went round inviting each man in turn to wrestle with them, but all
+declined.
+
+Then Thorbiorn Hook, looking round, spied a tall fellow in the shabbiest
+and quaintest of suits, sitting by himself, speaking to no one.
+Thorbiorn walked up to him, laid his hands on his shoulders and asked
+him to wrestle.
+
+The man sat still, and The Hook could not drag him from his seat.
+
+"Well!" exclaimed The Hook, "no one else has kept his place before me
+to-day.  Who are you?"
+
+"Guest," answered Grettir shortly.
+
+"A wished-for guest thou wilt be, if thou furnish some entertainment to
+the company," said Thorbiorn Hook.
+
+Grettir answered, "I am indisposed to make a fool of myself before
+strangers.  How am I to know, supposing that I give you a fall, that I
+shall not be set upon by you or your kindred, and be unfairly treated?"
+
+Then many exclaimed that there should be fair play.
+
+"It is all very well your saying Fair-play now; but will you say
+Fair-play, and stick to it, supposing I get the better of this man.  You
+are all akin, or friends, and I am a stranger to you all."
+
+Again he was assured that no one would resent what he did.
+
+"But see," said Grettir, "I have not wrestled for many years, and have
+lost all skill in the matter."
+
+Yet they pressed him the more.
+
+Then he said, "I will wrestle with whom you will, if you will swear to
+show me no violence so long as I am among you as a guest."
+
+This all agreed to, and an oath of safe conduct was made, the form of
+which is so curious that it must be given.
+
+A man named Hafr recited the terms of the oath, and the rest agreed to
+it.
+
+"Here set I peace among all men towards this man Guest, who sits before
+us, and in this oath I bind all magistrates and well-to-do bonders, and
+all men who bear swords, and all men whatsoever in this district,
+present or absent, named or unnamed. These are to show peace to, and
+give free passage to the aforenamed stranger, that he may sport,
+wrestle, make merry, abide with us and depart from us, without stay,
+whether he go by land or flood. He shall have peace where he is, in all
+places where he may be till he reaches his house whence he set out, so
+long and no longer.
+
+"I set this treaty of peace between him and us, our kinsmen male and
+female, our servants and children.  May the breaker of this compact be
+cast out of the favour of God and good men, out of his heavenly
+inheritance and the society of just men and angels.  May he be an
+outcast from land to its farthest limits, far as men chase wolves, as
+Christians frequent churches, as heathen men offer sacrifices, as flame
+burns, earth produces herb, as baby calls its mother, and mother rocks
+her child; far as fire is kindled, ships glide, lightnings flicker, sun
+shines, snow lies, Finns slide on snow-shoes, fir-trees grow, falcons
+fly on a spring day with a breeze under their wings; far as heaven
+bends, earth is peopled, winds sweep the water into waves, churls till
+corn; he shall be banished from churches and the company of Christian
+men, from heathen folk, from house and den, from every house—save hell!
+Now let us be agreed whether we be on mountain or shore, on ship or
+skate, on ground or glacier, at sea or in saddle, as friend with friend,
+as brother with brother, as father with son, in this our compact.  Lay
+we now hand to hand, and hold we true peace and keep every word of this
+oath."
+
+Now, this formula is very curious.  It must have been brought by the
+Icelandic settlers with them from Norway, for parts of it are
+inappropriate to their land.  There are no Finns there, nor do fir-trees
+grow there, nor is any corn tilled.  But all that about Christians is of
+later origin.
+
+After a little hesitation the oath was taken by all.
+
+Then said Grettir, "You have done well, only beware of breaking your
+oath.  I am ready to do my part, without delay, to fulfil your wishes."
+
+Thereupon he flung aside his hood and garments, and the assembled
+bonders looked at each other, and were disconcerted, for they saw that
+they had in their midst Grettir Asmund’s son.  They were silent, and
+thought that they had taken the oath somewhat unadvisedly, and they
+whispered the one into another, to find if there were not some loophole
+by which they might evade the obligation to observe the oath.
+
+"Come now," said Grettir, "let me know your purpose, for I shall not
+long stand stripped.  It will be worse for you than for me if you break
+your oath, for it will go down in story to the end of time that the men
+of Heron-ness swore and were perjured."
+
+He received no answer.  The chiefs moved away; some wanted to break the
+truce, and argued that an oath taken to an outlaw was not legally
+binding; others insisted that the oath must be observed. Then Grettir
+sang:
+
+    "Many trees-of-wealth (_men_) this morn,
+    Failed the well-known well to know,
+    Two ways turn the sea-flame-branches (_men_),
+    When a trick on them is tried;
+    Falter folk in oath fulfilling,
+    Hafr’s talking lips are dumb."
+
+
+Then Tongue-stone said, "You think so, do you, Grettir?  Well, I will
+say this of you, you are a man of dauntless courage.  Look how the
+chiefs are deep in discussion how to deal with you."
+
+Then Grettir sang:
+
+    "Shield-lifters (_men_) rubbing of noses,
+    Shield-tempest-senders (men) shake beards,
+    Fierce-hearted serpent’s-lair-scatterers (_men_),
+    Lay their heads one ’gainst another,
+    Now that they know, are regretting
+    The peace they have sworn to to-day."
+
+
+In these staves a number of periphrases for men or warriors are used—and
+the use of these periphrases constitute the charm of these verses.
+
+Then Hialti of Hof burst away from the rest, and said, "No, never, never
+shall it be said of us men of Heron-ness, that we have broken an oath
+because we have found it inconvenient to keep it.  Grettir shall be at
+full liberty to go to his place in peace, and woe betide him who lays
+hand on him, to do him an injury.  But an oath no longer binds us should
+he venture ashore again."
+
+All except Thorbiorn Hook, Hialti’s brother, agreed to this, and felt
+their minds and consciences relieved, that he had spoken out as a man of
+honour.  And thus was seen how of those two brothers, rude and violent
+though both were, Hialti had some nobleness in him that was lacking in
+the other.
+
+The wrestling began by Grettir being matched with Thorbiorn Hook, and
+after a very brief struggle Grettir freed himself from his antagonist,
+leaped over his back, caught him by the belt, lifted him off his legs,
+and flung him over his back.  This is a throw called "showing the white
+mare," among Cornish wrestlers of the present day, and a very dangerous
+throw it is, for it sometimes breaks the back of the man thrown.  The
+Hook, however, picked himself up, and the wrestling continued with
+unabated vigour, and it was impossible to tell which side had the
+mastery, for, though Grettir was matched against both brothers, and
+after each bout with one brother fell to with the other, he was never
+thrown down. After all three were covered with blood and bruises the
+match was closed, the judges deciding that the two brothers conjointly
+were not stronger than Grettir alone, though they were each of them as
+powerful as two ordinary able-bodied men.
+
+Grettir at once left the place of gathering, rejecting all the
+entreaties of the farmers that he would leave Drangey.  And, so, after
+all but The Hook had thanked him for his wrestling and praised his
+activity and strength, he departed.  He was put across from Reykir to
+his island, and was received with open arms by Illugi.
+
+There now they abode peaceably, and Grettir told his brother and his
+churl Glaum the story of what had taken place at the assize, and thus
+the summer wore away.
+
+There was much talk through the island of Iceland about this adventure,
+and all good men approved the conduct of the men of the Skagafiord that
+they had kept the oath they had so inconsiderately taken.
+
+
+
+
+                           *CHAPTER XXXVII.*
+
+                          *OF HŒRING’S LEAP.*
+
+
+    _The Piebald Ram—In want of Fire—Not born to be Drowned—Thorwald
+    aids Grettir—A Stratagem—Hœring climbs the Cliff—Hœring’s Leap_
+
+
+The smaller farmers began seriously to feel their want of the islet
+Drangey for pasture in summer, and, as there seemed no chance of their
+getting rid of Grettir, they sold their rights to Thorbiorn Hook, who
+set himself in earnest to devise a plan by which he might possess
+himself of the island.
+
+When Grettir had been two winters on the island, he had eaten all the
+sheep except one piebald ram, with magnificent horns, which became so
+tame that he ran after them wherever they went, and in the evening came
+to the hut Grettir had erected and butted at the door till let in.
+
+The brothers liked this place of exile, as there was no dearth of eggs
+and birds, besides which, some drift-wood was thrown upon the strand,
+and served as fuel.
+
+Grettir and Illugi spent their days in clambering among the rocks, and
+rifling nests, and the occupation of the thrall was to collect drift
+timber and keep up the fire in the hut.  He was expected to remain awake
+and watch the fire whilst the others slept. He got very tired of his
+life on the islet, became idle, morose, and reserved.  One night,
+notwithstanding Grettir’s warnings to him to be more careful, as they
+had no boat, he let the fire go out. Grettir was very angry, and told
+Glaum that he deserved a sound thrashing for his neglect.  The thrall
+replied that he loathed the life he led; and that it seemed it was not
+enough to Grettir that he should keep him there as a prisoner, he must
+also maltreat him.
+
+Grettir consulted his brother what was best to be done, and Illugi
+replied that the only thing that could be done was to await the arrival
+of a boat from the friendly farmer at Reykir.
+
+"We shall have to wait long enough for that," said Grettir.  "The
+bonders have taken it ill that he has favoured us, and he is now
+unwilling to be seen visiting Drangey.  The only chance is for me to
+swim ashore and secure a light."
+
+"Do not attempt that!" exclaimed Illugi.  "That is what you did in
+Norway, and that led to all your misfortune."
+
+"This case is different," answered Grettir.  "Then I brought fire for
+ill-conditioned men, now it is for ourselves.  Then I knew not who was
+on the other side, but now I can get the fire for the asking from
+Thorwald."
+
+"But the distance is so great!" remonstrated Illugi.
+
+"Do not fear for me," said Grettir; "I was not born to be drowned."
+
+From Drangey to Reykir is, as already said, about five English miles.
+
+Grettir prepared for swimming, by dressing in loose thin drawers and a
+sealskin hood; he tied his fingers together, that they might offer more
+resistance to the water when he struck out.
+
+The day was fine and warm.  Grettir started in the evening, when the
+tide was in his favour, setting in; and his brother anxiously watched
+him from the rocks.  At sunset he reached the land, after having floated
+and swum the whole distance.  Immediately on coming ashore, he went to
+the warm spring and bathed in it, before entering the house.  The hall
+door was open, and Grettir stepped in.  A large fire had been burning on
+the hearth, so that the room was very warm; Grettir was so thoroughly
+exhausted that he lay down beside the hot embers, and was soon fast
+asleep.  In the morning he was found by the farmer’s daughter, who gave
+him a bowl of milk, and brought her father to him.  Thorwald furnished
+him with fire, and rowed him back to the island, astonished beyond
+measure at his achievement, in having swum such a distance.
+
+Now, the farmers on the Skagafiord began to taunt Thorbiorn Hook with
+his unprofitable purchase of the island, and Hook was greatly irritated
+and perplexed what to do.
+
+During the summer, a ship arrived in the firth, the captain of which was
+a young and active man called Hœring.  He lodged with Thorbiorn Hook
+during the autumn, and was continually urging his host to row him out to
+Drangey, that he might try to climb the precipitous sides of the island.
+The Hook required very little pressing; and one fine afternoon he rowed
+his guest out to Drangey, and put him stealthily ashore, without
+attracting the notice of those on the height.  For in some places the
+cliffs overhung, so that a boat passing beneath could not be seen from
+above.  Now Hœring had lain in the bottom of the boat, covered with a
+piece of sailcloth, so that the brothers saw nothing of him as the boat
+was approaching the islet.
+
+They saw and recognized Thorbiorn Hook and his churls, and at once drew
+up the ladder.  Now it was whilst they were watching at the
+landing-place that Thorbiorn put Hœring out on another point, where the
+cliffs seemed possible to be climbed by a very skilful man, and then
+came on to the usual landing place, and there shouted to Grettir.
+Grettir replied, and then Thorbiorn began the usual arguments to
+persuade the outlaw to leave the isle.  He promised to give him shelter
+in his house the winter, if he would do so.  All was in vain.  What he
+sought was to divert Grettir’s attention so as to allow time and
+occasion for Hœring to climb the cliffs unobserved and unresisted.
+
+The discussion went on but led to nothing.  In the meantime Hœring had
+managed most cleverly to get up by a way never ascended by man before or
+after; and when he came to the top and had his feet on the turf, he saw
+where the brothers stood with their backs turned towards him, and he
+thought that now an opportunity had come for him to make himself a great
+name.  Grettir suspected nothing, and continued talking to Thorbiorn,
+who was getting, or feigning to get, angry, and used big and violent
+words.
+
+Now, as luck would have it, Illugi chanced to turn his head, and he saw
+a man approaching from behind.
+
+Then he cried out, "Brother!  Brother!  Here comes a man at us with
+uplifted axe!"
+
+"You go after him," said Grettir.  "I will watch at the ladder."
+
+So Illugi started to his feet and went to meet Hœring, and when the
+young merchant saw that he was discovered, he fled away across the
+islet, and Illugi went after him.  And when Hœring came to the edge he
+leaped down, hoping to fall into the sea; but he had missed his
+reckoning, and he went upon some skerries over which the waves tossed,
+and broke every bone in his body, and so ended his life.  The spot is
+called Hœring’s Leap to this day.
+
+Illugi came back, and Grettir asked him what had been the end of the
+encounter.  Illugi told him.
+
+"Now, Thorbiorn," shouted Grettir; "we have had enough of profitless
+talk.  Go round to the other side of the island and gather up the
+remains of your friend."
+
+The Hook pushed off from the strand and returned home, ill pleased with
+the result of the expedition, and Grettir remained unmolested on Drangey
+the ensuing winter.
+
+
+
+
+                           *CHAPTER XXXVIII.*
+
+              *OF THE ATTEMPT MADE BY GRETTIR’s FRIENDS.*
+
+
+    _The New Law-man—The Outlawry almost at an End_
+
+
+The ensuing summer, that is to say, the summer of 1031, at the great
+annual assize at Thingvalla, all Grettir’s kin and friends brought up
+the matter of outlawry, and contended that he ought to have his sentence
+done away with.  They said that no man could be an outlaw all his life,
+that was not a condition contemplated by their laws.  They said that he
+had been outlawed first in 1011 for the slaying of Skeggi, and that he
+had been in outlawry ever since, which made nineteen years.
+
+The old law-man was dead, and now there was another at the assize, whose
+name was Stein.  He laid down that no man might by law be in outlawry
+more than twenty years.  Now, when they came to reckon since 1011 it was
+nineteen years.  It was true that he had been outlawed thrice, once for
+Skeggi, then by King Olaf, and lastly by the court for the burning of
+the sons of Thorir of Garth, still—the fact remained that for nineteen
+years he had been an outlaw, and Stein laid down that by next assize,
+that is to say in one year, his outlawry would have expired.
+
+Thereat Grettir’s kinsfolk were pleased, for they thought that he would
+only have to spend one winter more on Drangey, and afterwards his
+troubles would be at an end; Thorir of Garth and his other foes could no
+more pursue him, and the price set on his head would fall away.
+
+But on the other hand, Thorir of Garth, who had not become more
+charitable and forgiving as he grew old, became still more incensed and
+impatient to have Grettir killed before this year would expire, also
+Thorbiorn Hook cast about how he might be avenged for the deprivation of
+his rights over Drangey.  The men who had sold their claims came to
+Thorbiorn, and told him he must do one of two things: get rid of Grettir
+and assert his rights by turning out sheep on the islet, or they would
+regard the sale as quashed, by his non-usance of the pasture, and they
+would reclaim their shares of the island as soon as Grettir’s outlawry
+was at an end, and he left the place.
+
+
+
+
+                            *CHAPTER XXXIX.*
+
+                           *OF THE OLD HAG.*
+
+
+    _The Hook’s Foster-mother—The Hag’s Request—The Witch in the
+    Boat—The Hag’s Dooming—An Unlucky Throw—Working Bane—The Magic
+    Runes_
+
+
+Now it was so, that Thorbiorn Hook had a foster-mother, a woman advanced
+in age, and of a very malicious disposition.  When the people of Iceland
+accepted Christianity, she, in her heart, remained a heathen, and would
+not be baptized and have anything to do with the new religion.  She had
+always been reckoned a witch, but with the introduction of Christianity
+witchcraft had been made illegal, and anyone who had recourse to sorcery
+was severely dealt with.  The old woman had not forgotten her
+incantations and strange ceremonies, whereby she thought to be able to
+conjure the spirits of evil, and send ill on such as offended her.
+
+When Thorbiorn Hook found that he could contrive in no way to get
+Grettir out of Drangey, and when he saw that if his expulsion were
+delayed, and Grettir left of his own accord, he would forfeit the money
+he had paid for the rights of pasturage on the island, he went to his
+foster-mother, and told her his difficulty, and pretty plainly let her
+understand that as he could get help nowhere else, he did not mind
+having recourse to the black art.
+
+"Ah!" cackled she, "I see how it is, when all else fails, man’s arms and
+man’s wit, then you come to the bed-ridden crone and seek her aid.
+Well, I will assist you to the best of my power, on one condition, and
+that is, that you obey me without questioning."
+
+The Hook agreed to what she said, and so all rested till August without
+the matter being again alluded to.
+
+Then one beautiful day the hag said to Thorbiorn, "Foster-son, the sea
+is calm and the sky bright, what say you to our rowing over to Drangey
+and stirring up the old strife with Grettir?  I will go with you and
+hear what he says, then I shall be able to judge what fate lies before
+him, and I can death-doom him accordingly."
+
+The Hook answered, "It is waste of labour going out to Drangey.  I have
+been there several times and never return better off than when I went."
+
+"You promised to obey me without questioning," said the crone.  "Follow
+my advice and all will be well for you and ill for Grettir."
+
+"I will do as you bid me, foster-mother," said Thorbiorn, "though I had
+sworn not to go back to Drangey till I was sure I could work the bane of
+Grettir."
+
+"That man is not laid low hastily, and patience is needed; but his time
+will come, and may be close at hand.  What the end of this visit will be
+I cannot say.  It is hid from me, but I know very well that it will lead
+to his or to your destruction."
+
+Thorbiorn ran out a long boat, and entered it with twelve men.  The hag
+sat in the bows coiled up amongst rugs and wadmal.  When they reached
+the island, at once Grettir and Illugi ran to the ladder, and Thorbiorn
+again asked if Grettir would come to his house for the winter.
+
+Grettir made the same reply as before, "Do what you will, in this spot I
+await my fate."
+
+Now Thorbiorn saw that this expedition also was likely to be resultless,
+and he became very angry. "I see," he said, "that I have to do with an
+ill-conditioned churl, who does not know how to accept a good offer when
+made.  I shall not come here again with such an offer."
+
+"That pleases me well," said Grettir, "for you and I are not like to
+come to terms that will satisfy both."
+
+At that moment the hag began to wriggle out of her wraps in the bows.
+Grettir had not perceived her hitherto.  Now she screamed out, "These
+men may be strong, but their strength is ebbing.  They may have had
+luck, but luck has left.  See what a difference there is between men.
+Thorbiorn makes good offers, and such they blindly, foolishly reject.
+Those who are blinded and cast away chances do not have chances come to
+them again.  And now Grettir"—she raised her withered arms over her
+head—"I doom you to all ill, I doom you to loss of health, to loss of
+wisdom and of foresight.  I doom you to decline and to death.  I doom
+your blood to fester, and your brain to be clouded.  I doom your marrow
+to curdle and chill.  Henceforth, so is my doom, all good things will
+wane from you, and all evil things will wax and overwhelm you.  So be
+it."  As she spoke a shudder ran over Grettir’s limbs, and he asked who
+that imp was in the boat.  Illugi told him he fancied it must be that
+old heathen woman, the foster-mother of Thorbiorn Hook.
+
+"Since the powers of evil are with our foes," said Grettir, "how may we
+oppose them?  Never before has anything so shaken me with presentiment
+of evil as have the curses of this witch.  But she shall have a reminder
+of her visit to Drangey."
+
+Thereupon he snatched up a large stone and threw it at the boat, and it
+fell on the bundle of rags, in the midst of which lay the old hag.  As
+it struck there rose a wild shriek from the witch, for the stone had hit
+and broken her leg.
+
+"Brother!" exclaimed Illugi, "you should not have done this."
+
+"Blame me not," answered Grettir gloomily.  "It had been well had the
+stone fallen on her head.  But I trow the working of her curse is begun,
+and what I have done has been because my understanding and wit are
+already clouded."
+
+On the return of Thorbiorn to the mainland the crone was put to bed, and
+The Hook was less pleased than ever with his trip to the island.  His
+foster-mother, however, consoled him.
+
+"Do not be discouraged," she said.  "Now is come the turning-point of
+Grettir’s fortunes, and his luck will leave him more and more as the
+light dies away up to Yule.  But the light dies and comes again.  With
+Grettir it will not be so, it will die, and die, till it goes out in
+endless night."
+
+"You are a confident woman, foster-mother," said Thorbiorn.
+
+When a month had elapsed, the old woman was able to leave her bed, and
+to limp across the room.
+
+One day she asked to be led down to the beach. Thorbiorn gave her his
+arm, and she had her crutch, and she hobbled down to where the water was
+lapping on the shingle.  And there, just washed up on the beach, lay a
+log of drift-timber, just large enough for a man to carry upon his
+shoulder.  Then she gave command that the log should be rolled over and
+over that she might examine each side.  The log on one side seemed to
+have been charred, and she sent to the house for a plane, and had the
+burnt wood smoothed away.
+
+When that was done she dismissed every one save her foster-son, and then
+with a long knife she cut runes on the wood where it had been
+planed—that is to say, words written in the peculiar characters made of
+strokes which Odin was supposed to have invented.  Then she cut herself
+on the arm, and smeared the letters she had cut with her blood. After
+that she rose and began to leap and dance, screaming a wild spell round
+the log, making the most strange and uncouth contortions, and waving her
+crutch in the air, making with it mysterious signs over the log.
+Presently, when the incantation was over, she ordered the log to be
+rolled back into the sea.  The tide was now ebbing, and with the tide
+the log went out to sea further and further from land till Thorbiorn saw
+it no more.
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER XL.*
+
+                     *HOW THE LOG CAME TO DRANGEY.*
+
+
+    _Food for the Winter—Cast up by the Sea—The Log comes back
+    again—The Worst is come—An ugly Wound—The Hag’s Revenge—Grettir
+    sings his Great Deeds—Presage of Evil_
+
+
+In the meantime Grettir, Illugi, and the churl Glaum were on Drangey
+catching fish and fowl for winter supplies.  The fish in Iceland are
+beaten hard with stones and then dried in the wind, that makes them like
+leather; but it preserves them for a very long time, and they form the
+staple of food, as the people have no corn, and consequently no bread.
+They put butter on these dry fish, and tear them with their teeth.  What
+Grettir did with the fowl he caught was to pickle them with salt water
+from the sea, and when the frost and snow came on then he would take
+them out of pickle and freeze them.  Now, the whole of the sheep had
+been eaten some time ago, except the old mottled ram, which Grettir
+could not find in his heart to kill; and, as may be supposed, he and his
+brother suffered from want of change of food.  Especially deficient were
+they in any green food; and we know, though he did not, that the eating
+of green food is a very essential element of health.  He had nothing for
+consumption but salted birds and dried fish—no milk, no bread, no
+vegetables.  Such a diet was certain to disorder his health.
+
+The day after that on which the hag had charmed the piece of timber, the
+two brothers were walking on the little strand to the west of the island
+looking for drift-wood.
+
+"Here is a fine beam!" exclaimed Illugi.  "Help me to lift it on to my
+shoulder, and I will carry it up the ladder."
+
+Grettir spurned the log with his foot, saying, "I do not like the looks
+of it, Little brother.  Runes are cut on it, and what they portend I do
+not know. There may be written there something that may bring ill.  Who
+can tell but this log may have been sent with ill wishes against us."
+They set the log adrift, and Grettir warned his brother not to bring it
+to their fire.
+
+In the evening they returned to their cabin, and nothing was said about
+the log to Glaum.  Next day they found the same beam washed up not far
+from the foot of the ladder.  Grettir was dissatisfied, and again he
+thrust it from the shore, saying that he hoped they had seen the last of
+it, and that the stream and tide would catch it and waft it elsewhere.
+And now the equinoctial gales began to rage.  The fine Martinmas summer
+was over.  The weather changed to storm and rain; and so bad was it that
+the three men remained indoors till their supply of firewood was
+exhausted.
+
+Then Grettir ordered the thrall to search the shore for fuel.  Glaum
+started up with an angry remonstrance that the weather was not such as a
+dog should be turned out in, with unreason, not considering that a fire
+was as necessary to him as to his master.  He went to the ladder,
+crawled down it, and found the same beam cast at its very foot.
+
+Glad not to have to go far in his search, Glaum shouldered the log,
+crept up the ladder, bore it to the hut, and throwing open the door,
+cast it down in the midst.
+
+Grettir jumped up, "Well done," said he, "you have been quick in your
+quest."
+
+"Now I have brought it, you must chop it up," said Glaum.  "I have done
+my part."
+
+Grettir took his axe.  The fire was low and wanted replenishing, and
+without paying much attention to the log, he swung his axe and brought
+it down on the log.  But the wood was wet and greasy with sea-weed, and
+the axe slipped, glanced off the beam, and cut into Grettir’s leg below
+the knee, on the shin, with such force that it stuck in the bone.
+
+Grettir looked at the beam; the fire leaped up, and by its light the
+runic inscription on it was visible.  Grettir at once saw evil.  "The
+worst is come upon us," he said sadly, as he cast the axe away, and
+threw himself down by the fire.  "This is the same log that I have twice
+rejected.  Glaum, you have done us two ill turns, first when you
+neglected the fire and let it go out, and now in that you have brought
+this beam to us.  Beware how you commit a third, for that I foresee will
+be your bane as well as ours."
+
+Illugi bound up his brother’s wound with rag; there was but a slight
+flow of blood, but it was an ugly gash.  That night Grettir slept
+soundly.  For three days and nights he was without pain, and the wound
+seemed to be healing healthily, the skin to be forming over it.
+
+"My dear brother," said Illugi, "I do not think that this cut will
+trouble you long."
+
+"I hope not," answered Grettir.  "But none can see where a road leads
+till they have gone through to the end."
+
+On the fourth evening they laid them down to sleep as usual.  About
+midnight the lad, Illugi, awoke hearing Grettir tossing in his bed as
+though suffering.
+
+"Why are you so uneasy?" asked the boy.
+
+Grettir replied that he felt great pain in his leg, and he thought, he
+said, that some change must have taken place in the condition of the
+wound.
+
+Illugi at once blew up the embers on the hearth into a flame, and by its
+light examined his brother’s leg.  He found that the foot was swollen
+and discoloured, and that the wound had reopened, and looked far more
+angry than he had seen it yet. Intense pain ensued, so that poor Grettir
+could not remain quiet for a moment, but tossed from side to side.  His
+cheeks were fevered, and his tongue parched.  He could obtain no sleep
+at all.
+
+Illugi never left him, he sat beside him holding his hand, or bringing
+him water to slake his unquenchable thirst.
+
+"The worst approaches, and there is no avoiding it," said Grettir.
+"This sickness is sent by the old witch in revenge for the stone I had
+cast at her."
+
+"I misliked the casting of that stone," said Illugi.
+
+"It was ill that it did not fall on her head," said Grettir.  "But what
+is done may not be undone."  Then he heaved himself up into a sitting
+posture and sang, supporting himself against his brother’s shoulder, a
+lay, of which only fragments have come down to us.  A good deal of the
+lay refers to incidents in Grettir’s life, of which no record remains in
+the saga, and many staves have fallen away and been lost.  So we give
+but a few verses:—
+
+    "I fought with the sword in the bye-gone day,
+      In the day when I was young;
+    When the Rovers I slew in old Norway,
+      The land with my action rung.
+
+    "I entered the grave of Karr the Old,
+      I rived his sword away;
+    I strove with the Troll at Thorod’s-stead,
+      Before the break of day.
+
+    "With Thorbiorn Oxmain in the marsh
+      I fought, and his blood I shed;
+    Against Thorir of Garth have I stood in arms,
+      Who long would have me dead.
+
+    "For nineteen years, I a hunted man,
+      On mountain, on moor, and fen;
+    For nineteen years had to shun and flee
+      The face of my fellow men.
+
+    "For nineteen years all bitter to bear
+      Both hunger and cold and pain;
+    And never to know when I laid me down,
+      If I might awake again.
+
+    "And now do I lie with a burning eye,
+      As a wolf is fain to die;
+    Whilst the skies are dripping and ocean roars,
+      And the winds sob sadly by—"
+
+
+The song was probably composed before, as otherwise it is not easy to
+account for its preservation. His head was burning, his thoughts
+wandered, and he ceased singing.  He seemed to be dozing off.  But
+presently he started and shivered, and looked hastily about him.
+
+"Let us be cautious now," he said, "for Thorbiorn Hook will make another
+attempt.  To me it matters little—but to you, brother.  Glaum, watch the
+ladder by day, and draw it up at night.  Be a faithful servant, for now
+all depends on you.  Illugi will not leave me, so we are in your hands."
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER XLI.*
+
+                        *THE END OF THE OUTLAW.*
+
+
+    _The Shadow of Death—Thorbiorn and his Foster-mother—The Hook
+    sails for Drangey—Out in the Gale—The Unguarded Ladder—Glaum is
+    Captured—The Brothers’ last Evening—Defending the Hut—Grettir
+    Wounded—Illugi Taken—The Notch in the Sword—Illugi vows
+    Vengeance—Death of Illugi_
+
+
+The weather became daily worse, and a fierce north-east wind raged over
+the country, bearing with it cold and sleet, and covering the fells with
+the first snows of winter.  Grettir inquired every night if the ladder
+had been drawn up, according to order.  Glaum answered churlishly, "How
+can you expect folk to live out in such a storm as this?  Do you think
+they are so eager to kill you that they will jeopardize their lives in
+trying to do this?  It is easy to see that a little cut was all that
+lacked to let your courage leak out."
+
+Grettir answered, "Go! and do not argue with us; guard the ladder as you
+have been bidden!"
+
+So Illugi drove the churl from the hut every morning, notwithstanding
+his angry remonstrances; and Glaum was in the worst of humours.
+
+The pain became more acute, and the whole leg inflamed and swollen,
+signs of mortification appeared, and wounds opened in different parts of
+the limb, so that Grettir felt that the shadow of death hung over him.
+Illugi sat night and day with his brother’s head on his shoulder,
+bathing his forehead, and doing his utmost to console the fleeting
+spirit. A week had elapsed since the wound had been made.
+
+Now, Thorbiorn Hook was at home, ill-pleased at the failure of all his
+schemes for dispossessing Grettir of the island.
+
+One day his foster-mother came to him, and asked whether he were ready
+now to pay his final visit to the outlaw?
+
+Thorbiorn replied that he had paid quite as many visits to him as he
+liked, and that he should not go to Drangey again till Grettir left it;
+and then, with a sneer he asked his foster-mother whether she wanted to
+have her second leg broken, and was not satisfied with the fracture of
+one.
+
+"I will not go to Drangey myself," answered the old woman.  "That is
+unnecessary.  I have sent him my salutation, and by this he has received
+it.  Speed away now to Drangey, and find how he relishes my message.
+But I warn you, you must go now or you will be too late."
+
+Thorbiorn would not listen; he said that her advice last time had led to
+no advantage when he followed it, and that the weather was too bad to go
+out in.
+
+"You need go but this once," said the crone. "The storm is of my
+sending, and is sent to work my ends."
+
+Finally he allowed himself to be persuaded.  So he got together men, and
+asked his neighbours to help him; and a large vessel was manned.  That
+is to say, the other farmers consented to lend him men, but none of them
+would accompany him themselves.  The Hook took twelve of his own men;
+his brother, Hialti, lent him three; Erick of Gooddale sent one man;
+Tongue-stone furnished him with two; another, named Halldor, let him
+have six.  Of all these, the only two whose name need be mentioned are
+Karr and Vikarr.
+
+Thorbiorn got a large sailing-boat for his purpose, and started from
+Heron-ness.  None of the men were in good spirits, as the weather was
+bad; moreover, they had no liking for their leader.  By dusk the boat
+was afloat, the sail spread, and they ran out to sea.  As the wind was
+from the north-east, they were under the lee of the high cliffs, and
+were not exposed to the full violence of the storm.
+
+Heavy scuds of rain and sleet swept the fiord; the sky was overcast with
+whirling masses of vapour, charged with snow, and beneath their shadow
+the waters of the firth were black as ink.  For one moment the clouds
+were parted by the storm, the rowers looked up, and saw the heavens
+tinged with the crimson rays of the northern light.  A flame ran along
+the cordage, and finally settled on the masthead of the vessel, swaying
+and dancing with the motion of the boat.  It was that electric spark,
+which is called in the Mediterranean S. Elmo’s fire.
+
+A line of white foam marked the base of Drangey; and now and then a
+great wave from the mouth of the fiord boomed against the crags, and
+shot in spouts of foam high into the air.  Along the western shore of
+the firth, which was exposed to the full brunt of the gale, the mighty
+billows were beaten into white yeasty heaps of water.  From the top of
+Drangey one tiny spark shone from the window of the hovel where lay the
+dying outlaw.
+
+Now let us look again at Grettir.
+
+He had been in less pain that day.  Illugi had not left him, but
+remained faithful at his post.
+
+The thrall, Glaum, had been sent out as usual to collect fuel and to
+watch the ladder, and to draw it up at nightfall.  But instead of doing
+as he was bidden, the fellow laid himself down at the head of the steps,
+under a shelter-hut of turf that had been there erected, and went to
+sleep.
+
+When Thorbiorn and his party reached the shore, they found to their
+content that the ladder had not been removed.
+
+"Good luck attends on those who wait," said The Hook "Now, my fellows!
+the journey will not prove as bootless as you expected.  Up the ladder
+with you! and let us all be cautious and bold!"
+
+So they ascended, one after the other, The Hook taking the lead.  On
+reaching the top he looked into the shelter-hut, and there found Glaum,
+asleep and snoring.  Thorbiorn struck him over the shoulders, and asked
+him who he was.
+
+Glaum turned on his side, rubbed his eyes, and growled forth, "Can you
+not leave a poor wretch alone?  Never was a man so ill-treated as am I.
+I may not even sleep out here in the cold."
+
+The Hook then knew who this was.  "Fool!" shouted he.  "Look up, and see
+who are come.  We are your foes, and intend to kill every one of you."
+
+Glaum started now to his feet full awake, and shrieked with dismay when
+he saw the black figures crowding up from the ladder and surrounding
+him.
+
+"Make no noise," said Thorbiorn Hook.  "I give you the choice of two
+things; answer the questions I put to you truthfully, or die at once."
+
+The churl answered sullenly that he would speak, and he had nothing to
+conceal.
+
+"Then tell me where the brothers are?"
+
+"In the hovel I left them, where there is a fire. Not out in the cold.
+Grettir is sick and nigh on death, and Illugi is with him."
+
+The Hook asked for particulars, and then Glaum told him about the log,
+and how Grettir was wounded.  Thereat the Hook burst out laughing, and
+said, "Woe to the man that leans on a churl! That is a true proverb.
+Shamefully have you betrayed your trust, Glaum."
+
+Thereupon Glaum was dragged along to the cabin where Grettir lay, and
+they treated him so roughly, that what with their blows and what with
+fear, he was nearly senseless when he reached it.
+
+Illugi had been sitting by the fire with his brother’s head in his lap,
+whilst Grettir lay in some sheepskins beside the hearth.  All that
+evening the sick man’s eyes had been wandering about the roof, watching
+the light play among the rafters, as the firewood blazed up or
+smouldered away.  Illugi saw that his fingers plucked at the wool of the
+sheep-skins, riving it out, and that he knew was a bad sign.  He felt
+sure that Grettir would die that night, and he watched his face
+intently, and could not bear to withdraw his eyes from him, for he loved
+him dearly. Presently Grettir turned his head, and smiled when he saw
+how he was watching him, and said that he felt easier, and would sleep.
+In a few moments his eyes closed.
+
+As he dozed, his face became calmer than Illugi had seen it before; the
+muscles relaxed, and the wrinkles furrowed in his brow by care and
+suffering were now smoothed quite away.  Grettir’s face was never
+handsome, but it was grave and earnest, and the sorrow and trial he had
+passed through had left its trace on his features.  His breath now came
+more evenly in sleep.
+
+All at once there sounded a crash at the door, and the sleeper opened
+his eyes dreamily.
+
+"It is only the old ram, brother," said Illugi. "He is butting, because
+he wants to come in."
+
+"He butts hard! he butts hard!" muttered Grettir, and at that moment the
+door burst open.  They saw faces looking in.
+
+Illugi was on his feet in a moment.  He seized his sword, flew to the
+doorway and defended it bravely, so that no one could pass through.
+
+Thorbiorn called to some of the men to get upon the roof, and he was
+obeyed.  The hovel was low, and in a moment four or five were on top of
+it tearing off the turf that covered it.  Grettir tried to rise to his
+feet, but could only stagger to his knees. He seized his spear and drove
+it through the roof, so that it struck Karr in the breast, and the wound
+was his death.
+
+Thorbiorn Hook called to the men to act more warily—they were
+twenty-five in all against two men, and one dying.
+
+So the men pulled at the gable ends of the house and got the ridge-piece
+out, that it broke and fell, and with it a shower of turfs, into the
+hut.
+
+Grettir drew his short-sword—the sword he had taken from the barrow of
+Karr the Old—and smote at the men as they leaped upon him from the wall.
+With one blow he struck Vikarr over the left shoulder, as he was on the
+point of springing down. The sword cut off his arm.  But the blow was so
+violent, that Grettir, having dealt it, fell forward, and before he
+could raise himself Thorbiorn Hook struck him between the shoulders, and
+made a fearful wound.
+
+Then cried Grettir, "Bare is the back without brother behind it!" and
+instantly Illugi threw his shield over him, planted one foot on each
+side of him as he lay on the floor, and defended him with desperate
+courage.
+
+[Illustration: ILLUGI DEFENDS THE DYING GRETTIR.]
+
+The mist of death was in Grettir’s eyes; he attempted in vain to raise
+himself, but sank again on the sheep-skins, which were now drenched in
+blood.
+
+No one could touch him, for the brave boy warded off every blow that was
+aimed at his brother.
+
+Then Thorbiorn Hook ordered his men to form a ring round and close in on
+them with their shields and with beams.  They did so, and Illugi was
+taken and bound; but not till he had wounded most of his opponents, and
+had killed three of Thorbiorn’s men.
+
+"Never have I seen one braver of your age," said The Hook.  "I will say
+that you have fought well."
+
+Then they went to Grettir, who lay where he had fallen, unable to resist
+further, for he had lost consciousness.  They dealt him many a blow, but
+hardly any blood flowed from his wounds.  When all supposed he was dead,
+then Thorbiorn tried to disengage the sword from his cold fingers,
+saying that he considered Grettir had wielded it long enough.  But the
+strong man’s hand was clenched around the handle so firmly that his
+enemy could not free the sword from his grasp.
+
+Several of the men came up, and tried to unweave the fingers, but were
+unable to do so.  Then the Hook said, "Why should we spare this wretched
+outlaw?  Off with his hand!"  And his men held down the arm whilst
+Thorbiorn hewed off the hand at the wrist with his axe.
+
+After that, standing over the body, and grasping the hilt of the sword
+in both hands, he smote at Grettir’s head; the edge of the blade was
+notched by the blow.
+
+"Look!" laughed Thorbiorn.  "This notch will be famous in story for many
+generations; for men will point to it and say, ’This was made by
+Grettir’s skull.’"  He struck twice and thrice at the outlaw’s neck,
+till the head came off in his hands.
+
+"Now have I slain a notable man!" exclaimed Thorbiorn.  "I will take
+this head with me to land, and claim the price that was set on it; and
+none shall deny that it was my hand that slew that Grettir whom all else
+feared."
+
+The men present said he might say what he liked, but that they believed
+Grettir was already dead when he smote him.
+
+Thorbiorn now turned to Illugi, and said, "It is a pity that a brave lad
+like you should die, because you are associated with outlaws and
+evil-doers."
+
+"I tell you this," said Illugi, "that I will appear before you at the
+great assize, and there will charge you with having practised witchcraft
+to effect my brother’s death."
+
+"You hearken to me, boy," said Thorbiorn.  "Put your hand to mine, and
+swear that you will not seek to avenge the death of your brother, and I
+will let you go; but if you will not take this oath, you shall die."
+
+"And hearken to me, Thorbiorn," said lllugi. "If I live, but one thought
+shall occupy my heart night and day, and that will be how I may best
+avenge my brother.  Now that you know what to expect of me—take what
+course you will."
+
+Thorbiorn drew his companions aside to ask their advice; but they
+shrugged their shoulders, and replied that, as he had planned the
+expedition, he must carry it out as he thought best.
+
+"Well," said The Hook, "I have no fancy for having the young viper lying
+in wait to sting me wherever I tread.  He shall die."
+
+Now, when Illugi knew that they had determined on slaying him, he smiled
+and said, "You have chosen that course which is best to my mind.  I do
+not desire to be parted from my brother."
+
+The day was breaking.  They led Illugi to the east side of the island,
+and there they slew him.
+
+It is told that they neither bound his eyes nor his hands, and that he
+looked fearlessly at them when they smote him, and neither changed
+colour nor even blinked.
+
+Then they buried the brothers beneath a cairn in the island, but they
+took the head of Grettir and bore it to land.  On the way they also slew
+the thrall Glaum.
+
+
+
+
+                            *CHAPTER XLII.*
+
+                     *HOW ASDIS RECEIVED THE NEWS.*
+
+
+    _A Charge of Witchcraft—A Heroic Mother—Thorbiorn’s
+    Sentence—Burial of the Brothers_
+
+
+Had the old hag, Thorbiorn’s foster-mother, any hand in the death of
+Grettir?  Certainly none. It was true that Grettir was wounded in the
+way described, by his own axe, but the condition of the wound was due to
+the scorbutic condition of his blood, through lack of green food.  This
+the Icelanders did not understand; they could not comprehend how a wound
+could seem to be healing well and then break out and mortify afterwards,
+and they supposed that this was due to witchcraft. Then, again,
+Grettir’s kin could not take the case of Grettir’s murder into court,
+because Thorbiorn had acted within the law when killing him; but by
+charging him with the practice of witchcraft they made him amenable to
+the law.  So, partly, no doubt, in good faith, they trumped up against
+Thorbiorn the accusation of having effected Grettir’s death by
+witchcraft.
+
+Now, it must be told how that, one day after the slaying of Grettir,
+Thorbiorn Hook at the head of twenty armed men rode to Biarg, in the
+Midfirth-dale, with Grettir’s head slung from his saddlebow. On reaching
+the house he dismounted and strode into the hall, where Grettir’s mother
+was seated with a servant.  Thorbiorn threw her son’s head at her feet,
+and said: "See!  I have been to the island and have prevailed."
+
+The lady sat proudly in her seat, and did not shed a tear; but lifting
+her voice in reply, she sang:
+
+    "Milk-sop—as timid sheep
+    Before a fox all cow’ring keep;
+    So did you—nor could prevail
+    So long as Grettir’s strength was hale.
+    Woe is on the Northland side,
+    Nor can I my loathing hide!"
+
+
+After this The Hook returned home, and folk wondered at Asdis, saying
+that only a heroic mother could have had sons so heroic.  When Yule was
+over The Hook rode east away to Garth, and told Thorir what he had done,
+and claimed the money set on Grettir’s head.
+
+But Thorir was crafty, and just as the Biarg folk sought a charge
+against Thorbiorn for his deed, so did Thorir, that he might escape
+having to pay the silver.  He answered, "I do not deny that I offered
+the money on Grettir’s head, promising it to whomsoever should slay
+Grettir, but I will pay nothing to him who compassed his death by
+witchcraft; and if what the men who went with you say be true, you did
+not slay him with a sword, but hacked off his head after he was dead."
+
+This made Thorbiorn Hook very angry, and when summer came he brought his
+suit against Thorir for the money.  But simultaneously Grettir’s kin
+brought a charge against Thorbiorn for having practised witchcraft.
+Also they had a summons against him for the slaying of Illugi.  Now, the
+case was tried, and hotly discussed, and it ended this way:—It was
+judged that Thorbiorn had struck off the head of a man who was already
+dead, and that he had brought about the death of that man by witchcraft;
+thereupon it was judged that he should receive nothing of the money, and
+that he should be outlawed from Iceland.
+
+So he went away and never returned.
+
+Now, Grettir and Illugi were brought to land, and their bones lie at
+Reykir, where was the friendly farmer who had helped them when they were
+at Drangey.  But Grettir’s head was buried at Biarg. There is now no
+church or churchyard there, but there is a mound in the _tún_ where his
+head is said to lie.  I obtained leave to dig there, and I examined the
+spot, but found only a great stone under the turf, and this we had not
+the appliances to move. And perhaps it was as well; for if Grettir’s
+head be there, it were better that there it should rest undisturbed.
+
+
+
+
+                            *CHAPTER XLIII.*
+
+                      *HOW DROMUND KEPT HIS WORD.*
+
+
+    _Thorbiorn Hook in Norway—Dromund on Thorbiorn’s Track—The
+    Varangians—Grettir’s Sword—Grettir is Avenged_
+
+
+Now, after that Thorbiorn Hook had been outlawed, he found that he had
+gotten to himself no advantage, but great harm by what he had done upon
+Drangey.  He was forced to leave Iceland; and he saw, withal, that never
+again might he set foot therein again with safety, for all the relatives
+of the Biarg family would seek his life.  Accordingly he made over his
+farm at Woodwick to his brother Hialti, and also all his rights over the
+island of Drangey, such as they were.  Then he collected together what
+moveable goods he had, and went on board ship and sailed for Norway.
+
+On reaching Norway he bragged much of what he had done in having slain
+Grettir, of whom tales were told in Norway; and, as may well be
+understood, he told the tale of the slaying of Grettir in his own way,
+magnifying his heroism, and saying nothing about such matters as
+lessened the greatness of his deed.
+
+During the early winter tidings reached Thorstein Dromund at Tunsberg
+that his brother Grettir was dead, and also that the man who slew him
+was in the north of the country.  When Dromund heard the tidings he was
+very sorrowful, and he called to mind the words he had said to Grettir
+when they showed each other what sort of arms they had. Dromund
+considered that he was bound to avenge his brother’s death on his
+murderer.
+
+Thorbiorn Hook also was aware that there was a half-brother of Grettir
+in Norway, and when he knew that he was wary, for he suspected that
+Dromund would seek his life.  And, indeed, Thorstein Dromund sent spies
+to watch Thorbiorn Hook; but the latter was so careful of himself that
+Dromund was not able to attempt anything against him all that winter.
+No sooner did the soft, warm, spring breezes begin to blow, than The
+Hook got away out of Norway by the earliest opportunity.  He had heard
+much talk how that the Emperors of the East, at Constantinople, kept a
+guard of Norsemen about them, and paid them well, and how that this
+guard was held in high esteem.  So Thorbiorn Hook considered he could
+not do better than go to Constantinople, and try his fortune there.  But
+before he left Norway he talked of his intention, and this was reported
+to Dromund at Tunsberg.  So Dromund put his lands and affairs into the
+hands of his kinsmen, and got ready for journeying in search of Hook,
+whom he had never seen.
+
+He sailed away after him, and wherever he came he made inquiries after
+the ship in which Thorbiorn Hook had been, and he was always just too
+late. He never could catch the ship up.  And then finally Thorbiorn left
+the vessel and journeyed overland, and Thorstein lost his traces.
+
+However, Dromund knew that Thorbiorn Hook was going to Constantinople,
+so he travelled thither also, and reached the imperial city.  Now there
+were a great many Norsemen and Icelanders there in the company called
+the Varangians, who acted as a bodyguard to the Emperor, and among these
+men were some twenty or more called Thorbiorn, and which among them was
+the murderer of Grettir, Thorstein Dromund did not know.  The Hook, as
+may well be imagined, did not tell anyone what his nickname was; not
+that he imagined he was pursued, but because it was not a pretty and
+flattering name. Thorstein also offered himself as a soldier in the
+guard, and was enrolled.  He also merely gave his name as Thorstein, and
+told no one of his nickname of Dromund, lest the man he pursued should
+take alarm and leave.
+
+So time passed, and Thorstein Dromund could not find out his man; and he
+lay awake in bed many nights musing on what he had undertaken, on the
+sad lot of Grettir, and on his ill-success in finding the murderer of
+his half-brother.  Now, it fell out that on a certain day the order came
+to the Varangian guard that they were to be ready, as they were about to
+be sent on an expedition of importance.
+
+It was usual, before any such an expedition, that all the men of the
+guard should burnish up their weapons and armour, and show them, that
+they were in condition.
+
+So was it on this occasion also.  They were assembled in the guard-room,
+and each produced his weapon.  Then Thorbiorn held forth his
+short-sword—the very weapon that Grettir had taken from the tomb of Karr
+the Old, the sword with which he The Hook had hewed off Grettir’s head.
+
+Now, when Thorbiorn held forth the sword all the other guardsmen praised
+it, and said it was an excellent weapon; but it had one grievous
+blemish, for that there was a notch in the edge.
+
+"Oh!" laughed Thorbiorn, "that notch is no blemish at all.  It is a
+memorial of one of my greatest achievements."
+
+"What was that?" asked one of the Varangians.
+
+"With this sword," answered Thorbiorn, "I slew the man who was esteemed
+the greatest and most powerful champion of his time; a man who was in
+outlawry for twenty years, who had in his time fought and beaten off as
+many as thirty or forty who attacked him.  But I was too much for him.
+When I went against him, then he had to give way. We fought for an hour
+without flagging, and finally I smote him down.  Then I took from him
+his own sword, and with it I smote off his neck; and thus got the sword
+its notch."
+
+"And his name?" asked Thorstein Dromund.
+
+"His name was Grettir the Strong."
+
+There was a pause; and in that pause the sword was handed to Dromund for
+him to look at.
+
+"Thus is Grettir avenged!" suddenly exclaimed Dromund.  He struck across
+the table at Thorbiorn with Grettir’s own sword; and so great was the
+stroke that it smote through his skull to the jaw-teeth, and The Hook
+fell without a word, dead.
+
+It was said, in after times, that Grettir was wonderful in his life, and
+wonderful in his death—for in life no man had been his equal in
+strength, and had had a sadder span of life; and in death he was
+wonderful—for of all Icelanders he was the only one who was avenged far
+away from home by the shores of the Bosphorus, in the City of the
+Emperors.
+
+
+
+
+                              *EPILOGUE.*
+
+
+    _Date of Grettir’s Death—Mention of Grettir in other
+    Sagas—Historical Basis of the Grettir Story_
+
+
+In the Icelandic annals the death of Grettir is set down as having
+occurred in 1033, but the dates are not quite correct, and the real date
+should be 1031.
+
+Grettir is mentioned in other Icelandic sagas. He is spoken of and his
+pedigree given in the Landnama Book, the Icelandic Domesday, the most
+reliable book for history they have.  The persons spoken of in the saga
+of Grettir are heard of in several other quite independent sagas, and in
+no case is there any serious anachronism.
+
+Grettir, it will be recalled, was taken by the farmers in the Ice-firth.
+This incident is also related in the saga of the Foster-brothers; so is
+another incident about a contest concerning a dead whale I have not
+related, as likely to break the continuity of the history.  In the saga
+of Thord, the hero is said to have blessed the Middle-firth in these
+words: "Let the man who grows up in this vale never be hung."  And this
+blessing was thought to have had something to do with the saving of
+Grettir’s neck in the Ice-firth.  The story of Gisli has been told whom
+Grettir whipped.  Now, in the Viga-styr saga, the most ancient of all
+Icelandic sagas, we hear of this same Gisli, and his character is
+painted in the same colours as in the saga of Grettir, but no mention is
+made of the whipping administered by Grettir.  The murder of Atli, the
+brother of our outlaw, and the consequent slaying of Thorbiorn Oxmain is
+spoken of in the saga of Bard.  The circumstance of Grettir having lived
+in a cave on the farm in Hit-dale is spoken of in the saga of Biorn. In
+the history of Grettir mention is made of the strife which took place
+between Biorn and Thord, but the full particulars of what is there
+alluded to casually are given in the saga of Biorn of Hit-dale. In our
+saga, Grettir is spoken of as meeting Bard wounded after a hard fight,
+in which he had avenged the death of his brother, but no particulars are
+given. In the saga of the Heath-fights we recover the whole story.  Thus
+one saga explains and supports another.
+
+It is therefore impossible to set down the story of Grettir as fabulous.
+It is historical; but the history has been somewhat embellished, partly
+by family vanity which led to the undue glorification of their hero, and
+partly by superstition which imagined the marvellous where all was
+really natural.
+
+
+
+                                THE END.
+
+
+
+
+                          Transcriber’s note:
+
+    The source book’s pages had variant headers.  These headers have
+    been collected into the introductory paragraph at the start of
+    each chapter.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GRETTIR THE OUTLAW ***
+
+
+
+
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+                           GRETTIR THE OUTLAW
+
+
+
+
+This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online at
+http://www.gutenberg.org/license. If you are not located in the United
+States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you are
+located before using this ebook.
+
+
+
+Title: Grettir the Outlaw
+       A Story of Iceland
+Author: S. Baring-Gould
+Release Date: March 31, 2015 [EBook #48622]
+Language: English
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GRETTIR THE OUTLAW ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Al Haines.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Cover art]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THORKELL AND THE OUTLAWED GRETTIR LEAVE THE ASSIZE.]
+
+
+
+
+                          *Grettir the Outlaw*
+
+                          *A Story of Iceland*
+
+
+                                   by
+
+                            S. BARING-GOULD
+
+ Author of "John Herring" "Mehalah" "Iceland: its Scenes and Sagas" &c.
+
+
+
+            _WITH SIX PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS BY M. ZENO DIEMER_
+
+
+
+                        BLACKIE AND SON LIMITED
+                       LONDON GLASGOW AND DUBLIN
+                                  1889
+
+
+
+
+                               *PREFACE.*
+
+
+                          TO MY YOUNG READERS.
+
+
+It is now just thirty years since I first began to read the "Saga of
+Grettir the Strong" in Icelandic.  At that time I had only a Danish
+grammar of Icelandic and an Icelandic-Danish dictionary, and I did not
+know a word of Danish.  So I had to learn Danish in order to learn
+Icelandic.
+
+It was laborious work making out the Saga, and every line when I began
+took me some time to understand.  Moreover, I had not much time at my
+disposal, for then I was a master in a school.
+
+Now, after I had worked a little way into the Saga, I became intensely
+interested in it myself, and it struck me that my boys whom I taught
+might like to hear about Grettir.  So I tried every day to translate,
+after school hours, a chapter, hardly ever more at first, and sometimes
+not even as much as that.  Then, when on half-holidays I proposed a walk
+to some of my scholars, they were keen to hear the story of Grettir.
+Well, Grettir went on for some months in this way, a fresh instalment of
+the tale coming every half-holiday, and it was really wonderful how
+interested and delighted the boys were with the story.  Nor was I less
+so; the labour of translation which was so great at first became rapidly
+lighter, and I was as much interested in the adventures of the hero as
+were the boys.  The other day I met an old pupil of mine, and almost the
+first thing he said to me was: "Oh! do you remember Grettir?  Thirty
+years ago!  Fancy!  I am a married man and have boys of my own, and I
+have often tried to tell them the story which made such an impression on
+me, but I cannot remember all the incidents nor their order.  I do wish
+you would write it as a story for boys.  I should like to read it myself
+again, and my boys would love it."  "Very well," I said, "I will do so."
+
+Now my boy readers must understand that I have told them the story in my
+own words and in my own way.  I went to Iceland in 1861, and went over
+nearly every bit of the ground made famous by the adventures of Grettir.
+Consequently, I am able to help out and illustrate the tale by what I
+actually saw.  In the original book there is a great deal more than I
+have attempted to retell, but much has to do with the ancestors of
+Grettir, and there are other incidents introduced of no great importance
+and very confusing to the memory.  So I have taken the leading points in
+the story, and given them.
+
+S. BARING-GOULD.
+
+
+
+
+                              *CONTENTS.*
+
+CHAP.
+
+      I. Winter Tales
+     II. How Grettir played on the Ice
+    III. Of the Ride to Thingvalla
+     IV. The Doom-day
+      V. The Voyage
+     VI. The Red Rovers
+    VII. The Story of the Sword
+   VIII. Of the Bear
+     IX. The Slaying of Biorn
+      X. Of Grettir's Return
+     XI. The Horse-fight
+    XII. Of the Fight at the Neck
+   XIII. How Grettir and Audun made Friends
+    XIV. The Vale of Shadows
+     XV. How Grettir fought with Glam
+    XVI. How Grettir Sailed to Norway
+   XVII. The Hostel-burning
+  XVIII. The Ordeal by Fire
+    XIX. The Winter in Norway
+     XX. Of what Befell at Biarg
+    XXI. The Return of Grettir
+   XXII. The Slaying of Oxmain
+  XXIII. At Learwood
+   XXIV. The Foster-brothers
+    XXV. How Grettir was well nigh Hung
+   XXVI. In the Desert
+  XXVII. On the Great Eagle Lake
+ XXVIII. On the Fell
+   XXIX. The Fight on the River
+    XXX. A Mysterious Vale
+   XXXI. The Death of Hallmund
+  XXXII. Of Another Attempt against Grettir
+ XXXIII. At Sandheaps
+  XXXIV. How Grettir was Driven About
+   XXXV. On the Isle
+  XXXVI. Of Grettir on Heron-ness
+ XXXVII. Of Hoering's Leap
+XXXVIII. Of the Attempt made by Grettir's Friends
+  XXXIX. Of the Old Hag
+     XL. How the Log came to Drangey
+    XLI. The End of the Outlaw
+   XLII. How Asdis received the News
+  XLIII. How Dromund kept his Word
+
+Epilogue
+
+
+
+
+                            *ILLUSTRATIONS.*
+
+
+Thorkell and the outlawed Grettir leave the Assize, _Frontis_.
+
+Grettir challenges Kormak and his Party
+
+Grettir defends Himself from the Mob
+
+Grettir attacked in the Rift by Thorir's Party
+
+Fording the quivering flood
+
+Illugi defends the dying Grettir
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: PEDIGREE OF THE FAMILY OF ASMUND OF BIARG]
+
+
+
+
+                         *GRETTIR THE OUTLAW.*
+
+
+
+                              *CHAPTER I.*
+
+                            *WINTER TALES.*
+
+
+    _The Birthplace of Grettir--The Peopling of Iceland--A History
+    of Quarrels--Stories Round the Hearth--Biarg--The Great Blue
+    Bay--The Boy Grettir--The Saga of Onund Treefoot--The Northern
+    Pirates--The Fight with King Harald--Onund's Wound--After the
+    Battle_
+
+
+It was night--drawing on to midnight--in summer, that I who write this
+book arrived at the little lonely farm of Biarg, on the Middle River, in
+the north of Iceland. It was night, near on midnight, and yet I could
+hardly call it night, for the sky overhead was full of light of the
+clearest amethyst, and every stock and stone was distinctly visible.
+Across the valley rose a rugged moor, and above its shoulder a snow-clad
+mountain, turned to rosy gold by the night sun.  As I stood there
+watching the mist form on the cold river in the vale below, all at once
+I heard a strange sound like horns blowing far away in the sky, and
+looking up, I saw a train of swans flying from west to east, bathed in
+sunlight, their wings of silver, and their feathers as gold.
+
+I had come all the way from England to see Biarg, for there was born,
+about the year A.D. 997, a man called Grettir, whose history I had read,
+and which interested me so much that I was resolved to see his native
+home, and the principal scenes where his stormy life was passed.
+
+The landscape was the same as that on which Grettir's childish eyes had
+looked more than eight hundred and fifty years ago.  The same outline of
+dreary moor, the same snowy ridge of mountain standing above it,
+catching the midnight summer sun, the same mist forming over the river;
+but the house was altogether different.  Now there stood only a poor
+heap of farm-buildings, erected of turf and wood, where had once been a
+noble hall of wood, with carved gable-ends, surrounded by many
+out-houses.
+
+Before we begin on the story of Grettir, it will be well to say a few
+words about its claim to be history.
+
+Iceland never was, and it is not now, a much-peopled island.  The
+farmhouses are for the most part far apart, and the farms are of very
+considerable extent, because, owing to the severity of the climate, very
+little pasturage is obtained over a wide extent of country for the sheep
+and cattle.  The population lives round the coast, on the fiords or
+creeks of the sea, or on the rivers that flow into these fiords. The
+centre of the island is occupied by a vast waste of ice-covered
+mountain, and desert black as ink strewn with volcanic ash and sand, or
+else with a region of erupted lava that is impassable, because in
+cooling it has exploded, and forms a country of bristling spikes and
+gulfs and sharp edges, very much like the wreck of a huge ginger-beer
+bottle factory.
+
+What are now farmhouses were the halls and mansions of families of noble
+descent.  Indeed, the original settlers in Iceland were the nobles of
+Norway who left their native land to avoid the tyranny of Harold
+Fairhair, who tried to crush their power so as to make himself a
+despotic king in the land.
+
+These Norse nobles came in their boats to Iceland, bringing with them
+their wives, children, their thralls or slaves, and their cattle; and
+they settled all round the coast.  The present Icelanders are descended
+from these first colonists.
+
+Now, the history of Iceland for a few hundred years consists of nothing
+but the history of the quarrels of these great families.  Iceland was
+without any political organization, but it had an elected lawman or
+judge, and every year the heads of the families rode to Thingvalla, a
+plain in the south-west, where they brought their complaints, carried on
+their lawsuits, and had them settled by the judge. There was no army, no
+navy, no government in Iceland for a long time; also no foreign wars,
+and no internal revolutions.
+
+These noble families settled in the valleys and upon the fiords thought
+a good deal of themselves, and they carefully preserved, at first orally
+then in writing, the record of their pedigrees, and also the tradition
+of the famous deeds of their great men.
+
+In summer there is no night; in winter, no day. In winter there is
+little or nothing to be done but sit over the fire, sing songs, and tell
+yarns.  Now, in winter the Icelanders told the tales of the brave men of
+old in their families, and so the tradition was handed on from father to
+son, the same stories told every winter, till all the particulars became
+well known.  At the same time there can be no doubt that little
+embellishments were added, some exaggerations were indulged in, and here
+and there the grand deed of some other man was grafted into the story of
+the family hero.  About two hundred or two hundred and fifty years after
+the death of Grettir, his history was committed to writing, and then it
+became fixed--nothing further was added to it, and we have his story
+after having travelled down over two hundred years as a tradition.  That
+was plenty of time for additions and emendations, and the hobgoblin and
+ghost stories that come into his life are some of these embellishments.
+But the main facts of his life are true history.  We are able to decide
+this by comparing his story with those of other families in the same
+part of the island, and to see whether they agree as to dates, and as to
+the circumstances narrated in them.
+
+In the north-west of Iceland is an immense bay called the Huna-floi,
+which branches off into several creeks, the largest of which is called
+the Ramsfirth, and the next to that is the Middlefiord.  Into this flows
+a river that has its rise in the central desert, in a perfect tangle of
+lakes.  Three rivers issuing from these lakes unite just above Biarg,
+and pour their waters a short morning's ride lower through sands into
+the Middlefirth.
+
+The valley is not cheerful, running from north to south.  Biarg lies on
+the east side, and faces the western sun.  The moor which lies behind
+it, and forms the hill on the other side of the river, is not broken and
+picturesque, and if it were not for the peak of Burfell, covered with
+snow a good part of the year, the view from Biarg would be as
+uninteresting as any to be found in the land.  But then, when one rides
+down to the coast, or ascends the moor, what a splendid view bursts on
+the sight! The great Polar Sea is before one, intensely blue, not with
+the deep ultramarine of the Mediterranean, but with the blue of the
+nemophyla or forget-me-not, rolling in from the mysterious North; and
+across the mighty bay of the Huna-floi can be seen the snowy mountains
+of that extraordinary peninsula which runs out to the north-west of
+Iceland, and is only just not converted into an island because connected
+with Iceland by a narrow strip of land.  That great projection is like a
+hand with fiords between the fingers of land, and glacier-mountains
+where are the knuckles; but the wrist is very narrow indeed, only about
+one English mile across, and there lies a trough along this junction,
+with a little stream and a lake in it.  Now, at this wrist, as we may
+call it, lies the farm of Eyre, where, somewhat later, lived the sister
+of Grettir, who married a man that farmed there, named Glum.
+
+Looking away across the great blue bay, the mountains of the hand may be
+seen rising out of the sea, and looking like icebergs.
+
+Grettir the Strong was the son of a well-to-do bonder, or yeoman, who
+lived at Biarg, and was descended from some of the great nobles of
+Norway. His father's name was Asmund with the Grey-head, and his
+mother's name was Asdis.
+
+He had a brother called Atli, a gentle, kindly young fellow, who never
+wittingly quarrelled with anyone, and was liked by all with whom he had
+to do.  He had also two sisters--one was called Thordis, and she was
+married to Glum of Eyre--but neither come into the story; and he had
+another sister called Rannveig, who was married to Gamli of Melar, at
+the head of Ramsfirth.  He had also a little brother called Illugi, of
+whom more hereafter. Grettir was not a good-looking boy; he had reddish
+hair, a pale face full of freckles, and light blue eyes.  He was
+broad-built, not tall as a boy, though in the end he grew to be a very
+big man.
+
+He was not considered a good-tempered or sociable boy.  He seemed lazy
+and sullen; he liked to sit by the fire without speaking to anyone,
+listening to what was said, and brooding over what he had heard.
+
+If his father set him a task, he did it so unwillingly, and so badly
+that Asmund Greyhead regretted having set him to do anything.
+
+Now, during the winter, as we have already seen, when there is but a
+very little daylight, and the nights are vastly long, when, moreover,
+the whole land is deep in snow, so that there is no farm-work that can
+be done, and no travelling about to visit neighbours, it was, and is
+still, usual in Iceland for those in the house to tell tales, or sagas,
+as they are called.  Some of these sagas relate to the old gods of the
+Norsemen, some are fabulous stories of old heroes who never existed, or,
+if they did exist, have had all sorts of fantastic legends tacked on to
+their histories; but other sagas are the tales of the doings of
+ancestors of the family.
+
+Now, among the sagas that Grettir used to hearken to with greatest
+delight was that of old Onund Treefoot, his great-grandfather, who first
+settled in Iceland.  And this was the tale:
+
+
+Onund, the son of Ufeigh Clubfoot, son of Ivar the Smiter, was a mighty
+Viking in Norway; that is, he went about every summer harrying the
+coasts of England, Ireland, and Scotland.  He joined with three friends,
+and they had five ships together, and one summer they sailed to the
+Hebrides--which were then called the Sudereys, or southern isles. The
+Bishop of the Isle of Man is still called Bishop of Sodor and Man,
+because his diocese originally included the Sudereys.  Then out against
+them came Kiarval, king of the Hebrides, with five ships, and they gave
+him battle, and there was a hard fray. But the men of Onund were the
+mightiest warriors. On each side many fell, but the end of the battle
+was that the king fled with only one ship.  So Onund took the four
+vessels and great spoil, and he wrought great havoc on the coast,
+plundering and burning, and so in the fall of the year returned to
+Norway.  In the history of England, and in that of Scotland and of
+Ireland, we read of the terrible annoyance given to the natives of Great
+Britain and Ireland by the northern pirates; and, indeed, they conquered
+Dublin, and established a kingdom there, and also took to themselves
+Orkney.  Well, when Onund returned to Norway he did not find that
+matters were pleasant there; for King Harald the Unshorn had begun to
+establish himself sole king in Norway.  Hitherto there had been many
+small kings and earls; but Harald had taken an oath that he would not
+cut or trim his hair till he had subdued all under his power, and made
+himself supreme throughout the land.
+
+A great many bonders and all the little kings united against him, and
+there was a great battle fought at Hafrsfiord--the greatest battle that
+had as yet been fought in Norway.  Onund was in the battle along with
+his friend, King Thorir Longchin, and he set his ship alongside of that
+of King Longchin. King Harald ran his ship up alongside of that of
+Longchin, grappled it, and boarded it.  There was a furious fight, and
+Harald sent on board his Bearsarks, a set of half-mad ruffians, who wore
+not bear but wolf skins, and who were said to lead charmed lives, so
+that no weapon would wound them.  Thorir Longchin and all his men were
+killed; and then King Harald cut away the ship and ran up against that
+of Onund.  Onund was in the fore part, and he fought manfully.  As the
+grappling-irons of Harald caught his ship, Onund made a sweep with his
+longsword at the man who threw the irons, and in so doing he put his leg
+over the bulwark.  Then one on the king's ship threw a spear at Onund.
+He saw it flung, and leaned his head back to let it fly over him, and as
+he did so one on the king's ship smote at him with a battle-axe, and the
+axe fell on his leg below the knee and shore his leg off. Then Onund
+fell back on board his own vessel, and his men carried him across into
+that of a friend named Thrand, who lay alongside of him on the other
+board.  And Thrand had a great cauldron there of pitch boiled, and Onund
+set his knee in the boiling pitch, and never blinked nor uttered a cry.
+That staunched the blood.  If he had not done this he would have bled to
+death.
+
+Now, Thrand saw that King Harald was gaining the mastery everywhere, so
+he fled away with his ship and sailed west.
+
+Onund was healed of his wound, but ever after he walked with a wooden
+leg, and that is why he got the name of Onund Treefoot.
+
+After the battle of Hafrsfiord, Onund could only return to Norway by
+stealth, and he could not recover his lands there, so he deemed it
+wisest for him to sail away and seek a home elsewhere.  That is how he
+left Norway and settled in Iceland.
+
+And when King Harald saw himself lord and master through all the land,
+then he had his hair trimmed and combed, and it was so long and so
+beautiful, that ever after he who had been called "The Unshorn" went by
+the name of "Fairhair," and in history he is known as King Harald
+Fairhair.
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER II.*
+
+                    *HOW GRETTIR PLAYED ON THE ICE.*
+
+
+    _An Evil Boyhood--Golf on the Ice--Grettir Quarrels with
+    Audun--A Threat of Vengeance_
+
+
+There are several tales told of Grettir when he was a boy, which show
+that he was a rough and unkindly lad.  He was set by his father to keep
+geese on the moors, and this made him angry, so he threw stones at the
+geese and killed or wounded them all.
+
+The old man suffered from lumbago, and in winter when unwell asked his
+wife and the boys to rub his back by the fire; but when Grettir was
+required to do this, he lost his temper, and on one occasion he snatched
+up a wool-carding comb and dug it into his old father's back.
+
+Many other things he did which made those at home not like him, and
+there was not much love lost between him and his father.  The fact was
+that Grettir was a headstrong, wilful fellow, and bitterly had he to pay
+in after life for this youthful wilfulness and obstinacy.  It was these
+qualities, untamed in him, that wrecked his whole life, and it may be
+said brought ruin and extinction on his family. There were great and
+good qualities in Grettir's nature, but they did not show when he was
+young; only much suffering and cruel privations brought out in the end
+the higher and nobler elements that were in him.
+
+It is so with all who have any good in them, if by early discipline it
+is not manifested, then it is brought out by the rough usage of
+misfortune in after life.
+
+And now I will give one incident of Grettir's boyhood.  It was a
+favourite amusement for young fellows at that time to play golf on the
+ice, and in winter, when the Middlefirth was frozen over, large parties
+assembled there for the sport.
+
+One winter a party was arranged for a match on the ice, and a good many
+lads came to Middlefirth from Willowdale, a valley only separated from
+the Middlefirth by a long shoulder of ugly moor.  The Willowdales-men
+had a much better sheet of water, a very large lake called Hop, into
+which their river flowed, before discharging itself into the sea; and
+the return match was to be played on Hop.
+
+Among the young fellows who came from Willowdale was Audun, a fine,
+strapping fellow; frank, well-built, good-looking, and amiable.
+
+When the parties were assembled at the place, there they were paired off
+according to age and strength; and on this occasion I am speaking of,
+Grettir, who was fourteen, was set to play with Audun, who was two years
+older than he, and a head taller.
+
+Audun struck the ball and it flew over Grettir's head, and he missed it,
+and it went skimming away over the ice to a great distance, and Grettir
+had to run after it.  Some of those who were looking on laughed.  Then
+Grettir's anger was roused.  He got the ball and came back carrying it,
+till he was within a few yards of Audun, and then, instead of dropping
+the ball, and striking it with his golfing-stick, he suddenly threw it
+with all his force against his adversary, and struck him between his
+eyes, so that it half-stunned him, and cut the skin.  Audun whirled his
+golfing-bat round, and struck at Grettir, who dodged under and escaped
+the blow.  Then Audun and Grettir grappled each other, and wrestled on
+the ice.
+
+Every one thought that Audun would have the stumpy, thick-set boy down
+in a trice, but it was not so; Grettir held his ground;--they swung this
+way, that way; now one seemed about to be cast, and then the other, and
+although Audun was almost come to a man's strength, he could not for a
+long time throw Grettir.  At last Grettir slipped on a piece of ice
+where some had been sliding, and went down.  His blood was up, so was
+that of Audun; and the fight would have been continued with their
+sticks, had not Grettir's brother Atli thrown himself between the
+combatants and separated them.  Atli held his brother back, and tried to
+patch up the quarrel.
+
+"You need not hold me like a mad dog," said Grettir.  "Thralls wreak
+their vengeance at once, cowards never."
+
+Audun and Grettir were distant cousins.  They were not allowed to play
+against each other any more, and the rest went on with their game.
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER III.*
+
+                      *OF THE RIDE TO THINGVALLA.*
+
+
+    _Thorkel Mani's Find--Thorkel Krafla--The Halt at Biarg--A Bad
+    Prospect--Among the Lakes--The Lost Meal-bags--Suspicion
+    Confirmed--The Slaying of Skeggi--The Song of the
+    Battle-ogress--Grettir Chooses to take his Trial_
+
+
+There lived in Waterdale, a day's journey from Biarg, an old bonder,
+named Thorkel Krafla. He was the first Icelander who became a Christian.
+
+In heathen times, among the Northmen as among the Romans, it was
+allowable for parents to expose their children to death, if they did not
+want to have the trouble of rearing them.  Now Thorkel had been so
+exposed, with a napkin over his face.  It so happened that a great chief
+called Thorkel Mani was riding along one day, thinking about the gods
+that he had been taught to believe in, who drank and got drunk, and
+fought each other, and, being a grave, meditative man, he could not make
+out what these rollicking, fighting gods could have had to do with the
+world,--with the creation of sun, moon, and stars, and the earth with
+its yield.  He thought to himself, "There must be some God above these
+tipsy, quarrelsome deities; and this higher God must love men, and be
+good and kind to men."
+
+As he thought this, he heard a little whimpering noise from behind a
+stone; he got off his horse, and went to see what produced this noise,
+and found there a poor little baby, that with its tiny hands had rumpled
+up the kerchief which had been spread over its nose and mouth.  Thorkel
+Mani took up the deserted babe in his arms, and looking up to heaven, to
+the sun, said, "If the good God, who is high over all, called this
+little being into life, gave it eyes and mouth and ears and hands and
+feet, He surely never intended His handiwork to be cast out as a thing
+of no value, to die.  For the love of Him I will take this child."
+
+Then Thorkel Mani rode home, carrying the baby in his arms; and he
+called it by his own name, Thorkel; but to distinguish it from himself,
+it was given the nickname Krafla, which means to rumple, because the
+babe had rumpled up the kerchief, so as to let its cries be heard.  So
+the child grew up, and kept the name through life of Thorkel Rumple.
+This Thorkel became a very great man, and Godi, or magistrate, of the
+Waterdale; and, as I have said, he was the first man to become a
+Christian, when missionaries of the gospel came to Iceland.
+
+Very soon after Grettir's birth Christianity became general, and in the
+year 1000 was sanctioned by law; but there were few Christian priests in
+the land, so that the knowledge of the truth had not spread much, and
+taken hold and transformed men's lives. Thorkel Rumple was now very old.
+He was the bosom friend of Asmund, and every year when in the spring he
+rode to the great assizes at Thingvalla, he always halted at least one
+night at Biarg.  Not only were Asmund and he men of like minds, and
+friends, but they were also connected.  In the spring of the year 1011,
+Thorkel arrived as usual at Biarg, attended by a great many men, and he
+was most warmly received by Asmund and his wife.  He remained with them
+three nights, and he and they fell a-talking about the prospects of the
+two young men, Atli and Grettir.  Asmund told his kinsman that Atli was
+a quiet, amiable fellow, now at man's estate, and likely to prove a good
+farmer; a man who would worthily succeed him at Biarg when he died, and
+keep the honour of the family untarnished, and would enlarge the estate.
+
+"Ah!  I see," said Thorkel.  "A useful man, good and respectable, like
+yourself.  But what about Grettir?"
+
+Asmund hesitated a moment before answering; but presently he said, "I
+hardly know what to say of him.  He is unruly, sullen, makes no friends,
+and he has been a constant cause of vexation to me."
+
+Thorkel answered, "That is a bad prospect; however, let him come with me
+to Thingvalla, and I shall be able to see on the journey of what stuff
+he is made."
+
+To this Asmund agreed; and right glad was Grettir to think he was to go
+to the great law-gathering.
+
+Thorkel had sixty men with him, and he rode in some state; for, as
+already said, he was a great man. The way led over the great desolate
+waste, called the Two-days-ride; but as on this expanse there were few
+halting-places, the grass most scanty, and not sufficient to allow of a
+stay, the party rode across it down to the settled lands nearer the
+coast as quickly as they could, and reached Fleet-tongue in time to
+sleep; so they took the bridles off their horses, and let them graze
+with their saddles on.  Their road had lain among the lakes, from which
+issued the rivers that united above Biarg.  In each lake floated a pair
+of swans.  Often they heard the loud hoarse cry of the great northern
+diver; but there was hardly any grass, for the moor lies high, is swept
+by the icy blasts from the glacier mountains to the south, and is made
+up of black sand.  Before them all day had stood towering into the sky
+the Eyreksjokull, a mountain with perfectly precipitous sides of black
+basalt, domed over with glittering ice.  It resembles an immense
+bridecake.  At one place this mountain in former times had gaped, and
+poured forth a fiery stream of lava that ran to the lakes, and for a
+while converted them to steam.  One can still see whence this great
+fiery river issued from the mountain.  Little did Grettir think then as
+he passed under it, a boy of fourteen, that, for the three most lonely,
+wretched years of his life, that great glacier-crowned mountain was to
+be the one object on which his eye would rest.
+
+The men were all very tired after their long ride, and they slept till
+late next morning, lying about on the scant herbage, around a fire made
+of the roots of trailing willows that they had dug out of the sand.
+
+When they awoke many of the horses had strayed, and some had rolled in
+the sand, burst their girths and shaken off their saddles.  But they
+could not have gone any great distance, for they were all hobbled.  In
+Iceland thick woollen ropes are put round the legs of the horses, below
+the hocks, and twisted together into a knot with a knuckle-bone. This
+serves as a secure hobble, and the wool being soft does not gall the
+skin.
+
+It was customary in those days for every one to take his own provisions
+with him, and most of those who went to the great assize carried
+meal-bags athwart their saddles.  Grettir found his horse at last, but
+not his meal-bag, which had come off, and was lost; for the saddle was
+turned under the belly of his cob.
+
+The horses could not have strayed far, not only because they were
+hobbled, but also because the Tongue where they had been turned loose
+was a narrow strip of land between two rivers; but then the slope was
+considerable in places, and the meal-bag might have rolled down into the
+water.
+
+As Grettir was running about hunting for his bag, he saw another man in
+the same predicament.  What is more, he saw that the rest of the party,
+impatient to get on their way, would tarry no longer for them, and were
+defiling down the hill to cross the river.
+
+Grettir was in great distress.  Just then he saw the man run very
+directly in one course, and at the same moment Grettir saw something
+white lying under a mass of lava.  It was towards this that the fellow
+was running.  Grettir ran towards it also.  It was a meal-sack.  The man
+reached it first, and threw it over his shoulder.
+
+"What have you got there?" asked Grettir, coming up panting.
+
+"My meal-sack," answered the fellow.
+
+"Let me look at it," said Grettir.  "It may be mine, not yours.  Let me
+look before you appropriate it."
+
+This the man refused to do.
+
+Grettir's suspicion was confirmed, and he made a catch at the sack, and
+tried to drag it away from the fellow.
+
+"Oh, yes!" sneered the man--who was a servant at a farm called The
+Ridge, in Waterdale, and his name Skeggi,--"Oh, yes! you Middlefirthers
+think you will have everything your own way."
+
+"That is not it," answered Grettir.  "Let each man take his own.  If the
+sack be yours, keep it; if mine, I will have it."
+
+"It is a pity Audun is not here," scoffed the serving-man, "or he would
+trip up your heels and throttle you, as he did on the ice when golfing."
+
+"But as he is not here," retorted Grettir, "you are not like to get the
+better of me."
+
+Skeggi suddenly took his axe by the haft and hewed at Grettir's head.
+Grettir saw what he was at, and instantly put up his left hand and
+caught the handle below where Skeggi's hand held it; wrenched it out of
+his grasp, and struck him with it, so that his skull was cleft.  The
+thing was done in a moment, and Grettir had done it in self-preservation
+and without premeditation.  He was but a boy of fourteen, and this was a
+full-grown stout churl.
+
+Grettir at once seized the meal-bag, saw it was his own, and threw it
+across his saddle.  Then he rode after the company.  Thorkel Krafla rode
+at the head of his party, and he had no misgiving that anything untoward
+had taken place.
+
+But, when Grettir came riding up with his meal-bag, the men asked him if
+he had left Skeggi still in search of his.  Grettir answered in song:
+
+    "A rock Troll did her burden throw
+    Down on Skeggi's skull, I trow.
+    O'er the battle-ogress saw I flow
+    Ruby rivers all aglow.
+    She her iron mouth a-gape
+    Did the life of Skeggi take."
+
+
+This sounds like nonsense; to understand it one must have a notion of
+what constituted poetry in the minds of Icelanders and Northmen.  With
+them the charm of poetry consisted in never calling anything by its
+right name, but using instead of it some far-fetched similitude or
+periphrasis.  Thus--the burden of the rock Troll is iron.  The Troll is
+the spirit of the mountain, and the heaviest thing found in the mountain
+is iron.  The battle-ogress is the axe which bites in battle.  The
+verses that the Norse poets sang were a series of conundrums, and the
+hearers puzzled their brains to make out the sense. This time they soon
+understood what Grettir meant, and the men turned and went back to the
+Tongue, and there found Skeggi dead.
+
+Grettir went on to Thorkel, and in few words, and to the point, told how
+things had fallen out. He was not the aggressor.  He had merely defended
+himself.
+
+Thorkel was much troubled, and he told Grettir that he might either come
+on to the assize or go home; that this act of man-slaughter would be
+investigated at the law-gathering, and judgment given upon it.
+
+Grettir agreed to go on, and see how matters would turn out for him.
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER IV.*
+
+                            *THE DOOM-DAY.*
+
+
+    _The Lava Plain--The Law of Man-slaughter--Grettir's
+    Sentence--The Grettir Stone_
+
+
+That evening they arrived at Thingvalla.
+
+The great plain of Thingvalla is entirely composed of lava.  At some
+remote period before Iceland was colonized a beautiful snowy cone of
+mountain, called "The Broad Shield," poured forth a deluge of molten
+rock, which ran in a fiery river down a valley for some miles,
+half-choking it up, and then spread out over a wide plain where
+anciently there had been a great lake.  Then all cooled, but after the
+cooling, or whilst it was in process, there came a great crack, crack.
+The great mass of lava must have been poured over some subterranean
+caverns; at any rate the whole plain snapped and sank down a good many
+feet, the lava becoming cracked and starred like glass.  Nowadays, one
+cannot cross the plain because it is all traversed with these fearful
+cracks, chasms the bottom of which is filled with black water.  Where
+the plain sank deepest there water settled and formed the beautiful
+Thingvalla Lake.
+
+At the side of one of the cracks where the plain broke off and sank is a
+very curious pinnacle of black rock, and this was called the Hanging
+Rock, as criminals were hung from it over the chasm.
+
+In one place two of the cracks unite, and there is a high mound of
+blistered lava covered with turf and flowers between them.  That is
+called the Law Hill, because the judge and his assessors sat there, and
+no one could get to them, nor could the accused get away across the
+chasms.
+
+Now it was the law at this time in Iceland that when any man had been
+killed his nearest relatives came to the assize, and the slayer appeared
+by proxy and offered blood-money--that is to say, to pay a fine to the
+relations, and so patch up the quarrel.  But if they refused the money
+then they were at liberty to pursue and kill him.  There were no police
+then.  If the relations wanted to have the criminal punished they must
+punish him themselves.
+
+Upon this occasion the case was discussed in the court on the finger of
+rock between the two chasms, the people standing on the further sides of
+these gulfs, listening, but unable to come a step nearer; and Thorkel
+appeared for Grettir and offered to pay the blood-money.  The relations
+of the dead Skeggi, after a little fuss, agreed to accept a certain sum,
+and Thorkel at once paid it.  But the court ordered that, as Grettir had
+acted with undue violence, and as there was no evidence except his word
+that Skeggi had made the first attack, he should be outlawed, and leave
+Iceland for three winters.  If he set his foot in Iceland till three
+winters had passed, his life was forfeit.  He was allowed a moderate and
+reasonable time for finding a ship that would take him out of the
+country.
+
+When the assize was over all rode home, and the way that Thorkel and
+Grettir went was up the valley that had been half-choked with the lava
+that rolled down from Broad Shield.  They came to a small grassy plain
+with a gently-sloping hill rising out of it, a place where games took
+place, the women sitting up the slope and watching the men below. Here
+Grettir is said to have heaved an enormous stone.  The stone is still
+shown, and I have seen it. I also know that Grettir never lifted it; for
+it has clearly been brought there by a glacier.  But this is an instance
+of the way in which stories get magnified in telling.  No doubt that
+Grettir did "put" there some big stone, and as it happened that at this
+spot there was a great rock standing by itself balanced on one point, in
+after days folks concluded that this must have been the stone thrown by
+Grettir.
+
+
+
+
+                              *CHAPTER V.*
+
+                             *THE VOYAGE.*
+
+
+    _Preparations for a Voyage--His Grandfather's Sword--A Bitter
+    Jester--Vain Reproaches--Haflid's Stratagem--The Tables
+    Turned--Shipwrecked_
+
+
+Grettir, then, was doomed by the court to leave his native land whilst
+only a boy, and remain in banishment for three years--that is to say,
+till he was eighteen.  He was not over sorry for this, as he was tired
+of being at home, and he wanted to see the world.
+
+There was a man called Haflid who had a ship in which he intended to
+sail that autumn to Norway, and Asmund sent to him to ask him to take
+Grettir out with him.
+
+Haflid answered that he had not heard a good account of the boy, and did
+not particularly wish to have him in his boat; but he would stretch a
+point, because of the regard he had for old Asmund, and he would take
+him.
+
+Grettir got ready to start; but Asmund would not give him much wherewith
+to trade when abroad, except some rolls of home-made wadmall, a coarse
+felty cloth, and a stock of victuals for his voyage. Grettir asked his
+father to give him some weapon; but the old man answered that he did not
+trust him with swords and axes, he might put them to a bad use, and it
+would be better he went without till he had learned to control his
+temper and keep a check on his hand.
+
+So Grettir parted from his father without much love on either side; and
+it was noticed when he left home that, though there were plenty of folks
+ready to bid him farewell, hardly anyone said that he hoped to see him
+come home again--a certain token that he was not liked by those who had
+seen most of him.  But indeed he had taken no pains to oblige anyone and
+obtain the regard and love of anyone.
+
+His mother was an exception.  She went along the road down the valley
+with him, wearing a long cloak; and when they were alone, at some
+distance from the house, she halted and drew out a sword from under her
+cloak, and handing it to Grettir, said: "This sword belonged to
+grandfather, and many a hard fight has it been in, and much good work
+has it done.  I give it to you, and hope it may stand you in good
+stead."
+
+Grettir was highly pleased, and told his mother that he would rather
+have the sword than anything else that could be given him.
+
+Haflid received Grettir in a friendly manner, and he went at once on
+board; the ship's anchor was heaved, and forth they went to sea.
+
+Now, directly Grettir got on board he looked about for a place where he
+could be comfortable, and chose to make a berth for himself under a boat
+that was slung on deck; then he put up his wadmall, making a sort of
+felt lining or wall round against the wind and spray, leaving open only
+the side inwards, and inside he piled his provisions and whatever he
+had; then he lay down there and did not stir from his snuggery.  Now, it
+was the custom in those days for every man who went in a ship to help in
+the navigation; but Grettir would not only do nothing, but from his den
+he shouted or sang lampoons--that is, spiteful songs, making fun of
+every man on board.  They were not good-natured jokes, but bitter,
+stinging ones.
+
+Naturally enough the other men were annoyed, and they were not slow to
+tell Grettir what they thought of him.  He made no other reply than a
+lampoon.
+
+After the ship had lost sight of land a heavy sea was encountered, and
+unfortunately the vessel was rather leaky and hardly seaworthy in dirty
+weather. The weather was squally and very cold, so that the men suffered
+much.  Moreover, they had to bale out the water from the hold, and this
+was laborious work.  They had not pumps in those days.
+
+The gale increased, and the crew and passengers had been engaged for
+several days and nights in baling without intermission, but Grettir
+would not help.  He lay coiled up in his wadmall under the boat, peering
+out at the men and throwing irritating snatches of song at them.  This
+exasperated them to such an extent that they determined to take him and
+throw him overboard.  Haflid heard what they said, and he went to
+Grettir and reproached him, and told him what was menaced.
+
+"Let them try to use force if they will," said Grettir.  "All I can say
+is that I sha'n't go overboard alone as long as my sword will bite."
+
+"How can you behave as you do?" said Haflid. "Keep silence at least, and
+do not madden the men with your mockery and sneers."
+
+"I cannot hold my tongue from stabbing," said Grettir.
+
+"Very well, then, stab on, but stab me."
+
+"No; you have not hurt me."
+
+"I say, stab me.  Then, if the fellows hear you sing or say something
+spiteful of me, and I disregard it, they will not mind so much the
+ill-natured things you say of them."
+
+Grettir considered a moment, and then, remembering that he had heard of
+something ridiculous that had once occurred to Haflid, he composed a
+verse about it and shouted it derisively at Haflid as he walked away.
+
+"Just listen to him," said Haflid to the men. "Now he is slandering and
+insulting me.  He is an ill-conditioned cur, so ill-conditioned that I
+will not stoop to take notice of his insolence.  And if you take my
+advice you will disregard him as I do."
+
+"Well," said the men, "if you shrug your shoulders and pay no regard to
+his bark, why should we?"
+
+So Haflid, by his tact, smoothed over this difficulty, and averted a
+danger from Grettir's head.
+
+The weather slowly began to mend, and the sun shone out between the
+clouds; but the wind was still strong, and the leak gained on the ship,
+for her bottom was rotten.  Now that the sun shone, the poor women who
+had been aboard and under cover during the gale, crawled forth and came
+to the side where the boat was, and where was a little shelter, and
+there sat sewing; whilst Grettir still lay, like a dog in his hutch,
+within.  Then the men began to laugh, and say that Grettir had found
+suitable company at last--he was not a man among men, but a milksop
+among women.  This was turning the tables on him, and this roused him.
+Out he came crawling from his den, and ran aft to where the men were
+baling, and asked to be given the buckets.  The way in which it was done
+was for one to go down into the hold into the water, and fill a tub or
+cask and hoist it over his head to another man, who carried it up on
+deck and poured it over the bulwarks.  Grettir swung himself down into
+the hold, and filled and heaved so fast that there had to be two men set
+to carry up the baling casks, and then two more, four in all attending
+to him.  At one time he even kept eight going, so vigorously did he
+work;--but then he was fresh, and they exhausted.
+
+When the men saw what a strong, active fellow Grettir was, they praised
+him greatly, and Grettir, unaccustomed to praise, was delighted and
+worked on vigorously, and thenceforth was of the utmost assistance in
+the ship.
+
+They still had bad weather, thick mist, in which they drifted and lost
+their bearings, and one night unawares they ran suddenly on a rock, and
+the rotten bottom of the ship was crushed in.  They had the utmost
+difficulty in rescuing their goods and getting the boat ready; but
+fortunately they were able to put all the women and the loose goods into
+the boat, man her, and row off before the ship went to pieces.  They
+came to a sandy island, ran the boat ashore, and disembarked in the cold
+and wet and darkness.
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER VI.*
+
+                           *THE RED ROVERS.*
+
+
+    _Rescued from the Holm--The Sullen Guest--The Outlawed
+    Rovers--Yule-tide Gatherings--The Suspicious Craft--Grettir
+    Guides the Rovers--The Worst Ruffians in Norway--Grettir
+    Entertains the Band--A Crew of Revellers--When the Wine is
+    in--Thorfin's Treasures--Prisoners and Unarmed--Mad with Drink
+    and Fury--One Against Twelve--In Hot Pursuit--The Slaughter in
+    the Boat-shed--The Last of the Band--Wearied with
+    Slaying--Thorfin's Return--A Moment of Perplexity--Better than a
+    Dozen Men--The Gift of the Sword_
+
+
+One morning, after a night of storm on the coast of Norway, the servants
+ran into the hall of a wealthy bonder, named Thorfin, to tell him that
+during the night a ship had been wrecked off the coast, and that the
+crew and passengers were crowded on a little sandy holm, and were
+signalling for help.
+
+The bonder sprang up and ran down to the shore. He ordered out a great
+punt from his boat-house, and jumping in with his thralls, rowed to the
+holm to rescue those who were there.
+
+These were, I need not tell you, the crew and passengers of Haflid's
+merchant vessel.  Thorfin took the half-frozen wretches on board his
+boat and rowed them to his farm, after which he returned to the islet
+and brought away the wares.  In the meantime his good housewife had been
+lighting fires, preparing beds, brewing hot ale with honey to sweeten
+it, and making every preparation she could think of for the sufferers.
+
+Haflid and the rest of the merchants or chapmen who had sailed with him
+remained at the farm a week, whilst the women were recovering from the
+cold and exposure and their goods were being dried and sorted.  Then
+they departed, with many thanks for the hospitality shown them, on their
+way to Drontheim.
+
+Grettir, however, remained.  Thorfin, the master of the house, did not
+much like him.  He did not ask him to stay; but then he had not the lack
+of hospitality to bid him depart.  In the farm Grettir never offered to
+lend a hand in any of the work; he never joined in conversation, he sat
+over the fire warming himself, and ate and drank heartily.
+
+Thorfin was much abroad, hunting or seeing after the wood-cutting, and
+he often asked Grettir to come with him.  But he was granted no other
+answer than a shake of the head and a growl.  Now the bonder was a
+merry, kindly-hearted fellow, and he liked to have all about him
+cheerful.  It is no wonder, then, that Grettir, morose and indolent,
+found no favour with him.
+
+Yule drew near, and Thorfin busked him to depart, with a number of his
+attendants, to keep the festival at one of his farms distant a good
+day's journey. His wife was unable to accompany him, as his eldest
+daughter was ill and needed careful nursing.  Grettir he did not invite,
+as his sullenness would have acted as a damper on the joviality of the
+banquet.
+
+The farmer started for his house where he was going to spend Yule some
+days before.  A large company of guests were invited to meet him, so he
+took thirty serving-men to attend on him and them.
+
+Norway was at this time being brought into order by Earl Erik, who was
+putting down with a high hand the bands of rovers who had been the
+terror of the country.  He had outlawed all these men, and that meant
+that whoever killed them could not be fined or punished in any way for
+the slaying. Now Thorfin, the farmer with whom Grettir was staying, had
+been very active against these rovers, and they bore him a grudge.
+Among the worst of them were two brothers, Thorir wi' the Paunch and Bad
+Ogmund.  They had not yet been caught, and they defied the power of the
+Earl.  They robbed wherever they went, burned farms over the heads of
+the sleeping inmates, and with the points of their spears drove the
+shrieking victims back into the flames when they attempted to escape.
+
+Christmas Eve was bright and sunny, and the sick girl was sufficiently
+recovered to be brought out to take the air on the sunny side of the
+great hall, leaning on her mother's arm.
+
+Grettir spent the whole day out of doors, not in the most amiable mood
+at being shut out from the merry-makings, and left to keep house with
+the women and eight dunderheaded churls.  He fed his discontent by
+sitting on a headland watching the boats glide by, as parties went to
+convivial gatherings at the houses of their friends.  The deep blue sea
+was speckled with sails, as though gulls were plunging in the waters.
+Now a stately dragon-ship rolled past, her fearful carved head
+glittering with golden scales, her sails spread like wings before the
+breeze, and her banks of oars dipping into the sea and flashing as they
+rose.  Now a wherry was rowed by laden with cakes and ale, and the
+boatmen's song rang merrily through the crisp air.
+
+The day began to decline, and Grettir was on the point of returning to
+the farm, when the strange proceedings of a craft at no great distance
+attracted his attention.  He noticed that she stole along in the shadows
+of the islets, keeping out of sight as much as possible.  Grettir could
+make out of her just this much, that she was floating low in the water,
+and was built for speed.  As she stranded the rowers jumped on the
+beach.  Grettir counted them, and found they were twelve, all armed men.
+They burst into Thorfin's boat-house, thrust out his punt, and in its
+place drew in their own vessel, and pulled her up on the rollers.
+
+Mischief was a-brewing--that was clear.  So Grettir went down the hill,
+and sauntered up to the strangers, with his hands in his pockets,
+kicking the pebbles before him.
+
+"Who is your leader?" he asked curtly.
+
+"I am.  What do you want with me?" answered a stout coarse man--"Thorir,
+whom they nickname 'wi' the Paunch.'  Here is my brother Ogmund. I
+reckon that Thorfin knows our names well enough. Don't you think so,
+brother?  We have come here to settle a little outstanding reckoning.
+Is he at home?"
+
+"You are lucky fellows," laughed Grettir, "coming here in the very nick
+of time.  The bonder is away with all his able-bodied and fighting men,
+and won't be back for a couple of days.  His wife and daughter are,
+however, at the farm.  Now is your time if you have old scores to wipe
+off; for he has left all his things that he values unprotected, silver,
+clothing, ale, and food in abundance."
+
+Thorir listened, then turning to Ogmund he said, "This is as I had
+expected.  But what a chatterbox this fellow is, he lets out everything
+without being asked questions."
+
+"Every man knows the use of his tongue," said Grettir.  "Now, follow me,
+and I will do what I can for you."
+
+The rovers at once followed.  Then Grettir took fat Thorir by the hand
+and led him to the farm, talking all the way as hard as his tongue could
+wag. Now the housewife happened at the time to be in the hall, and
+hearing Grettir thus talking, she was filled with surprise, and called
+out to know whom he had with him.
+
+"I have brought you guests for Yule," said Grettir. "We shall not keep
+it in as dull a fashion as we feared.  Here come visitors uninvited, but
+merry, uncommon merry."
+
+"Who are they?" asked the housewife.
+
+"Thorir wi' the Paunch and Ogmund the Bad, and ten of their comrades."
+
+Then she cried out: "What have you done?  These are the worst ruffians
+in all Norway.  Is this the way you repay the kindness Thorfin has shown
+you in housing and keeping you here, without it's costing you anything?"
+
+"Stay your woman's tongue!" growled Grettir. "Now bestir yourself and
+bring out dry clothes for the guests."
+
+Then the housewife ran away crying, and her sick daughter, who saw the
+house invaded by ill-looking men all armed, hid herself.
+
+"Well," said Grettir, "as the women are too scared to attend on you, I
+will do what is necessary; so give me your wet clothes, and let me wipe
+your weapons and set them by the fire lest they get rusted."
+
+"You are a different fellow from all the rest in the house."
+
+"I do not belong to the house.  I am a stranger, an Icelander."
+
+"Then I don't mind taking you along with us when we go away."
+
+"As you will," answered the young fellow; "only mind, I don't behave
+like this to every one."
+
+Then the freebooters gave him their weapons, and he wiped the salt water
+from them, and laid them aside in a warm spot.  Next he removed their
+wet garments, and brought them dry suits which he routed out of the
+clothes-chests belonging to Thorfin and his men.
+
+By this time it was night.  Grettir brought in logs and faggots of fir
+branches, and made a roaring fire that filled the great hall with ruddy
+light and warmth.  In those days the halls were long buildings with a
+set of hearths running down the middle, and benches beside the fires.
+
+"Now, then, my men," said Grettir, "come to the table and drink, for I
+doubt not you are thirsty with long rowing."
+
+"We are ready," said they.  "But where are the cellars?"
+
+"Oh, if you please, I will bring you ale."
+
+"Certainly, you shall attend on us," said Thorir.
+
+Then Grettir went and fetched the best and strongest ale in Thorfin's
+cellars, and poured it out for the men.  They were very tired and
+thirsty, and they drank eagerly.  Grettir did not stint them in meat or
+drink, and at last he took his place by them, and recited many tales
+that made them laugh, he also sang them songs; but they were becoming
+fast too tipsy to rack their brains to find out the meaning in the
+poetry.
+
+Not one of the house-churls showed his face in the hall that evening;
+they slunk about the farm, in the stables and sheds, frightened and
+trembling.
+
+Then said Thorir: "I'll tell you what, my men. I like this young chap,
+and I doubt our finding another so handy and willing.  What say you all
+to our taking him into our band?"
+
+The pirates banged their drinking-horns on the table in token of
+approval.  Then Grettir stood up and said:
+
+"I thank you for the offer, and if you are in the same mind to-morrow
+morning when the ale is no longer in your heads, I will strike hands and
+go with you."
+
+"Let us drink brotherhood at once," shouted the rovers.
+
+"Not so," said Grettir calmly.  "I will not have it said that I took
+advantage of you when you were not sober.  It is said that when the wine
+is in the wit is out."
+
+They all protested that they would be of the same mind next morning, but
+Grettir stuck to his decision. They were now becoming so tipsy that he
+proposed they should go to bed.
+
+"But first of all," said he, "I think you will like to run your eyes
+over Thorfin's storehouse where he keeps all his treasures."
+
+"That we shall!" roared Thorir, staggering to his feet.
+
+Then Grettir took a blazing firebrand from the hearth, and led the way
+out of the hall into the night.
+
+The storehouse was detached from the main buildings.  It was very
+strongly built of massive logs, firmly mortised together.  The door also
+was very solid, and the whole stood on a strong stone basement, and a
+flight of stone steps led up to the door.  Adjoining the storehouse was
+a lean-to building divided off from it by a partition of planks.
+
+The sharp frosty air of night striking on the faces of the revellers
+increased their intoxication, and they became very riotous, staggering
+against each other, uttering howls and attempting to sing.
+
+Drawing back the bolt Grettir flung the door open, and showed the twelve
+rovers into the treasury; and he held the flaming torch above his head
+and showed the silver-mounted drinking-horns, the embroidered garments,
+the rich fur mantles, gold bracelets, and bags filled with silver coins
+obtained from England.  The drunken men dashed upon the spoil, knocking
+each other over and quarrelling for the goods they wanted.
+
+In the midst of this noise and tumult Grettir quietly extinguished the
+torch, stepped outside and ran the bolt into its place; he had shut them
+all--all twelve, into the strong-room, and not one of them had his
+weapons about him.
+
+Then Grettir ran to the farm door and shouted for the housewife.  But
+she would not answer, as she mistrusted him; and no wonder, for he had
+seemed to be hand and glove with the pirates.
+
+"Come, come!" shouted Grettir, "I have caught all twelve, and all I need
+now are weapons.  Call up the thralls and arm them.  Quick! not a moment
+must be lost."
+
+"There are plenty of weapons here," answered the poor woman, emerging
+from her place of concealment. "But, Grettir, I mistrust you."
+
+"Trust or no trust," said Grettir, "I must have weapons.  Where are the
+serving-men?  Here, Kolbein!  Swein!  Gamli!  Rolf!  Confound the
+rascals, where are they skulking?"
+
+"Over Thorfin's bed hangs a great barbed spear," said the housewife.
+"You will also find a sword and helmet and cuirass.  No lack of weapons,
+only pluck to wield them is needed."
+
+Grettir seized the casque and spear, girded on the sword and dashed into
+the yard, begging the woman to send the churls after him.  She called
+the eight men, and they came up timidly--that is to say, four appeared
+and took the weapons, but the other four, after showing their faces, ran
+and hid themselves again, they were afraid to measure swords with the
+terrible rovers.
+
+In the meantime the pirates had been trying the door, but it was too
+massive for them to break through, so they tore down the partitions of
+boards between the store and the lean-to room at the side. They were mad
+with drink and fury.  They broke down the door of the side-room easily
+enough, and came out on the platform at the head of the stone steps just
+as Grettir reached the bottom.
+
+Thorir and Ogmund were together.  In the fitful gleams of the moon they
+seemed like demons as they scrambled out, armed with splinters of deal
+they had broken from the planks and turned into weapons.  The brothers
+plunged down the narrow stairs with a howl that rang through the
+snow-clad forest for miles.  Grettir planted the boar-spear in the
+ground and caught Thorir on its point.  The sharp double-edged blade,
+three feet in length, sliced into him and came out between his
+shoulders, then tore into Ogmund's breast a span deep.  The yew shaft
+bent like a bow, and flipped from the ground the stone against which the
+butt-end had been planted. The wretched men crashed over the stair,
+tried to rise, staggered, and fell again.  Grettir trod on Thorir,
+wrenched the spear out of him, and then running up the steps cut down
+another rover as he came through the door.  Then the rest came out
+stumbling over each other, some armed with bits of broken stick, others
+unarmed, and as they came forth Grettir hewed at them with the sword, or
+thrust at them with the spear.
+
+In the meantime the churls had come up, armed indeed, but not knowing
+how to use the weapons, and in a condition of too great terror to use
+them to any purpose.  The pirates saw that they were being worsted, and
+their danger sobered them.  They went back into the room and ripped the
+planks till they had obtained serviceable pieces, and then came two
+together down the stair, warding off Grettir's blows with their sticks,
+and not attempting to strike. Then they forced him back and allowed
+space and time for those behind to leap down to the ground. If then they
+had combined they might have recovered the mastery, but they did not
+believe that they were assailed by a single enemy, they thought that
+there must have been many; consequently those who had leaped from the
+platform, instead of attacking Grettir from behind, ran away across the
+farmyard, and those who were warding off his blows, finding themselves
+unsupported, lost heart, and leaped down as well and attempted to
+escape. The yard was full of flying frightened wretches, too blinded by
+their fear to find the gate, and in the wildness of their terror they
+climbed or leaped over the yard wall and ran towards the boat-house.
+Grettir went after them.  They plunged into the dark boat-shed, and
+possessed themselves of the oars, whilst some tried to run their boat
+down into the water.  Grettir followed them in the gloom, smiting to
+right and left.  The bewildered wretches in the darkness hit each other,
+stumbled and fell in the boat, and some wounded went into the water.
+
+The thralls, content that the pirates had cleared out of the yard, did
+not trouble themselves to pursue them, but went into the farmhouse.  The
+good woman in vain urged them to go after and succour Grettir.  They
+thought they had done quite enough.  It is true, they had neither killed
+nor wounded anyone, but they had seen some men killed.  So Grettir got
+no help from them.  He was still in the boat-house, and he had this
+advantage: the boat-house was open to the air on the side that faced the
+sea, whilst the further side was closed with a door, consequently
+Grettir was himself in shadow. But the moon shone on the water, and he
+could see the black figures of the rovers cut sharply against this
+silver background.  So he could see where to strike, whilst he himself
+was unseen.
+
+One stroke from an oar reached him on the shoulder, and for the moment
+numbed his arm; but he speedily recovered sensation, and killed two more
+of the ruffians; then the remaining four made a dash together, past him,
+through the door, and separating into pairs, fled in opposite
+directions.  Grettir went after one of the couples and tracked them to a
+neighbouring farm, where they dashed into a granary and hid among the
+straw.  Unfortunately for them most of the wheat had been thrashed out,
+so that only a few bundles remained.  Grettir shut and bolted the door
+behind him, then chased the poor wretches like rats from corner to
+corner, till he had cut them both down.  Then he opened the door, and
+cast the corpses outside.
+
+In the meanwhile the weather was changing, the sky had become overcast
+with a thick snow fog that rolled up from the sea, so that Grettir, on
+coming out, saw that he must abandon the pursuit of the remaining two.
+Moreover, his arm pained him, his strength was failing him, and a sense
+of overpowering fatigue stole over him.
+
+The housewife had placed a lamp in a window of a loft as a guide to
+Grettir in the fog; the stupid house-thralls could not be induced by her
+to go out in search of him, and she was becoming uneasy at his
+protracted absence.  The fog turned into small snow, thick and blinding,
+and Grettir struggled through it with difficulty, as the weariness he
+felt became almost overpowering.  At last he reached the farm and
+staggered in through the door.  He could hardly speak.  He went to the
+table, took a horn of mead, drank some, and then threw himself down
+among the rushes on the floor by the fire, full armed grasping the
+sword, and in a moment was asleep.
+
+He did not wake for twelve hours; but the cautious and prudent housewife
+had sent out the carles in search of the pirates.  The dead bodies were
+found, some in the yard, some in the boat-house; then Grettir woke and
+came to them and pointed out in what direction the only remaining two
+had run.  The snow had fallen so thick that their traces could not be
+followed, but before nightfall they were discovered, dead, under a rock
+where they had taken refuge; they had died of cold and loss of blood.
+All the bodies were collected and a great cairn of stones was piled over
+them.
+
+When they had been buried, then the housewife made Grettir take the high
+seat in the hall, and she treated him with the utmost respect, as he
+deserved.
+
+Time passed, and Thorfin prepared to return home; he dismissed his
+guests, and he and his men got into their boat to return home.  No
+tidings had reached him of the events that had happened whilst he had
+been away.  The first thing he saw as he came rowing to his harbour was
+his punt lying stranded. This surprised and alarmed him, and he bade his
+men row harder.  They ran to the boat-house, and then saw it occupied by
+a vessel, on the rollers, which there was no mistaking; he knew it well,
+it belonged to those redoubted pirates Thorir and Ogmund.  For a moment
+he was silent with the terror and grief that came on him.  "The Red
+Rovers!" he said, when he recovered the stunning sense of alarm.  "The
+Red Rovers are here--they are on my farm.  God grant they have not hurt
+my wife and daughter!"
+
+Then he considered what was to be done, whether it was best to go at
+once to the farm, or to make a secret approach to it from different
+quarters, and surprise the enemy.
+
+Grettir was to blame.  He ought not to have allowed Thorfin to be thus
+thrown into uncertainty and distress.  He had seen the master's boat
+round the headland and enter the bay, but he would neither go himself to
+meet him on the strand, nor suffer anyone else to go.
+
+"I do not care even if the bonder be a bit disturbed at what he sees,"
+said the young man.
+
+"Then let me go," urged the wife.
+
+"You are mistress, do as you like," said Grettir bluntly.
+
+So the housewife and her daughter went down towards the boat-house, and
+when Thorfin saw them he ran to meet them, greatly relieved but much
+perplexed, and he clasped his wife to his heart and said, "God be
+praised that you and my child are safe!  But tell me how matters have
+stood whilst I have been away, for I cannot understand the boat being
+where I found it."
+
+"We have been in grievous peril," answered his wife.  "But the
+shipwrecked boy whom you sheltered has been our protector, better than a
+dozen men."
+
+Then he said, "Sit down on this rock by me and tell me all."
+
+They took each other by the hand and sat on a stone; and the attendants
+gathered round, and the housewife told them the whole story from
+beginning to end.  When she spoke of the way in which the young
+Icelander had led the tipsy rovers into the storehouse and fastened them
+in, without their swords, the men burst into a shout of joy; and when
+her tale was concluded, their exultant cries rang so loud that Grettir
+heard them in the farmhouse.
+
+Thorfin said nothing to interrupt the thread of his wife's story; and
+after she had done he remained silent, rapt in thought.  No one ventured
+to disturb him.  Presently he looked up, and said quietly, "That is a
+good proverb which says, 'Never despair of anyone.'  Now I must speak a
+word with Grettir."
+
+Thorfin walked with his wife to the farm, and when he saw Grettir he
+held out both his hands to him, and thanked him.
+
+"This I say to you," said Thorfin, "which few would say to their best of
+friends--that I hope some day you may need my help, and then I will
+prove to you how thankful I am for what you have done. I can say no
+more."
+
+Grettir thanked him, and spent the rest of the winter at his house.  The
+story of what he had done spread through all the country, and was much
+praised, especially by such as had suffered from the violence of the Ked
+Rovers.  But Thorfin made to Grettir a present, in acknowledgment of
+what he had done; and that present was the sword that had hung above his
+bed, with which Grettir had killed so many of the rovers.  Now,
+concerning this sword a tale has to be told.
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER VII.*
+
+                       *THE STORY OF THE SWORD.*
+
+    _The Light on the Cliff--The Grave of Karr the Old--The Visit to
+    the Ness--The Chamber of the Dead--The Shape on the Throne--In
+    the Dead Man's Arms--A Fearful Wrestle--The Dead Vanquished--The
+    Dragon's Treasure--The Tale of the Sword--The Two Swords of
+    Grettir_
+
+
+Some little while before the slaying of the Red Rovers, a strange event
+had taken place.
+
+Grettir had made the acquaintance of a man called Audun, who lived at a
+little farm at some distance from the house of Thorfin, and he walked
+over there occasionally to sit and talk with his friend.  As he returned
+late at night he noticed that a strange light used to dance at the end
+of a cliff that overhung the sea, at the end of a headland; a lonely
+desolate headland it was, without house or stall near it.  Grettir had
+never been there, and as it was so bare, he knew that no one lived on
+that headland, so he could not account for the light.  One day he said
+to Audun that he had seen this strange light, which was not steady but
+flickered; and he asked him what it meant.
+
+Audun at once became very grave, and after a moment's hesitation said,
+"You are right.  No one lives on that ness, but there is a great mound
+there, under which is buried Karr the Old, the forefather of your host
+Thorfin; and it is said that much treasure was buried with him.  That is
+why the ghostly light burns above the mound, for--you must know that
+flames dance over hidden treasure."
+
+"If treasure be hidden there, I will dig it up," said Grettir.
+
+"Attempt nothing of the kind," said Audun, "or Thorfin will be angry.
+Besides, Karr the Old is a dangerous fellow to have to deal with.  He
+walks at night, and haunts all that headland and has scared away the
+dwellers in the nearest farms.  No one dare live there because of him.
+That is why the Ness is all desolate without houses."
+
+"I will stay the night here," said Grettir, "and to-morrow we will go
+together to the Ness, and take spade and pick and a rope, and I will see
+what can be found."
+
+Audun did not relish the proposal, but he did not like to seem
+behindhand with Grettir, and he reluctantly agreed to go with him.
+
+So next day the two went out on the Ness together. They passed two
+ruined farmhouses, the buildings rotting, the roofs fallen in.  Those
+who had lived in them had been driven away by the dweller in the old
+burial mound, or barrow.  The Norse name for these sepulchral mounds is
+_Haug_, pronounced almost like How; and where in England we have places
+with the names ending in _hoe_, there undoubtedly in former times were
+such mounds.  Thus, in Essex are Langenhoe and Fingringhoe, that is to
+say the Long Barrow and Fingar's How.  Also, the Hoe, the great walk at
+Plymouth above the sea, derives its name from some old burial mound now
+long ago destroyed.
+
+The Ness was a finger of land running out into the sea, and on it grew
+no trees, only a little coarse grass; at the end rose a great circular
+bell-shaped mound, with a ring of stones set round it, to mark its
+circumference.  Grettir began to dig at the summit, and he worked hard.
+The day was short, and the sun was touching the sea as his pickaxe went
+through an oak plank, into a hollow space beneath, and he knew at once
+that he had struck into the chamber of the dead.  He worked with
+redoubled energy, and tore away the planks, leaving a black hole beneath
+of unknown depth, but which to his thinking could not be more than seven
+feet beneath him.  Then he called to Audun for the rope.  The end he
+fastened round his waist, and bade his friend secure the other end to a
+pole thrown across the pit mouth.  When this was done, Audun cautiously
+let Grettir down into the chamber of the dead.
+
+Now, you must know that in heathen times what was often done with old
+warriors was to draw up a boat on the shore, and to seat the dead man in
+the cabin, with his horse slain beside him, sometimes some of his slaves
+or thralls were also killed and put in with him, and his choicest
+treasures were heaped about him.  This men did because they thought that
+the dead man would want his weapons, his raiment, his ornaments, his
+horse and his servants in the spirit world.  Of late years such a mound
+has been opened in Norway, and a great ship found in it, well preserved,
+with the old dead chief's bones in it.  When a ship was not buried, then
+a chamber of strong planks was built, and he was put in that, and the
+earth heaped over him.  Into such a chamber had Grettir now dug.
+
+He soon reached the bottom, and was in darkness, only a little light
+came in from above, through the hole he had broken in the roof of the
+cabin or chamber.  His feet were among bones, and these he was quite
+sure were horse bones.  Then he groped about.
+
+As his eyes became more accustomed to the darkness, he discerned a
+figure seated in a throne.  It was the long-dead Karr the Old.  He was
+in full harness, with a helmet on his head with bull's horns sticking
+out, one on each side; his hands were on his knees, and his feet on a
+great chest.  Round his neck was a gold torque or necklet, made of bars
+of twisted gold, hooked together behind the head. Grettir in the dark
+could only just make out the glimmer of the gold, but it seemed to him
+that a phosphorescent light played about the face of the dead chief.
+
+So little light was left, that Grettir hasted to collect what he could.
+There stood a brazen vessel near the chair, in which were various
+articles, probably of worth, but it was too dark for Grettir to see what
+they were.  He brought the vessel to the rope and fastened the end of
+the cord to its handle.  Then he went back to the old dead man and drew
+away a short sword that lay on his lap, and this he placed in the brass
+vessel.  Next he began to unhook the gold torque from his neck, and as
+he did this the phosphorescent flame glared strangely about the dead
+man's face.
+
+Then, all at once, as both his hands were engaged undoing the hook
+behind Karr's neck, he was clipped. The dead man's arms had clutched
+him, and with a roar like a bull Karr the Old stood up, holding him
+fast, and now all the light that had played over his features gathered
+into and glared out of his eyes.
+
+When Audun heard the roar, he was so frightened that he ran from the
+barrow, and did not stay his feet till he reached home, feeling
+convinced that the ghost or whatever it was that lived in the tomb had
+torn Grettir to pieces.
+
+Then began in the chamber of the dead a fearful wrestle.  Grettir was at
+times nigh on smothered by the gray beard of the dead chief, that had
+been growing, growing, in the vault, ever since he had been buried.
+
+How long that terrible struggle continued no one can tell.  Grettir had
+to use his utmost force to stand against Karr the Old.  The two wrestled
+up and down in the chamber, kicking the horse bones about from side to
+side, stumbling over the coffer, and the brass vessel, and the horse's
+skull, striking against the sides, and when they did this then masses of
+earth and portions of broken plank fell in from above.
+
+At last Karr's feet gave way under him and he fell, and Grettir fell
+over him.  Then instantly he laid hold of his sword, and smote off Old
+Karr's head and laid it beside his thigh.
+
+This, according to Norse belief, was the only way in which to prevent a
+dead man from walking, who had haunted the neighbourhood of his tomb,
+and in the Icelandic sagas we hear of other cases where the same
+proceeding was gone through.  The Norsemen held to something more
+dreadful than ghosts walking; they thought that some evil spirit entered
+into the bodies of the dead, that when this happened the dead no longer
+decayed, but walked, and ate, and drank, and fought, very much like
+living ruffians, but with redoubled strength.  Then, when this happened,
+nothing was of any avail save the digging up of the dead man, cutting
+off his head and laying it at his thigh.
+
+When Grettir had done this, he despoiled Karr the Old of his helm, his
+breast-plate, his torque, and he took the box on which the feet had
+rested. He fastened all together to the rope, and called to Audun to
+haul up.  He received no answer, so he swarmed up himself, and finding
+that his friend had run away he pulled up what he had tied together, and
+carried the whole lot in his arms to the house of Thorfin.  Thorfin and
+his party were at supper; and when Grettir came in, the bonder looked
+up, and asked why he did not keep regular hours, and be at the table
+when the meal began.  Grettir made no other answer than to throw all he
+carried down on the supper-table before the master.  Thorfin raised his
+eyebrows when he saw so much treasure.
+
+"Where did you get all this?" he asked.
+
+Then Grettir answered in one of his enigmatical songs:
+
+    "Thou who dost the wave-shine shorten,
+      My attempt has been to find
+    In the barrow what was hidden,
+      Deep in darkness black and blind.
+    Nothing of the dragon's treasure
+      With the dead is left behind."
+
+
+By the wave-shine shortener he meant Thorfin; the dragon's treasure
+meant gold, because dragons were thought to line their lairs with that
+metal.
+
+Thorfin saw that Grettir's eye looked longingly at the short sword that
+had lain on the knees of Karr. He said: "It was a heathen custom in old
+times to bury very much that was precious along with the dead.  I do not
+blame you for what you have done; but this I will say, that there is no
+one else about this place who would have ventured to attempt what you
+have done.  As for that sword on which you cast your eyes so longingly,
+it has ever been in our family, and I cannot part with it till you have
+shown that you are worthy to wear it."
+
+Then that sword was hung up over Thorfin's bed. You have heard how
+Grettir did show that he was worthy to wear it, and also how Thorfin
+gave it him.
+
+Now, this tale about the sword will very well illustrate what was said
+at the beginning, that the history of Grettir contains, in the main,
+truth; but that this substance of truth has been embroidered over by
+fancy.  What is true is, that during the winter in which he was with
+Thorfin he did dig into the mound in which Karr was buried, and did take
+thence his treasures and his sword.  But all the story of his fight with
+the dead man was added. The same story occurs in a good many other
+sagas, as in that of Hromund Greip's son, who also got a sword by
+digging into a barrow for it.  When the history of Grettir was told, and
+this adventure of his was related, those who told the story imported
+into it the legend of the fight of Hromund in the grave with the dead
+man, so as to make the history of Grettir more amusing.  As you will see
+by the tale, no one else was present when it happened, for Audun had run
+away, and it was not like Grettir to boast of what he had done.  This
+was an embellishment added by the story-teller, and from the storyteller
+the incident passed into the volume of the story-writer.
+
+Grettir had now two good swords; one long, which he called Jokull's
+Gift, that he had received from his mother, and this short one that he
+wore at his girdle, which he had taken out of the grave of Karr the Old,
+and which he had won fairly by his bravery in the defence of the house
+and family of Thorfin.
+
+
+
+
+                            *CHAPTER VIII.*
+
+                             *OF THE BEAR.*
+
+
+    _Grettir goes North--Biorn the Braggart--The Bear's Den--Biorn's
+    Feat--A Hunting Party--The Lost Cloak--Grettir Seeks the Bear
+    Alone--Grettir's Hardest Tussle--The Fall Over the
+    Cliff--Thorgils Acts as Peacemaker--Grettir Restrains Himself_
+
+
+When spring came, then Grettir left his friend Thorfin, and went north
+along the Norwegian coast, and was everywhere well received, because the
+story of how he had killed twelve rovers, he being as yet but a boy, was
+noised through all the country, and every one who had anything to lose
+felt safer because that wicked gang was broken up. Nothing of
+consequence is told about him during that summer.  For the winter he did
+not return to Thorfin as asked, but accepted the invitation of another
+bonder, named Thorgils.
+
+Thorgils was a merry, pleasant man, and he had a great company in his
+house that winter.  Among his visitors was a certain Biorn, a distant
+cousin, a man whom Thorgils did not like, as he was a slanderous-tongued
+fellow, and moreover he was a braggart.  He was one of those persons we
+meet with not infrequently who cannot endure to hear another praised;
+who, the moment a good word is spoken of someone, immediately puts in a
+nasty, spiteful word, and tells an unkind story, so as to drag that
+person down in the general opinion.  At the same time, concerning
+himself he had only praiseworthy and wonderful feats to relate about his
+wit, his wisdom, his craft, his knowledge of the world, about his
+strength and courage.
+
+Thorgils knew how much, or rather how little, to believe of what Biorn
+said, and he did not pay much regard to his talk.  But now Grettir had
+an opportunity of seeing and of feeling how mistaken had been his
+conduct on board the ship upon which he had come to Norway, when he made
+lampoons on the sailors and chapmen, and stung them with sharp words.
+He saw how disagreeable a fellow Biorn was, how much he was disliked,
+and by some despised; and he kept very greatly to himself and out of
+Biorn's way.  He did not wish to quarrel with him, because he was the
+relative of his host, and he was afraid that his anger would get the
+better of him if he did come to words with the braggart.
+
+Grettir had grown a great deal since he left Iceland, and he was now a
+strapping fellow, broad built but not short.  He was not handsome, but
+his face was intelligent.
+
+It fell out that a bear gave much trouble that winter to Thorgils and
+the neighbouring farmers. It was so strong and so daring that no folds
+were secure against it, and Thorgils and the other farmers endured
+severe losses through the depredations of Bruin.
+
+Before Yule, a party was formed to go in search of and kill the bear,
+but all that was done was to find the lair.
+
+The bear had taken up his abode in the face of a tremendous cliff that
+overhung the sea.  There was but one path up to the cave, and that was
+so narrow that only one man could creep along it at a time. Moreover, if
+his foot slipped he would be flung over the edge upon the rocks or
+skerries below against which the waves dashed.
+
+"When the den of the bear had been discovered," Biorn said, "That is the
+main thing.  Now I know where the rogue lies, I'll settle with him,
+trust me. I've been the death of scores of bears.  My only dread is lest
+he be afraid of me, and will not come on."
+
+And, actually, Biorn went out on several moonlit nights to watch for the
+bear.  He saw that the only way to deal with him would be to stop the
+track from the den, and fight him as he attempted to come away.  He took
+his short sword and great shield with him covered with ox-hide, and one
+night he laid himself down on the path of the bear, and put his shield
+over him.  He thought that Bruin would come smelling at the great
+hide-covered shield, and then all at once he (Biorn) would spring up and
+drive his sword into the heart of the bear. That was his plan--and not a
+bad plan--only, unfortunately for Biorn, the bear did not come out for a
+long time.  He had got an inkling that a man was watching for him, so he
+was shy, and whilst he waited before venturing forth, Biorn, who had
+been drinking pretty freely that evening, went to sleep.
+
+Presently the bear came out, crept cautiously down the narrow track,
+snuffing about, and when he came to Biorn, he plucked with his claws at
+the shield, and with one wrench had it off and tumbled it down the
+cliff.
+
+Biorn woke with a start, rose to his knees, saw the huge bear before
+him, and in a moment turned tail, and ran as hard as he could run to
+Thorgils' house, and was too scared to be able to boast that he had
+killed or wounded the bear.
+
+Next morning his shield was found where the bear had thrown it, and much
+fun did this adventure of the braggart occasion.  This made him very
+irritable and more spiteful than ever.
+
+Thorgils now said that really something must be done to rid the
+neighbourhood of the bear, so a party of eight set out well armed with
+spears; of this party were Biorn and Grettir.  They reached the point
+where the track to the den ran up the cliff to the lair, and one man
+after another tried it.  But there was no getting at the bear; for as
+soon as a man came near the beast put his great forepaws forth and
+caught and snapped the spear-heads or beat them down.  As already said,
+only one could crawl up at a time.
+
+Grettir had gone out that day in a fur coat that his friend Thorfin had
+given him, and which he greatly valued.  When the onslaught against the
+bear began, he took off his fur coat, and folded it, and put it on a
+stone.  Biorn saw this, and, when none observed, he took the fur coat
+and threw it into the cave of the bear.  Grettir did not see what had
+been done till the party, disappointed with their want of success, made
+ready to depart, when he missed it, and then some suspicion entered his
+head as to what had been done with it, and by whom, but he said nothing.
+
+As they walked home, Biorn began to taunt Grettir with having done
+nothing all day.  He could kill robbers who were unarmed and were drunk,
+perhaps asleep, but a bear was too serious an adversary for him.
+
+Grettir said nothing, but as his gaiter thong became broken, he stopped
+and stooped to mend it. Thorgils asked if they should wait for him.
+Grettir declined.
+
+"Oh," said Biorn, "it is all nonsense.  It is a pretence.  He means to
+have all the glory of fighting the bear alone when we have gone on."
+
+He said the truth, but he had no idea when he spoke that it was the
+truth.
+
+Grettir tarried till the party had crossed a hill and was out of sight,
+then he turned and went back to the bear's den.  He slipped his hand
+through the loop at the end of the handle of his short sword that he had
+taken from the grave of Karr the Old, and let it hang on his wrist, but
+he held the long sword, Jokull's gift, by the pommel.  His plan was to
+use the long sword if needed, but if the bear came to close quarters he
+would throw it down and grasp the short one without having to put his
+hand to his girdle for it.  Very cautiously he crept along the path.
+Bruin saw him, and was now angry and hungry, and came down to meet him.
+The bear was somewhat above him; Grettir halted, and the bear stood up
+growling on his hind-legs.
+
+At once the long sword was whirled and fell on the right wrist above the
+paw, and cut it off.  The bear immediately fell down on all-fours; but
+the amputated paw was on the side away from the wall of rock, and when
+he went down on the stump he was overbalanced, and came down with his
+whole weight on Grettir.
+
+Grettir let fall his long sword at once, and with both hands grasped the
+brute's ears, and held his head off lest he should get a bite at him.
+Grettir, in after years, was wont to say that this was the hardest
+tussle he had in his life--it was even worse than anything he had to do
+with the rovers.  For if the beast had but been able to nip him on the
+breast, or shoulder, or face with his great fangs, all would have been
+up with him.  Moreover, the ears were so smooth that he had to do his
+utmost not to let them slip.  Grettir had the wit to drag back the
+brute's head to the rock, and by so doing the bear could not use his
+only uninjured fore-leg, armed with terrible claws, which would have
+ripped Grettir's clothes and flesh.
+
+In the struggle the two went over the edge, and for a moment Grettir
+thought, as they spun in the air, that he was lost.  But the bear was
+heavier than the lad, consequently he fell crash on the rocks at the
+bottom first, and Grettir on him, breaking Grettir's fall by his great
+body.  The bear's back was broken.
+
+Then Grettir got up, shook himself, left the bear, went up the path and
+found his fur coat torn to tatters, and he put it about him, recovered
+also his long sword, and took the cut-off paw of the bear.
+
+He now went back to Thorgils' house, and when he came into the hall
+where the fires were blazing, every one laughed to see him in his
+tattered coat; but when he gave the paw of the bear to Thorgils the
+general merriment exchanged to surprise.  Biorn, however, could not
+contain himself for vexation, and launched forth some coarse jest that
+made Grettir's blood tingle in his veins.
+
+"Do not listen to him," said Thorgils.  "You are a brave fellow, and
+there are not many your like."  Then turning to Biorn, he said,
+"Kinsman, I advise and warn you to keep a civil tongue in your head, or
+you will come to rue it, and have to be taught better manners."
+
+"Oh, if I am to learn manners from Grettir, that is sending me to a cub
+indeed!"
+
+"I want to know," said Grettir, "whether you threw my fur coat into the
+den?"
+
+"I am not afraid of saying that I did."
+
+"Will you give me another in its place?"
+
+"I have not the smallest intention of doing charity to beggars."
+
+The braggart knew that Grettir was restraining himself because he did
+not wish to quarrel with his host's kinsman, and he took advantage of
+his knowledge.  But Thorgils was greatly distressed and ashamed, and he
+said to Grettir:
+
+"Pay no attention to his words.  He has insulted you, and I will pay you
+a fine in compensation for his insult, that it may be buried and
+forgotten."
+
+That was customary then.  When one had hurt another in body or in honour
+by blow or foul word, he was bound to pay a sum of money; if he did not
+then the man injured was required by the laws of honour to revenge the
+injury.
+
+But when Biorn heard this proposal, he shouted out that he would not
+suffer the matter to be so compromised; he was not ashamed of his words.
+Thorgils drew Grettir aside, and said to him that his kinsman was a
+badly-behaved, brutal fellow, but that he hoped Grettir would not take
+up the quarrel in his house; and Grettir promised him solemnly that he
+would not attempt to take revenge for the rudeness of Biorn so long as
+they were both inmates of his house.
+
+"As for what may happen between you later," said Thorgils, "I wash my
+hands of responsibility. If Biorn is offensive to those who have never
+hurt him, he must take the consequences."
+
+So matters remained; only that Biorn, presuming on his position, became
+daily more arrogant, intolerable, and abusive, so that Grettir had to
+exercise daily self-restraint to keep his hands off him.  And glad he
+was when spring came, that he might get away to another part of Norway.
+
+As for Biorn, he went in the summer to England in a ship that belonged
+to Thorgils, trading there for Thorgils and for himself.  Consequently,
+all that summer he and Grettir did not meet.
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER IX.*
+
+                        *THE SLAYING OF BIORN.*
+
+
+    _The Meeting on the Island--Biorn's Death--Thorfin Comes to
+    Grettir's Aid--Grettir's Life in Danger--Hiarandi's Revenge--A
+    Doomed Man_
+
+
+Grettir left Thorgils very good friends, and he went with some merchants
+to the north, but when the summer was over he came back south, and
+arrived at a little island in the entrance of the Drontheim firth.  His
+intention was to see Earl Sweyn, and perhaps take service under him; but
+if so, things fell out other than he had reckoned.  For, as he was in
+this island, there came in a large merchant vessel from England, and
+Grettir and those with him at once went to see the shipmen, and among
+them was Biorn.  The ship was, in fact, that of Thorgils, and it was
+laden with commodities bought in England, or obtained by exchange for
+the wool, and furs, and women's embroidery sent out in the spring by
+Thorgils.
+
+Directly Biorn saw Grettir he turned red, and pretended not to recognize
+him; but Grettir went to him at once and said:
+
+"Now has come the time when we two can settle our differences."
+
+"Oh," said Biorn, "that is soon done.  I don't object to paying a
+trifle."
+
+"The time for paying is over," said Grettir. "Thorgils offered an
+indemnity for your insolence, and you refused to consent to it."
+
+Then Biorn saw that there was no help for him but that he must fight.
+So he girded him for the conflict, and he and Grettir went down on the
+sand, and they fought.
+
+The fight did not last long.  Grettir's sword cut him that he fell and
+died.
+
+When the news reached Thorgils, he got ready, and came by boat as fast
+as he could to see the earl at Drontheim.  He found the earl very angry,
+but he said to him:
+
+"I am a kinsman of the fallen man, and I know that he treated Grettir
+with intolerable insolence, and that he refused every compromise.  Then
+remember what a benefit has been done to the country by Grettir, who
+ridded it of the Red Rovers, Thorir wi' the Paunch and Ogmund the Bad."
+
+Thorfin also came to Drontheim when he heard of the straits into which
+Grettir had come through killing Biorn.  The earl called a council on
+the matter, and said he would not come to a decision till he had heard
+what Biorn's brother Hiarandi had to say on the matter.  Hiarandi was a
+violent man, and he was very wroth.  He would hear of no patching up of
+the matter, and he vowed he would not, as he expressed it, "bring his
+brother into his purse."  As already said, it was customary when a man
+had been killed to offer a sum of money to the next of kin, and if he
+accepted the money the quarrel was at an end.  When we now speak of
+"pocketing an injury," reference is made to this same ancient usage, by
+which every offence was estimated at so much money, and if the wronged
+man took money for the offence committed against him, he was said _to
+pocket it_.  When the earl went into the matter, and heard how Grettir
+had been wronged and outraged by Biorn, he gave his decision that
+Grettir had not acted contrary to law, and that Biorn had justly
+forfeited his life.  Thorfin offered the sum of money which the earl
+considered was sufficient to atone to the relations for the death of
+Biorn, but Hiarandi refused absolutely to touch it.
+
+Then Thorfin knew that Grettir's life was in danger, for Hiarandi would
+certainly try to take it; so he begged his kinsman Arinbiorn to go about
+with Grettir, and keep on the look-out against the mischief that
+threatened.
+
+Now it fell out one day that Grettir and Arinbiorn were walking down a
+street in Drontheim when their way led before a narrow lane opening into
+it.  They did not see any danger in the way, and were unaware of this
+lane.  But just as they had passed it a man jumped out from behind, in
+the shadow, swinging an axe, and he struck at Grettir between the
+shoulder-blades.  Fortunately, Arinbiorn had looked round at the lane,
+and he saw the man leap out, so he suddenly dragged Grettir forward with
+such a jerk that Grettir fell on his knee. This saved his life, for the
+axe came on his shoulder-blade, made a gash that cut to his armpit, and
+then the axe buried itself in the roadway.  Instantly Grettir started to
+his feet, turned round, and with his short sword smote in the very nick
+of time as the man, who was Hiarandi, was pulling up his axe to cut at
+Grettir again.  Grettir's sword fell on his upper arm near the shoulder,
+and cut it off.  Then out rushed some servants of Hiarandi on Arinbiorn
+and Grettir, who set their backs against a house-wall and defended
+themselves with such valour that they killed or put to flight all who
+had assailed them.
+
+Now, this had been a base and cowardly attempt on the life of Grettir,
+and Hiarandi richly deserved his fate.  But the earl was exceedingly
+angry when he heard the news, and he called a council together. Thorfin
+and Grettir attended, and the earl angrily charged Grettir with having
+committed great violence, and being the cause of the death of Hiarandi
+and some of his servants.
+
+Grettir acknowledged this; but showed his wound, and stated how he had
+been attacked from behind; how his life had been saved by the
+promptitude of Arinbiorn, and how he had but defended himself against
+enemies who sought his life.
+
+"I wish you had been killed," said the earl, "and then there would have
+been an end to these disorders."
+
+"You would not have a man not raise his hands to save his head?" said
+Grettir.
+
+"I see one thing," exclaimed the earl.  "Ill luck attends you, and you
+are doomed to commit violences wherever you are."
+
+The end of it was that Earl Sweyn said he would not have Grettir to live
+in Norway any longer, lest he should be the cause of fresh troubles.
+But he remained over the third winter, and next spring sailed for
+Iceland, the time of his outlawing being ended.
+
+
+
+
+                              *CHAPTER X.*
+
+                         *OF GRETTIR'S RETURN.*
+
+
+    _Iceland Once More--Life's Bitter Lessons--Grettir Pays Audun a
+    Visit--Some Icelandic Terms--Byres and Sels--A Chief's Hall--The
+    Return of Audun--Grettir's Second Wrestle with Audun--Bard
+    Interposes--The Cousins Reconciled_
+
+
+When Grettir came back to Biarg, he found his father so old and infirm
+as to be no more able to stir abroad, and Atli managed the farm for him
+along with Illugi, Grettir's youngest brother, now grown up to be a big
+boy.  Grettir was now aged eighteen, but he looked and was a man.
+Illugi was about fifteen, a gentle, pleasant boy.  He and the kindly,
+careful Atli were as unlike Grettir as well could be; they avoided
+quarrels, they had a civil word for every one, and took pains to make
+themselves agreeable, whether to guests in their house, or when staying
+anywhere, to their hosts. Grettir never troubled himself to be courteous
+or to be obliging to anyone.  Now that he was back from Norway he was
+rather disposed to think much of himself as a man more brave and
+audacious than his fellows, for, had he not killed twelve rovers, broken
+into a barrow, slain a bear, and been the death of one man in a duel,
+and another who had attempted to assassinate him?  Atli did not much
+like his manner, and cautioned him not to be overbearing whilst at home,
+lest he should involve himself in fresh troubles.  But words were wasted
+on Grettir.  He was not the fellow to listen to advice, but one of those
+men who must learn the bitter lessons of life by personal experience.
+It is so with men always.  Some, who are thoughtful, see what God's law
+is which is impressed on all society, and listen to what others have
+found out as the lessons taught them by their lives, so they are able to
+go out equipped against the trials and difficulties of life.  But others
+will neither look nor listen, and such have to go through every sort of
+adversity, till they have learned the great truths of social life, and
+perhaps they only acquire them when it is too late to put them in
+practice.
+
+It is with laws and courtesies of life as with the three R's.  A man
+will fare badly who cannot read, write, and cipher.  If he learns these
+accomplishments as a child, he does well; he is furnished for the
+struggle of life, and starts on the same footing as other men; but if as
+a child he is morose and indifferent, and refuses to learn, then all
+through his life he is met with difficulties, owing to his ignorance,
+and he finds that he must learn to read, write, and do sums; and he has
+to acquire these in after years with much less ease than he might have
+learnt as a child, and after he has lost many chances of getting on
+which might have been seized, had he known these things before.
+
+Grettir's temper on his return may be judged by one incident that
+happened almost directly.  He had not forgotten his struggle on the ice
+with his cousin Audun, and he was resolved to have another trial of
+strength with him.  So he had not been home many days before he rode
+over the hill to Audunstead in his best harness, and with a beautiful
+saddle on his horse that had been given him by Thorfin.  The time was
+that of hay, and he saw the field round Audun's farm full of rich grass,
+ready to be cut.  He took the bridle off his horse and turned it into
+Audun's meadow.  This was not out of thoughtlessness, but out of
+insolence, and was intended to exasperate Audun.  In Iceland grass grows
+very little, and only fit to be cut for hay round the farms in what is
+called the _tun_, where it is richly dressed with stable-dung.
+Consequently hay is very scarce and very precious.  The grass never
+grows much longer than one's fingers, and so even in the tun it is not
+plentiful.  He knocked at the door of the farm and asked for his cousin,
+and was told that Audun had gone to the highland _sel_ to fetch curds,
+and would be back later.  The _sel_ was a farm on the highland, only
+occupied in summer, when the cattle were driven to the moors and hills
+to feed on the grass there, and to save that in the lowlands against
+winter.
+
+Here a word or two must be said about Icelandic names of places and
+people.  When Iceland was colonized, those who first settled in the land
+and built farms, called the places after their own names in a great many
+cases; they called them so-and-so's _stead_, or so-and-so's _by_ or
+farm.  A _by_ is the Scotch byre, and in Icelandic is _boer_, pronounced
+exactly like the Scotch word.  Wherever, in the north and east of
+England, Norse settlers came, there we find names of places ending in
+the same way, and we know that these were farms and dwellings of old
+Norse settlers.  Thus in Northumberland, Yorkshire, and Lincolnshire,
+are plenty of Norse place-names. Near Thirsk is Thirkelby or
+Thorkel's-byre, near Ripon is Enderby or Andrew's-byre.  Not only so,
+but where there are high hills there we find also _sels_, that is
+summer-farms, like the Alps to which the cattle are driven in
+Switzerland.  Next as to the names of people.  What is a little puzzling
+to remember is the number of persons whose names begin with Thor.  Thor,
+the god of thunder, was regarded with the highest reverence by the
+Icelanders; they thought of him even more than they did of Odin, the
+chief god of all, who had one eye, and his one fiery eye was the sun.
+Thor was called the Redbeard, and the aurora borealis was thought to be
+his waving red-beard in the sky.  The thunderbolt they regarded as his
+hammer.  To show their respect for him, children were named after him:
+Thor-grim means Thor's wrath; Thor-kel, Thor's kettle, in which the
+sacrificial meat was cooked in offering to Thor; Thor-gil was Thor's boy
+or servant; Thor-hall was Thor's flint spear-head, and so on.  The
+Northumbrian king, St. Osmund, takes his name from the Hand of God, and
+the name is the same as Asmund, the father of Grettir.  Oswald means the
+elect of the god; in Icelandic the name would be Aswald.
+
+When Grettir found that Audun was from home, he went into the hall and
+lay down on the bench nearest the door.  The hall was dark.
+
+The halls of the Icelandic chiefs were like bodies of churches, and were
+divided into a nave with side aisles; and were lighted by windows in a
+clere-story that were covered with the skin of the lining of a sheep's
+stomach, to let in light and keep out cold, because they had no glass.
+In the side aisles were the beds of those who lived in the house, some
+with doors and shutters, which could be fastened from within; and a man
+in danger of his life would so sleep.  He would go to bed, and then
+close himself in and lock the shutters, that no one could get at him
+when he was asleep.  The fires and benches and tables were in the nave,
+or middle of the great hall.  Over the partitions for the beds were hung
+shields and swords and spears, and on grand occasions hangings were put
+up all along the sides, hiding the beds and berths in the side aisles.
+The arrangement in an Icelandic house at the present day is much the
+same, only on a very much reduced scale.  The people live and eat and
+sleep in the same room, like the saloon-cabin of a ship, with the berths
+round the walls.
+
+Audun arrived in the afternoon with a horse that carried curds in skins
+on its back; that is to say, skins were made into bottles, as is still
+common in Palestine.  When he saw that a horse with a saddle on it was
+wandering about in his meadow, trampling down the grass and eating it,
+he was very vexed; and throwing one bottle of curd over his back, and
+hanging another in front on his breast to counterbalance it, he ran into
+the house to ask who had done this.
+
+The hall was dusky, and Audun's eyes were accustomed to the bright
+summer-light.  As he entered Grettir put out his foot; Audun did not see
+it, and stumbled over it, fell on the skin of curds and burst it.  Then
+he jumped up, very angry, and asked who had played him this scurvy
+trick.  Grettir named himself, and said he had come over about that
+matter of the wrestle on the ice.  Audun, still very irate, all at once
+stooped, picked up the burst skin, and dashed it in Grettir's face,
+smothering him with curds.  Then he threw down the other curd-bottle,
+and began to wrestle with Grettir.  They swung up and down the hall,
+kicking over the benches, now upon the floor, then on the stone-paved
+fire-hearth in the midst; then they crashed against the walls and
+pillars of the bed-chambers, and as they did so the shields and weapons
+hung over them clashed like bells.  Some frightened servant-maids came
+in, and ran out again in alarm, calling for aid.
+
+Audun felt now that Grettir had outgrown him in strength, but he would
+not give in; then they slipped on the curd and both fell, parted for a
+moment, rose, and flew at each other once more. Again, up and down,
+banging, stumbling, writhing in each other's arms, twisting legs round
+each other, to try to trip each other up, and ever Grettir bearing Audun
+backwards, but never wholly mastering him.  Audun could not trust his
+cousin, for though they were akin, and though he had not really done him
+an injury, there was no telling to what a pitch Grettir's blood might
+mount and blind him; so as they wrestled, Audun took care to twist the
+short sword out of Grettir's belt and throw it away.  As, to do this, he
+had to disengage his hand from Grettir's shoulder, he lost an advantage.
+Grettir managed to trip him, and throw him flat on his back.
+
+At that moment, fortunately, a man, big, wearing a red kirtle, and in
+full harness, entered the hall and asked what was the meaning of the
+noise and fight? As he did not receive an immediate answer, he came to
+the rescue of Audun, and drew Grettir from him.
+
+"We are only in play with each other," said Grettir.
+
+"Rather rough play," said the man, "and likely to end in tears rather
+than laughter."
+
+"Who are you that interfere?" asked Grettir.
+
+"My name is Bard."
+
+Then Audun scrambled to his feet.
+
+"What is the reason of this rough play?" asked Bard.
+
+Then Grettir answered, by singing:
+
+    "Prithee, Audun, will you say
+    How, upon the ice one day,
+    You to throttle did essay?
+    Now, for that I this have done,
+    On Audun honour I have won;
+    Curds and wrestle make good fun."
+
+
+"Oh, I see," said Bard; "fighting out an old grudge.  I have nothing to
+say against that.  Now, shake hands, and be loving cousins again."
+
+Audun held out his hand, and Grettir agreed to let the matter end thus.
+But he was dissatisfied, and ever after bore Bard a grudge.  However, he
+never again wrestled with Audun, and remained on good terms with him.
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER XI.*
+
+                           *THE HORSE-FIGHT.*
+
+
+    _Atli's Roan--The Coming Fight--Unfair Play--Grettir
+    Retaliation--Smouldering Fire_
+
+
+One of the rude and cruel sports that amused the Icelanders in summer
+time was horse-fighting. A smooth piece of turf was chosen, and was
+staked round.  Into this inclosure two or sometimes more horses were
+introduced, and a man attended each, who urged on his own horse, armed
+with a goad. By means of these goads the horses were stung to madness,
+and attacked each other, biting each other savagely.  Now, Atli had a
+beautiful roan, with a black mane, which he and his old father were very
+proud of.  Lower down the valley, near the sea, was a farm called Mais,
+in which lived a bonder named Kormak, and his brother; they had in their
+house a man called Odd the Foundling, a sly, captious fellow, who, like
+Grettir, made verses; but his verses were not generally thought to be so
+good as those of Grettir.  On the opposite side of the river is a
+hot-spring; it is still hot, but not so hot as it was in those days,
+when it boiled up and poured forth a cloud of steam, and ran in a
+scalding rill down to the river.  There was a convenient level place
+near the river for a horse-fight, and it stood above the water on one
+side rather steeply, so that it needed only fencing on three sides.
+Kormak had a brown horse that fought well, and it was resolved that
+autumn to have a fight between the horse of Kormak and the roan of Atli.
+Odd was to goad on Kormak's brown, and Grettir offered himself to his
+brother to run with the roan.  Atli did not much like the proposal, as
+he feared Grettir's temper; but he could not well decline his offer, so
+he said, "I will consent, brother; only I pray you, be peaceable, for we
+have to do with overbearing men, and it will be very unfortunate if a
+broil should come of this."
+
+"If they begin, I shall not run away," said Grettir.
+
+"Not if they begin; but be very careful not to provoke a quarrel."
+
+"Quarrels come and are not made," said Grettir.
+
+"That I do not hold," answered Atli.
+
+The day of the horse-fight arrived, and the horses were led to the place
+of contest.  They had been fed up and groomed for the occasion, and each
+had a band round his middle of colour, by which he who went with the
+horse could hold, and the goad of each was tied with a tuft of feathers
+at the head, stained the same colour as the belt about the horse.
+
+The two horses were introduced within the inclosure, and were soon
+goaded into anger, and began to plunge, and snort, and snap at each
+other.  The by-standers outside the railing cheered and shouted, and the
+horses seemed to understand that they were to do their best; so they
+pranced about each other, struck at each other, and tried to get round
+each other so as to bite the flank.  At one moment the roan bit the side
+of the brown, and held.  Odd ran his goad into the horse of Grettir to
+make it let go;--this was against the rules; he did it to save his own
+horse from a terrible wound.  Grettir saw what he did, but he said
+nothing.  Now the horses bore towards the river, and were rearing and
+plunging close to the edge, and the two men had much ado to hold on.
+Then Odd took the opportunity when Grettir's back was turned to drive at
+him with his goad between the shoulders, where was the great scar still
+red, and only just fully healed, that he had received from the axe of
+Hiarandi.  It was a cruel blow, and this also was against all rule of
+fair play.
+
+At that moment the roan reared, and instantly Grettir ran under him, and
+struck Odd with such a blow that he reeled back towards the water edge,
+and in so doing dragged the brown horse he was holding over the edge,
+and both went down into the water together.  The river was very full
+with the melted snows, and Odd was brought ashore with difficulty.  It
+was found that three of his ribs were broken; but whether with the blow
+dealt by Grettir, or by his fall on the rock, or by the hoof of the
+horse as it fell and struggled in the river, cannot be said; but the
+party of Kormak, of course, charged Grettir with having broken Odd's
+ribs with his stick, and they flew to arms, and threatened the party
+from Biarg.  However, the people of the nearest vales and firths
+interfered, and no bloodshed ensued.  But the men of Mais and of Biarg
+separated bearing each other much ill-will, each charging the other with
+having broken the laws of the sport.
+
+Atli did not say what he felt, he was greatly annoyed; but Grettir was
+less careful of his words, he said that the matter was by no means
+ended, and that he hoped there would be a meeting between the men of
+Mais and the men of Biarg, and then--it would not be a fight of horses,
+but of men; not a biting of horses, but of sharp blades.
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER XII.*
+
+                      *OF THE FIGHT AT THE NECK.*
+
+
+    _The Desolate Moor--Grettir challenges Kormak--Oxmain comes on
+    the Scene--Slow-coach taunts Grettir--Grettir's Vexation_
+
+
+The next fiord on the west of that into which the river that flowed past
+Biarg poured was called the Ramsfirth, and at the head of it lived
+Grettir's married sister.
+
+In the following summer, that is in 1014, Grettir paid his sister a
+visit; he had with him two servant-men from Biarg, and he spent three
+days and nights at his sister's.  Whilst there, news reached him that
+Kormak, who had been away from Mais for a week or two, was on his road
+home, and who was now staying at a house called Tongue.  Grettir at once
+made ready to depart, and his brother-in-law sent two men with him, for
+it was not safe that Grettir should have only two churls with him, as
+there was ill blood between him and Kormak about that affair of the
+horse-fight.
+
+A high, long shoulder of desolate moor lies between the Ramsfirth and
+the Westriver-dale, in which is a confluent of the river that flows past
+Biarg.  This shoulder rises to the north into a great hump, called
+Burfell, and on the saddle is a little lake.  A very fine view is
+obtained from this shoulder of moor over the northern immense bay of
+Hunafloi, towards the glaciers and mountains of that curious excrescence
+of land that lies on the north-west of Iceland.  I know exactly the road
+taken by Grettir on this occasion, for I have ridden over it.  Along the
+top of this shoulder the rocks are scraped by glaciers, that must at one
+time have occupied the whole centre of the island, and have slowly
+slidden down into the firths on all sides.  Here, what is curious is,
+that the rocks are furrowed, just as if carved with a graving tool, in
+lines from south to north, showing the direction from which the glaciers
+slipped down. Now, on the slope of this bit of upland is a great stone
+poised on a point, which I have seen.  Grettir came to this stone, and
+spent a long time in trying to upset it.  It is called Grettir's-heave
+to this day. The men who were with him rather wondered at him why he
+wasted time over this, instead of pushing on.  But his sharp eye had
+noticed the party of Kormak leaving Tongue, and he was bent on an
+encounter.  He thought that if Odd had seen him going over the hill he
+would make a lampoon about him running away from his sister's house the
+moment he heard that danger was threatening.  So he determined to tarry
+till Kormak came up and fight him.  He had not long to wait, for
+presently over the top of the hill came Kormak with Odd and some others.
+Grettir at once rode to meet them, and said, "Now we have our weapons on
+both sides, let us fight like men of good birth, and not with sticks as
+churls."
+
+Then Kormak turned to his men and bade them accept the challenge and
+fight.
+
+Accordingly they ran at one another and fought. Grettir bade his two
+serving-men stand behind his back and defend that, and he, sweeping his
+longsword from left to right, went forward against Kormak.  Thus they
+fought for a while, and some were wounded on both sides.
+
+Now it so happened that at a rich farm in the Ramsfirth-dale lived a
+well-to-do, and very strong man, called Thorbiorn--that is, Thor's
+Bear--nicknamed Oxmain.  He had ridden that day over Burfell-heath, with
+a party, and was now returning. As he came along he heard shouts and the
+clashing of arms, so he quickened his pace, and presently came in sight
+of the fighters.  He at once ordered his men to dash in between the
+combatants.  But by this time the passions of those engaged were so
+furious that they would not be separated.  Grettir sweeping his
+long-sword about him strode forward, and the men of Kormak fell back
+before him. Down went two of those who were with Kormak, and one servant
+of Atli, Grettir's brother, was killed.
+
+[Illustration: GRETTIR CHALLENGES KORMAK AND HIS PARTY.]
+
+Then Thorbiorn Oxmain raised his great voice and roared out, that he and
+his party would take sides against the first man who dealt another blow.
+Grettir saw that it would hardly do if Thorbiorn Oxmain brought all his
+force against him, so he gave up the battle; but they did not part till
+every one of those engaged was wounded, and two were killed on one side,
+and one on the other.  Grettir was ill pleased that the affray had ended
+in this manner, and he felt resentment against Oxmain for his
+interference.  Unfortunately, Oxmain's brother, who went by the name of
+the Slow-coach, made fun of the matter, and laughed about Grettir
+sneaking away from the fight directly he saw that he was getting the
+worst of it.  Whatever he said was reported at Biarg, and, as may well
+be imagined, did not improve Grettir's temper, or liking for Oxmain and
+Slow-coach.  Nothing further occurred between him and Kormak, probably
+he and Kormak were content with the trial of strength that had taken
+place, and were disinclined to renew a profitless contest.
+
+Atli took no notice of the loss of his house-churl; he desired peace,
+and not a stirring afresh of the fires of discord.  To his peaceable
+behaviour it was doubtless due that the quarrel with Kormak came to an
+end.  But the vexation felt by Grettir against Oxmain for his
+meddlesomeness, and against Slow-coach for his gibes, rankled in his
+breast.
+
+
+
+
+                            *CHAPTER XIII.*
+
+                 *HOW GRETTIR AND AUDUN MADE FRIENDS.*
+
+
+    _Audun's Pedigree--His relation to Grettir--Grettir's-heaves--In
+    Willowdale--The Place called Tongue--A very strange Tale_
+
+
+Grettir remained through the autumn at Biarg, after the skirmish at the
+Neck, till September, and then he thought he would ride away east and
+see Audun again, with whom he had had that little ruffle that was almost
+a quarrel, and which was fortunately interrupted by the entrance of
+Bard. Audun was a cousin, though not a near one, and Grettir had no
+desire that any bad blood should exist between kinsfolk.  Audun belonged
+to what was called the Madpate family; for it had had in it at least two
+who had been so odd in their ways that folk said they were not quite
+right in their minds. The relationship will easily be understood by a
+look at the pedigree.  It will be remembered that old Onund Treefoot,
+who had settled in Iceland, had to wife secondly Thordis, an Icelandic
+woman, and his son by her was Thorgrim Grizzlepate, and this Thorgrim
+bought the estate and house of Biarg about the year 935.  Onund Treefoot
+died in or about 920, and then his widow Thordis married again a man
+called Audun Skokull, and they had a son who was called Asgeir, who
+settled in Willowdale, and either went off his head or proved so queer
+in his ways that folks called him Madpate.  This Madpate married and had
+a son Audun, and a daughter Thurid who married away west into a very
+good family; and she had a son called Thorstein Kuggson, of whom we
+shall hear more presently.  Audun of Willowdale's son was Madpate the
+Second, and the lad Audun who wrestled with Grettir and burst the bottle
+of curds was the son of this Madpate the Second.  Consequently the
+relationship to Grettir was through Grettir's great-grandmother, and
+Audun belonged to a generation younger than that of Grettir, because
+Grettir was the son of Asmund's old age. Moreover, Asmund's father
+Thorgrim had married somewhat late in life, whereas all the Madpate
+family had dashed into marriage at a very early age.  Thus it came about
+that Grettir's great-grandmother was Audun's great-great-grandmother,
+and that, nevertheless, Audun was somewhat older than Grettir.
+
+Grettir rode straight up over the hill behind his house.  Now this hill
+like the Neck, already described, is rather curious, for on it are a
+number of rocks that have been deposited by glaciers, and not only so,
+but they have been dragged along by ice, scratching the rocks over which
+they were driven forward, and so these beds of rock are rubbed and
+scored with lines made by the stones forced over them by ice.  Above
+Biarg there is one large stone that has scratched a deep furrow in the
+bed of rock and then has stopped at the end of the furrow it had itself
+scored.  This remarkable phenomenon tells us of a time when the whole of
+the centre of Iceland was covered with glaciers, like the centre of
+Greenland now.  These glaciers slided down the slopes of the hills, and
+were thrust along to the sea, where they broke off and floated away as
+icebergs.
+
+Nowadays folk in Iceland do not understand these odd stones perched in
+queer places, which were deposited by the ancient glaciers, and they
+call them Grettir-taks or Grettir's-heaves.  So the farmer at Biarg told
+me that the curious stone at the end of the furrow in the bed of rock on
+top of the hill was a Grettir-tak; it had been rubbed along the rock and
+left where it stands by Grettir.  But I knew better. I knew that it was
+put there by an ancient glacier ages before Grettir was born, and before
+Iceland was discovered by the Norsemen.  I have no doubt that in
+Grettir's time this stone was said to have been put there by some troll.
+Afterwards, when people ceased to believe in trolls, they said it was
+put there by Grettir.
+
+Grettir's ride led him by a pretty little blue lake that lies folded in
+between high hills and has a stream flowing from it into a very large
+lake near Hop.  But he did not follow the stream down; he crossed
+another hill, not very steep and high, and reached his cousin's house at
+Audun stead in Willowdale.  Now this valley took its name from the woods
+of willows that grew in it when first settled, but at the present day
+none remain; all have in course of time been burnt for fuel, and except
+for scanty grass the Willowdale is very dreary-looking.  We may be sure
+that Iceland presented a much more smiling and green appearance eight
+hundred or a thousand years ago than it does at present.
+
+When Grettir came to Willowdale, Audun received him in a friendly
+manner, and Grettir made him a present of a handsome axe he had.  He
+remained with him some little while, and they talked over old tales of
+Onund Treefoot and his doings, and every shadow of rivalry and anger
+disappeared, so that they parted at length in the best of tempers and as
+true and affectionate cousins.
+
+Audun would have desired to keep Grettir there longer, but Grettir would
+not stay.  He desired to get on to the head of Waterdale, where lived an
+uncle of his called Jokull, his mother's brother, at a place called
+Tongue.
+
+So he rode away over the moor, and reached Tongue.  Here a stream comes
+rushing through a gorge in a series of waterfalls, and meets another
+stream that comes down a valley called the Valley of Shadows further
+east.
+
+Tongue is so called because it lies on a grassy slope exactly in the
+tongue of land between these two streams.  There is now a good farm
+there and a church, and there I stayed a few days.  At the back of
+Tongue the hill rises rapidly to a fell called Tongue-heath.  This hill
+was covered with snow when Grettir arrived.  This uncle Jokull was glad
+to see him.
+
+He was a rough and violent man, very big and strong; and it was clear to
+everyone that his nephew took after his mother's family more than his
+father's, for there was a strong likeness both in build and face and in
+character between Jokull and Grettir.
+
+He received Grettir heartily in his rough, blunt way, and bade him stay
+there as long as he liked. Jokull had been a seafaring man, and had made
+much by his merchant trips.  He would probably have been a richer and
+more respected man had he not been so violent and overbearing and ready
+to pick quarrels.
+
+Now Grettir had not been at Tongue three days before he heard a very
+strange tale.  Jokull's mouth was full of it, and with good reason, for
+the events had taken place not an hour's ride distant.  It was a tale
+about the nearest farm in the Valley of Shadows, a farm called
+Thorhall's-stead, which was reported to be haunted; and so serious had
+affairs become there that no servants would remain, and the farmer and
+his family had been driven from house and home by the hauntings last
+winter, and had come and lodged with Jokull at Tongue, and he had
+entertained them for some two or three months.  Now this was not a case
+of mere fancy and fantastic fear.  It was something very real and very
+marvellous.  But it is a long story, and must be consigned to another
+chapter.
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER XIV.*
+
+                         *THE VALE OF SHADOWS.*
+
+
+    _A Turning-point in Grettir's Life--The Farm in the Valley--The
+    haunted Sheep-walks--A strange-looking Fellow--"Here is my
+    Hand"--Glam keeps Faith--Glam is missing--Following the Red
+    Track--The Ghost of Glam--Glam's Successor--Thorgaut is
+    Missing--From Bad to Worse--Fate of the old
+    Serving-man--Thorhall's Perplexity--Grettir offers Aid_
+
+
+We have come now to an incident which formed a turning-point in
+Grettir's life.  It is a very mysterious and inexplicable story, not one
+that can be put aside as we have that of his fight in the tomb with Karr
+the Old.  This is a story even more gruesome. It relates to an event
+that so shook Grettir's nerves that he never after could endure to be
+alone in the dark, and would risk all kinds of dangers to escape
+solitude.  How much of truth lies under this strange narrative we cannot
+now say, but that something really did take place is certain from the
+effect it had on Grettir ever after.
+
+The richest valley for grass in all this quarter of Iceland, and the
+most peopled, is the Waterdale. On the east rises a mountain ridge of
+precipitous basaltic cliffs, down which leap waterfalls from the snows
+above.  The river that flows through this valley is fed by two main
+streams that unite at the farm called Tongue.  The stream on the east
+rises a long way inland in a mass of lava, and flows through a valley so
+narrow and so gloomy that it goes by the name of the Valley of Shadows.
+The high ranges of moor and waste to the south shut off the southern
+sun, and the lofty banks of mountain to east and west so close it in
+that it gets no sun morning or evening.
+
+A little way up this valley--not far, and not where it is most
+gloomy--are now the scanty ruins of a farm called Thorhall's-stead.
+Above this the valley so contracts and the hills are so steep that it is
+only with great difficulty that a horse can be led along. This I know
+very well; for in crossing an avalanche slide my horse and I were almost
+precipitated into the torrent below.  Further up the valley stands a
+tongue of high land with a waterfall on one side and the ravine on the
+other, and here at one time some robbers had their fortress who were the
+terror of the neighbourhood.  No trace of their fortress remains at
+present, but it was to find this place that I explored the valley.
+
+In the farm that is now but a heap of ruins lived a bonder named
+Thorhall and his wife.  He was not a man of much consideration in the
+district, for he was planted on cold, poor land, and his wealth was but
+small.  Moreover, he had no servants; and the reason was that his
+sheep-walks were haunted.
+
+Not a herdsman would remain with him.  He offered high wages, he
+threatened, he entreated, all in vain.  One shepherd after another left
+his service, and things came to such a pass that he determined to have
+the advice of the law-man or chief judge at the next annual assize.
+
+He saddled his horses and rode to Thingvalla. Skapti was the name of the
+judge then, a man with a long head, and deemed the best of men for
+giving counsel.  Thorhall told him his trouble.
+
+"I can help you," said Skapti.  "There is a shepherd who has been with
+me, a rude, strange man, but afraid of neither man nor hobgoblin, and
+strong as a bull; but he is not very clear in his intellect."
+
+"That does not matter," said Thorhall, "so long as he can mind sheep."
+
+"You may trust him for that," said Skapti.  "He is a Swede, and his name
+is Glam."
+
+Towards the end of the assize two gray horses belonging to Thorhall
+slipped their hobbles and strayed; so, as he had no serving-man, he went
+after them himself, and on his way met a strange-looking fellow, driving
+before him an ass laden with faggots.  The man was tall and stalwart;
+his face attracted Torhall's attention, for the eyes were ashen gray and
+staring.  The powerful jaw was furnished with white protruding teeth,
+and about his low brow hung bunches of coarse wolf-gray hair.
+
+"Pray, what are you called?" asked Thorhall, for he suspected that this
+was the man Skapti had spoken about.
+
+"Glam, at your service."
+
+"Do you like your present duties--wood-cutting?" asked the farmer.
+
+"No, I do not.  I am properly a shepherd."
+
+"Then, will you come with me?  Skapti has spoken of you and offered you
+to me."
+
+"What are the drawbacks to your service?" asked Glam cautiously.
+
+"None, save that my sheep-walks are haunted."
+
+"Oh! is that all?  Ghosts won't scare me.  Here is my hand.  I will come
+to you before winter."
+
+They separated, and soon after the farmer found his horses; they had got
+into a little wood, and were nibbling the willow tops.  He went home,
+having thanked Skapti.
+
+Summer passed, then autumn, and nothing further was heard of Glam.  The
+winter storms began to bluster up the valley from the cold Polar Sea,
+driving the flying snowflakes and heaping them in drifts at every turn
+of the vale.  Ice formed in the shallows of the river, and the streams
+which in summer trickled down the sides were now turned to icicles. I
+was there the very end of June, and then the whole of the mountain flank
+to the west was covered with frozen streams spread like a net of icicle
+over the black and red striped bare rock.
+
+One gusty night a violent blow at the door startled all in the farm.  In
+another moment Glam, tall and wild, stood in the hall glowering out of
+his gray staring eyes, his hair matted with frost, his teeth rattling
+and snapping with cold, his face blood-red in the glare of the fire that
+glowed in the centre of the hall.
+
+He was well received by Thorhall, but the housewife did not like the
+man's looks, and did not welcome him with much heartiness.  Time passed,
+and the shepherd was on the moors every day with the flock; his loud and
+deep-toned voice was often borne down on the wind as he shouted to the
+sheep, driving them to fold.  His presence always produced a chill in
+the house, and when he spoke it sent a thrill through the women, who did
+not like him.
+
+Christmas-eve was raw and windy; masses of gray vapour rolled up from
+the Arctic Ocean, and hung in piles about the mountain tops.  Now and
+then a scud of frozen fog, covering bar and beam with feathery
+hoar-frost, swept up the glen.  As the day declined snow began to fall
+in large flakes.
+
+When the wind lulled there could be heard the shout of Glam high up on
+the hillside.  Darkness closed in, and with the darkness the snow fell
+thicker. There was a church then at Thorhall's farm; there is none there
+now, since the valley has been abandoned from its cold and ill name.
+
+The lights were kindled in the church, and every snowflake as it sailed
+down past the open door burned like a golden feather in the light.
+
+When the service was over, and the farmer and his party returned to the
+house, Glam had not come home.  This was strange; as he could not live
+abroad in the cold, and the sheep would also require shelter.  Thorhall
+was uneasy and proposed a search, but no one would go with him; and no
+wonder, it was not a night for a dog to be out in, and the tracks would
+all be buried in snow.  So the family sat up all night listening,
+trembling and anxious.
+
+Day broke at last faintly in the south over the great white masses of
+mountains.  Now a party was formed to search for the missing man.  A
+sharp climb brought them to the top of the moor above Tongue.  Here and
+there a sheep was found shivering under a rock or half buried in a
+snowdrift, but of Glam--not a sign.
+
+Presently the whole party was called together about a spot on the
+hilltop where the snow was trampled and kicked about, and it was clear
+that some desperate struggle had taken place there. There the snow was
+also dabbled with frozen blood. A red track led further up the mountain
+side, and the searchers were following it when a boy uttered a shriek of
+fear.  In looking behind a rock he had come on the corpse of the
+shepherd lying on its back with the arms extended.  The body was taken
+up and carried to the edge of the gorge, and was there buried under a
+pile of stones, heaped over it to the height of about six feet.  _How_
+Glam had died, _by whom_ killed, no one knew, nor could they make a
+guess.
+
+Two nights after this one of the thralls who had gone for the cows burst
+into the hall with a face blank from terror; he staggered to a seat and
+fainted.  On recovering his senses, in a broken voice he assured those
+who were round him that he had seen Glam walking past him, with huge
+strides, as he left the stable door.  The shepherd had turned his head
+and looked at him fixedly from his great gray staring eyes.  On the
+following day a stable lad was found in a fit under a wall, and he never
+after recovered his senses.  It was thought he must have seen something
+that had scared him.  Next, some of the women, declared that they had
+seen Glam looking in on them through a window of the dairy.  In the dusk
+Thorhall himself met the dead man, who stood and glowered at him, but
+made no attempt to injure his master, and uttered not a word.  The
+haunting did not end thus. Nightly a heavy tread was heard round the
+house, and a hand groping along the walls, and sometimes a hand came in
+at the windows, a great coarse hand, that in the red light from the fire
+seemed as though steeped in blood.
+
+When the spring came round the disturbances lessened, and as the sun
+obtained full power, ceased altogether.
+
+During the course of the summer a Norwegian vessel came into the fiord;
+Thorhall went on board and found there a man named Thorgaut, who had
+come out in search of work.  Thorhall engaged him as a shepherd, but not
+without honestly telling him his trouble, and what there was uncanny
+about his sheep-walks, and how Glam had fared.  The man did not regard
+this, he laughed, and promised to be with Thorhall at the appointed
+season.
+
+Accordingly he arrived in autumn, and he soon established himself as a
+favourite in the house; he romped with the children, helped his
+fellow-servants, and was as much liked as his predecessor had been
+detested.  He was such a merry careless fellow that he did not think
+anything of the risks that lay before him, and joked about them.
+
+When winter set in strange sights and sounds began to alarm the folk at
+the farm, but Thorgaut was not troubled; he slept too soundly at night
+to be disturbed by the heavy tread round the house.
+
+On the day before Yule, as was his wont, Thorgaut drove out the sheep to
+pasture.  Thorhall was uneasy.  He said to him: "I pray you be careful,
+and do not go near the barrow under which Glam was laid."
+
+"Don't fear for me," laughed Thorgaut, "I shall be back in time for
+supper, and shall attend you to church."
+
+Night settled in, but no Thorgaut arrived.  There was little mirth at
+table when the supper was brought in.  All were anxious and fearful.
+
+The wind was cold and wetting.  Blocks of ice were driving about in the
+bay, grinding against each other, and the sound could be heard far up
+the valley.  Aloft, the aurora flames were lighting up the heavens with
+an arch of fire.  Again this Christmas night the dwellers in the farm
+sat up and did not go to bed, waiting for the return of Thorgaut, but he
+did not arrive.
+
+Next morning he was sought, and was found lying dead across the barrow
+of Glam, with his spine and one leg and one arm broken.  He was brought
+home and laid in the churchyard.
+
+Matters now rapidly became worse.  Outbuildings were broken into of a
+night, and their woodwork was rent and shattered; the house door was
+violently shaken, and great pieces of it were torn away; the gables of
+the house were also pulled furiously to and fro.
+
+Now it fell out that one morning the only man who remained in the
+service of the family went out early.  Not another servant dared to
+remain in the place, and this man remained because he had been with
+Thorhall and with his father, and he could not make up his mind to
+desert his master in his need. About an hour after he had gone out
+Thorhall's wife took her milking cans and went to the cow-house that she
+might milk the cows, as she had now not a maid in the house, and had to
+do everything herself.  On reaching the door of the cow-house she heard
+a terrible sound from within, the bellowing of the cattle, and the deep
+bell-notes of an unearthly voice.  She was so frightened that she
+dropped her pails and ran back to the house and called her husband.
+Thorhall was in bed, but he rose instantly, caught up a weapon, and
+hastened to the cow-house.
+
+On opening the door he found all the cattle loose and goring each other.
+Slung across the stone that separated their stalls was the old
+serving-man, perfectly dead, with his back broken.  He had, apparently,
+been tossed by the cows, and had fallen on this stone backwards.
+
+Neither Thorhall nor his wife explained his death in this way; they
+thought that Glam must have been there, have driven the cattle wild, and
+that just as he had broken the back of Thorgaut, so had he now broken
+that of the poor old serving-man.
+
+It was impossible for the bonder to remain longer in that place; he and
+his wife therefore removed down to Tongue, which lies at the junction of
+the two rivers, and there things were quiet.  There he was hospitably
+received by Jokull.  Thorhall was able to persuade some of his runaway
+servants to come back to him, but no man all that winter would go near
+the moor where was the barrow of the shepherd Glam.
+
+Not till the summer returned, and the sun had dispelled the darkness,
+did Thorhall venture back to the Vale of Shadows.  In the meanwhile his
+daughter's health had given way under the repeated alarms of the winter;
+she became paler every day; with the autumn flowers she faded, and was
+laid in the churchyard before the first snowflakes fell.  What was
+Thorhall to do through the winter?  He knew that it was not possible for
+him to secure servants if he remained on his own farm; besides, he did
+not know what loss might come to his stock.  Then, he could not spend
+the whole winter at Tongue, for that was another bonder's house, and
+though the farmer there had kindly received him and entertained him for
+three months the winter before, he could not ask him to give him
+houseroom to himself, his cattle, and servants for a whole long winter.
+
+So he was in the greatest possible perplexity what to do.  Help came to
+him from an unexpected quarter.
+
+Grettir had heard the story of the hauntings, and he rode to Thorhall's
+farm and asked if he might be accommodated there for the night.  He said
+that it was his great desire to encounter Glam.
+
+Thorhall was surprised, but not exactly pleased, for he thought that the
+family at Biarg would attribute the wrong to him were anything to happen
+to Grettir.
+
+Grettir put his horse into the stable, and retired for the night to one
+of the beds in the hall and slept soundly.
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER XV.*
+
+                    *HOW GRETTIR FOUGHT WITH GLAM.*
+
+
+    _Grettir awaits Glam--The Sound of Feet--Glam breaks into the
+    Hall--A Strange Figure--Grettir seizes Glam--Grettir's Last
+    Chance--Glam's Curse--The End of Glam--Was it True?_
+
+
+Next morning Grettir went with Thorhall to the stable for his horse.
+The strong wooden door was shivered and driven in.  They stepped across
+it; Grettir called to his horse, but there was no responsive whinny.
+Grettir dashed into the stall and found his horse dead; its neck was
+broken.
+
+"Now," said Thorhall, "I will give you a horse in exchange for that you
+have lost.  You had better ride home to Biarg at once."
+
+"Not at all.  My horse has been killed, and I must avenge it."  So
+Grettir remained.
+
+Night set in.  Grettir ate a hearty supper, and was right merry.  But
+not so Thorhall, who had his misgivings.  At bed-time the latter crept
+into a locked bedstead beside the hall; but Grettir said he would not go
+into a bed, he would lie by the fire in the hall.  So he wrapped himself
+up in a long fur cloak and flung himself on a bench, with his feet
+against the posts of the high seat.  The fur cloak was over his head,
+and he kept an opening through which he could look out.
+
+There was a fire burning on the hearth, a smouldering heap of glowing
+embers, and by the red light Grettir looked up at the rafters of the
+blackened roof.  The smoke escaped by a _louvre_ in the middle. The wind
+whistled mournfully.  The windows high up were covered with parchment,
+and admitted now and then a sickly yellow glare from the full moon,
+which, however, shone in through the smoke hole, silvering the rising
+smoke.  A dog began to bark, then bay at the moon.  Then the cat, which
+had been sitting demurely watching the fire, stood up with raised back
+and bristling tail, and darted behind some chests.  The hall-door was in
+a sad plight.  It had been so torn by Glam that it had to be patched up
+with wattles.  Soothingly the river prattled over its shingly bed as it
+swept round the knoll on which stood the farm.  Grettir heard the
+breathing of the sleeping women in the adjoining chamber, and the sigh
+of the housewife as she turned in her bed.
+
+Then suddenly he heard something that shook all the sleep out of him,
+had any been stealing over his eyes.  He heard a heavy tread, beneath
+which the snow crackled.  Every footfall went straight to Grettir's
+heart.  A crash on the turf overhead. The strange visitant had scrambled
+on the roof, and was walking over that.  The roofs of the houses in
+Iceland are of turf.  For a moment the chimney gap was completely
+darkened--the monster was looking down it--the flash of the red fire
+illumined the horrible face with its lack-lustre eyes.  Then the moon
+shone in again, and the heavy tramp of Glam was heard as he walked to
+the other end of the hall.  A thud--he had leaped down.
+
+Then Grettir heard his steps passing to the back of the house, then the
+snapping of wood showed that Glam was destroying some of the outhouse
+doors. Presently the tread was heard again approaching the house, and
+this time the main entrance.  Grettir thought he could distinguish a
+pair of great hands thrust in over the broken door.  In another moment
+he heard a loud snap--a long plank had been torn out of place, and the
+light of the moon shone in where the gap had been made.  Then Glam began
+to unrip the wattles.
+
+There was a cross-beam to the door, acting as bolt. Against the gray
+light Grettir saw a huge black arm thrust in trying to remove the bar.
+It was done, and then all the broken door was driven in and went down on
+the floor in shivers.  Now Grettir could see a tall dark figure, almost
+naked, with wild locks of hair about the head standing in the doorway.
+That was but for a minute, and then Glam came in stealthily; he entered
+the hall and was illumined by the firelight.  The figure Grettir now saw
+was unlike anything he had seen before.  A few rags hung from the
+shoulders and waist, the long wolf-gray hair was matted.  The eyes were
+staring and strange.  Grettir could hear Thorhall within his locked bed
+trembling and breathing fast.
+
+Presently Glam's eyes rested on the shaggy bundle by the high seat.  He
+stepped towards it, and Grettir felt him groping about him.  Then Glam
+laid hold of one end of the fur cloak and began to pull at it. The cloak
+did not come away.  Another jerk.  Grettir kept his feet firmly pressed
+against the posts, so that the fur was not pulled away.  Glam seemed
+puzzled; he went to the other end of the bundle and began to pull at
+that.  Grettir held to the bench, so that he was not moved himself, but
+the fur cloak was torn in half, and the strange visitant staggered back
+holding the portion in his hand wonderingly before his eyes.  Before he
+could recover from his surprise, Grettir started to his feet, bent his
+body, flung his arms round Glam, and driving his head into the breast of
+the visitor, tried to bend him backward and so snap his spine.  This was
+in vain, the cold hands grasped Grettir's arms and tore them from their
+hold. Grettir clasped them again about his body, and then Glam threw his
+also round Grettir, and they began to wrestle.  Grettir saw that Glam
+was trying to drag him to the door, and he was sure that if he were got
+outside he would be at a disadvantage, and Glam would break his back.
+He therefore made a desperate effort not to be drawn forth.  He clung to
+benches and posts, but the posts gave way, and the benches were torn
+from their places.
+
+At each moment he was being dragged nearer to the door.  Sharply
+twisting himself loose, Grettir flung his arms round a beam of the roof,
+for the hall was low.  He was dragged off his feet at once. Glam
+clenched him about the waist, and tore at him to get him loose.  Every
+tendon in Grettir's breast was strained; still he held on.  The nails of
+Glam cut into his side like knives, then his hands gave way.  He could
+endure the strain no longer, and Glam drew him towards the doorway, in
+so doing trampling over the broken fragments of the door, and the
+wattles that lay about.  Grettir knew that the last chance was come for
+saving himself.  Here, in the hall, he could hold to posts and beams,
+and so make some resistance; but outside he would have nothing to cling
+to, and strong though he was, his strength did not equal that of his
+opponent.
+
+Now the door-posts were of stone, and the beam that had served as bolt
+went across the door, slid into a hollow on one side cut in the
+door-post, and was pulled across and fitted into another hollow in the
+other post.  As the wrestlers neared the opening, Grettir planted both
+his feet against the stone posts, one against each, and put his arms
+round Glam.  He had the enemy now at an advantage; but then, he merely
+held him, and could not hold him so for ever.  He called to Thorhall,
+but Thorhall was too greatly frightened to leave his place of refuge.
+
+"Now," thought Grettir, "if I can but break his back!" Then drawing Glam
+to him by the middle, he put his head beneath the chin of his opponent
+and forced back the head.  If he could only drive the head far enough
+back he would break his neck.
+
+At that moment one or both of the door-posts gave way; down crashed the
+gable-trees, ripping beams and rafters from their places, frozen clods
+of turf rattled from the roof and thumped into the snow.
+
+Glam fell on his back outside the door, and Grettir on top of him.  The
+moon was, as I said before, at her full; large white clouds chased each
+other across the sky.  Grettir's strength was failing him, his hands
+quivered in the snow, and he knew that he could not support himself from
+dropping flat on the mysterious and dreadful visitant, eye to eye, lip
+to lip.
+
+Then Glam said: "You have done ill matching yourself with me; now know
+that never shall you be stronger than you are to-day, and that, to your
+dying day, whenever you are in the dark you will see my eyes staring at
+you, so that for very horror you will not dare to be alone."
+
+At this moment Grettir saw his short sword in the snow, it had slipped
+from his belt as he fell. He put out his hand at once, clutched the
+handle, and with a blow cut off Glam's head, and at once laid it beside
+his thigh.
+
+Thorhall came out at this juncture, his face blanched; but when he saw
+how the fray had ended, he joyfully assisted Grettir to roll the dead
+man to the top of a pile of faggots that had been collected for winter
+fuel.  Fire was applied, and soon far down the Waterdale the flames of
+the pyre startled folks, and made them wonder what new horror was being
+enacted in the Vale of Shadows.
+
+Next day the charred bones were conveyed a long way--some hours'
+ride--into the great desert in the interior, and in one of the most
+lonely spots there a cairn or pile of stones was heaped over them. I
+have seen this mound, which is still pointed out as that under which the
+redoubted Glam lies.
+
+And now we may well ask, what truth is there in the story?  That there
+is a basis of truth can hardly be denied.  The facts have been
+embellished, worked up, but not invented.  The only probable explanation
+of the story is this.
+
+As already said, further up the valley, in a spot difficult to be
+reached, stood the old fortress of some robbers, with many caves in the
+sandstone about it very convenient for shelter.  Now, it is not
+improbable that some madman may have taken refuge in this safe retreat,
+and may have come out at night in search of food, and carried off the
+sheep of Thorhall.  It may be that Glam caught him attempting to steal a
+sheep, and fought with him, and was killed, and that in like manner
+Thorgaut was killed. Then when people saw a great wild man wandering
+about they thought it was Glam, whereas it was the man who had haunted
+the region before Glam came there, and had killed Glam.  This is the
+simplest and easiest explanation of this wild and fearful tale.
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER XVI.*
+
+                    *HOW GRETTIR SAILED TO NORWAY.*
+
+
+    _Olaf the Saint--Slowcoach with the Nimble Tongue--Slowcoach
+    insults Grettir--Ill Words--Death of Slowcoach--In Search of
+    Luck_
+
+
+Early in the spring of the year 1015, news reached Iceland of a change
+of rulers in Norway.  Olaf Harald's son, commonly known as Olaf the
+Saint, had come to be King of Norway; Earl Sweyn had been defeated in
+battle and driven out of the country.  Now Grettir was remotely
+connected with the king, that is to say, his father's grandfather was
+brother to the grandfather of Asta, Olaf's mother.  The cousinship was
+somewhat distant; but in those days folk held to their kin more than
+they do now.  Grettir thought that a good chance had opened to him for
+doing well in Norway, so he resolved to leave Iceland, and enter the
+service of his relative, the king.  There was a ship bound for Norway
+lying in Eyjafiord, and Grettir engaged a berth in her, and made ready
+for the voyage.
+
+Now his father Asmund was very old and feeble, and was well nigh
+bedridden.  He had given over the entire management of the farm to his
+eldest son Atli, and to young Illugi, who was a few years younger than
+Grettir.  Atli was everywhere liked, he was such a prudent, peaceable,
+and kindly man.
+
+Grettir's ill-luck still followed him; for, as it chanced, Thorbiorn,
+the Slowcoach, the relation of Thorbiorn Oxmain, had resolved to go to
+Norway also, and in the same ship.  Now the Slowcoach may have been
+overslow in his movements, but he was overnimble with his tongue, and he
+was strongly advised either not to go in the same boat with Grettir, or,
+if he did, to mind his words.
+
+Such advice was thrown away on the Slowcoach, who, instead of practising
+caution, in order to show himself off, began to brag of his strength,
+and to say scurvy things of Grettir, which were duly reported by
+tale-bearers to Grettir.  Consequently, when Grettir arrived in the
+Eyjafiord with his goods, he was not very amiably disposed towards the
+Slowcoach.  However Atli had impressed on him the necessity of
+controlling himself, and Grettir was resolved not to quarrel with the
+man unless he could not help it.
+
+At the side of the shore, those who were about to sail had run up booths
+and cabins for themselves and their stores.  Many of those going in the
+boat were chapmen, and they took with them goods with which to traffic
+in Norway.
+
+Just as the vessel was ready, and about to sail next day, Slowcoach
+arrived, slow as usual, and after every one else was ready, and their
+goods on board. As it was the last evening on shore, all the merchants
+and seamen were sitting about their booths, when Thorbiorn Slowcoach
+arrived, and rode along the lane between the wooden cabins.  The men
+shouted to him to know if he had any news to tell them.
+
+Thorbiorn's eye caught that of Grettir, who was sitting on a bench, and
+he answered, "I don't hear any news, except that the old idiot Asmund of
+Biarg is dead."
+
+This was not true; the old man was not dead, but very ill.  Some of
+those who heard him said, "That is sad news indeed, for he was a worthy
+and honourable old man, and he could ill be spared."
+
+"I don't know that," said Thorbiorn with a scornful laugh.
+
+"But how did he die?  What did he die of?"
+
+"Die of?" repeated the Slowcoach loud enough to be heard by Grettir.
+"Smothered like a dog in the poky little kennel they call their hall at
+Biarg.  As for any loss in him, it is news to me that the world is not
+well rid of dotards."
+
+"These are ill words," said those who heard him. "No good man will speak
+slightingly of old and blameless chiefs.  Besides, such words as these
+Grettir will not endure."
+
+"Grettir!" scoffed Thorbiorn.  "Before I face him I must see him use his
+weapons better than he did last summer, when engaged with Kormak.  Then
+I put my elbow between them, and Grettir was but too ready to accept the
+interference.  I never saw a man before so shake in his shoes."
+
+Thereat Grettir stood up, and controlling himself, said, "If I have any
+faculty of foresight, Slowcoach, I see that you will not be smothered
+with smoke like a dog.  You should have done other than speak foul words
+of very aged men.  Gray hairs deserve respect."
+
+"I don't think more of your foresight than I do of the wisdom of your
+old fool of a father," said Thorbiorn.
+
+The end was that they fought.  The insult was too gross to be endured,
+and Grettir felt it incumbent on him to strike for his father's honour.
+The fight did not last long; the Slowcoach was slow in his fighting,
+slow of hand, only not slow of tongue, and Grettir's sharp sword wounded
+him to death.
+
+Slowcoach was buried in the nearest churchyard; and the chapmen gave
+Grettir credit for having restrained himself as long as possible, and
+allowed that, according to the ideas of the time, he was justified in
+fighting and killing the Slowcoach for his spiteful and strife-provoking
+words.  But Grettir was not pleased, he regretted the contest, because
+he knew that it left occasion of strife behind, which might occasion
+Atli trouble.  Thorbiorn Oxmain would, lie feared, be sure to take up
+the quarrel, and then Atli would have to pay a heavy fine in silver to
+atone for the death.
+
+The vessel set sail, and reached the south of Norway.  There Grettir
+took ship in a trading keel, to go north to Drontheim, because he heard
+that the king was there, and his heart beat high with hopes that Olaf
+would acknowledge him as a cousin, and would take him into his
+body-guard, and treat him with honour; and that so, though he had had
+ill-luck in Iceland, good luck might attend him in Norway.
+
+
+
+
+                            *CHAPTER XVII.*
+
+                         *THE HOSTEL BURNING.*
+
+
+    _Aground in the Fiord--The Light over the Water--Grettir Swims
+    Across--The Fight for Fire--The Burned Hostel--At Drontheim_
+
+
+There lived a man named Thorir at Garth in Iceland who had spent the
+summer in Norway when Olaf returned from England, and he had stood in
+great favour with the king.  He had two sons, and at this time both were
+well-grown men.
+
+Thorir left Norway for Iceland, where he broke up his ship, not
+intending again to go a seafaring. But when he heard the tidings that
+Olaf was king over the whole of Norway, then he deemed it would be well
+for his sons to go there and pay their respects to the king, and remind
+him of his old friendship for their father.
+
+On reaching Norway much about the same time as had Grettir, they took a
+long rowing-boat, and skirted the coast on their way north to Drontheim.
+They preceded Grettir by a few days.  On reaching a fine fiord, in which
+there was shelter from the gales that began to bluster violently with
+the approach of winter, the sons of Thorir ran in their boat, and as
+there was a large wooden hostelry there built for the shelter of
+weather-bound travellers, they took refuge in it, and spent their days
+in hunting and their nights in revelry.
+
+Now it so fell out that Grettir's merchant ship came into this same
+fiord one evening and ran aground on the opposite shore to that on which
+was the hostel.  The night was bitterly cold; storms of snow drove over
+the country, whitening the mountains.  The men from the ship were worn
+out and numbed with cold, and they had no means of kindling a fire.
+Then, all at once, they saw a light spring up on the opposite side of
+the firth, twinkling cheerfully between the trees.  This was a sight to
+make them more eager for a fire, and they began to wish that some one of
+their number would swim across and bring over a light.
+
+"In the good old times there must have been men who would have thought
+nothing of swimming across the streak of water at night," said Grettir.
+
+"No comfort to us to know that," said one of the crew.  "It does not
+concern us what may have been in the past, we are shivering in the
+present.  Why do you not get us fire?"
+
+Grettir hesitated.  The night was very like that on which he had fought
+with Glam: the same full moon, with snow-laden clouds rolling over its
+face for a while obscuring it, and then the full glare falling over the
+face of earth again; and, unaccountably, a sense of doubt and depression
+had come over him, as though that evil adversary were now about to
+revenge his downfall upon him.  He looked round suddenly, for he thought
+that the fearful eyes were staring at him from out of the black shadows
+of the fir-wood.
+
+The rest of the crew united in urging him, and at length, reluctantly,
+Grettir yielded.  He flung his clothes off, and prepared himself to
+swim.  He had on him a fur cape, and a pair of wadmal breeches. He took
+up an iron pot, and jumped into the sea and swam safely across.
+
+On reaching the further shore, he shook the water off him, but before
+long his trousers froze like boards, and the water formed in icicles
+about the cape. Grettir ascended through the pine-wood towards the
+light, and on reaching the hostel from which it proceeded, walked in
+without speaking to anyone, and striding up to the fire, stooped and
+began to scrape the red-hot embers into his iron pot.  The hall was full
+of revellers, and these revellers were the sons of Thorir and their
+boat's crew.  They were already more than half intoxicated, and when
+they saw a wild-looking man enter the hall, half naked and hung with
+icicles, they thought he must be a troll or mountain-spirit.
+
+At once every one caught up the first weapon to hand, and rushed to the
+attack.  Grettir defended himself with a fire-brand plucked from the
+hearth; the sons of Thorir stumbled over the fire, and the embers were
+strewn about over the floor that was covered with fresh straw.
+
+In a few moments the hall was filled with flame and smoke, and Grettir
+took advantage of the confusion to effect his escape.  He ran down to
+the shore, plunged into the sea and swam across.
+
+He found his companions waiting for him behind a rock, with a pile of
+dry wood which they had collected during his absence.  The cinders were
+blown upon, and twigs applied, till a blaze was produced, and before
+long the whole party sat rubbing their almost frozen hands over a
+cheerful fire.
+
+Next morning the merchants recognized the fiord, and, remembering that a
+hostel stood on the further side, they crossed the water to see it,
+when--what was their dismay to find of it only a heap of smoking embers!
+From under some of the charred timber were thrust scorched human limbs.
+The chapmen, in alarm and horror, turned upon Grettir and charged him
+with having maliciously burned the house with all its inmates.
+
+"See, now," said Grettir, "I had a thought that this expedition would
+not bring luck.  I would I had not taken the trouble to get fire for
+such a set of thankless churls."
+
+The ship's crew raked out the embers, pulled aside the smoking rafters,
+in their search for the bodies. Some of these were not so disfigured but
+that they could recognize them.  Moreover, they knew the ship that lay
+at anchor under the lee, hard by, and they saw that Grettir had brought
+the sons of Thorir to an untimely end.  The indignation of the merchants
+became so vehement, and their fear so great that they might be
+implicated in the matter, that they drove Grettir from their company,
+and refused to receive him into their vessel for the remainder of their
+voyage.  Grettir, in sullen wrath, would say no word of self-defence; he
+had to make his way on foot to Drontheim, where he resolved to lay the
+whole matter before the king.
+
+The vessel reached Drontheim before him, and the news of the hostel
+burning roused universal indignation against Grettir.
+
+
+
+
+                            *CHAPTER XVIII.*
+
+                         *THE ORDEAL BY FIRE.*
+
+
+    _Grettir tells his Story--Preparing for the Ordeal--The
+    Procession--Attacked by the Mob--The King Intervenes--Wicked or
+    Unlucky_
+
+
+One day, as King Olaf sat in audience in his great hall, Grettir strode
+in, and going before his seat, greeted the king.  Olaf looked at him and
+said:
+
+"Are you Grettir the Strong?"
+
+He answered: "That is my name, and I have come hither, kinsman, to get a
+fair hearing, and to clear myself of the charge of having burned men
+maliciously.  Of that I am guiltless."
+
+King Olaf replied: "I heartily trust that what you say is true, and that
+you will be able to rid yourself of a charge so bad."
+
+Grettir replied that he was ready to do whatsoever the king desired, in
+order to prove his innocence.
+
+Then said the king to him, "Tell me the whole story, that I may be able
+to judge."
+
+Grettir answered by relating the circumstances. He had simply taken fire
+from the hearth, when he was fallen upon by those who were drinking, and
+who were too tipsy to understand his explanation. He went away with the
+red-hot embers, and did not set fire to anything, but the drunken men
+kicked the glowing coals about amidst the straw.
+
+The king remained silent some moments, and then he said: "There are no
+witnesses either on your behalf or against you.  No man was by who is
+not dead. God and his angels alone know whether you speak the truth or
+not, therefore I must refer you to the judgment of God."
+
+"What must I do?" asked Grettir.
+
+"You will have to go through the ordeal of fire," said the king.
+
+"What is that?" asked the young man.
+
+"You must lift bars of red-hot iron, and walk with bare feet on
+ploughshares heated red in a furnace."
+
+"And what if I am burnt?"
+
+"Then will you be adjudged guilty."
+
+Grettir shrugged his shoulders: "If it must be so, let it be at once;
+but whether I be burnt or not, I declare that I am clear of all intent
+to hurt those men."
+
+"You cannot undergo the ordeal now," said the king.  "You would be
+burned to a certainty.  You must go through preparation first."
+
+"What preparation?"
+
+"A week of fasting and prayer," was the reply.
+
+Then Grettir was taken away and put in ward, and fed with bread and
+water for a week, and the bishop visited him and taught him to pray that
+if he were innocent, God would reveal his innocence by enabling him to
+pass unscathed through the ordeal.
+
+The day came, and Drontheim was thronged with people from all the
+country round, to see the Icelander of whom such tales were told.  A
+procession was formed; first went the king's body-guard followed by the
+king himself, wearing his crown, then came the bishop, the choir, and
+the clergy, and last of all Grettir, his wild red hair flying loose in
+the breeze, his arms folded, and his eyes wandering over the sea of
+heads that filled the square before the cathedral doors.  The crowd
+pressed in closer and closer.  Opinions differed as to whether he were
+guilty or not.  Among the mob was a young man of dark complexion, who
+made a great noise, shouldering his way to the front, and shouting.
+
+"Look at the fellow!" he exclaimed.  "This is the man who, in cold
+blood, burnt down a house over helpless men, and now he is to be given u
+chance of escape."
+
+"But he says he is guiltless," argued one in the crowd.
+
+"Guiltless!" exclaimed the youth.  "If one of us had done the deed,
+should we have been trifled with?  The king wants him for his
+body-guard, because he is so strong."
+
+"He should be given a chance of clearing himself," said one who stood
+near.
+
+"Yes--of course--because he is a kinsman of the king.  So the irons have
+been painted red, to look as if hot.  I know how the trick is done.  But
+he shall not escape me."
+
+Thereupon the young man sprang at Grettir and drove his nails into his
+face so that they drew blood; at the same time he poured forth against
+him a stream of insulting names.
+
+This was more than the Icelander could bear; he caught the young man, as
+a cat catches a mouse, held him aloft, shook him, and then threw him
+away, when he fell on the ground and was stunned. It was feared he might
+be killed.  This act gave occasion to a general uproar; the mob wanted
+to lay hands on Grettir; some threw stones, others assaulted him with
+sticks; but he, planting his back against the church wall, turned up his
+sleeves, guarded off the blows, shouting to his assailants to come on.
+Not a man came within his reach but was sent reeling back or was felled
+to the ground. In the meantime the king and the bishop were in the choir
+waiting.  The red-hot ploughshares which had been laid on the pavement
+were gradually cooling, but no Grettir appeared.
+
+[Illustration: GRETTIR DEFENDS HIMSELF FROM THE MOB.]
+
+At last the sounds of the uproar reached the king's ear, and he sent out
+to know the occasion. His messenger returned a moment after to report
+that the Icelander was fighting the whole town and had knocked down and
+well nigh killed several persons.  The king thereupon sprang from his
+throne, hastened down the nave, and came out of the great western door
+when the conflict was at its height.
+
+"Oh, sire," exclaimed Grettir, "see how I can fight the rascals!" and at
+the word he knocked a man over at the king's feet.
+
+With difficulty the tumult was arrested, and Grettir separated from the
+combatants; and then he wanted to go with the king and try the ordeal of
+fire.
+
+"Not so," answered Olaf, "you have already incurred sin.  It is possible
+that some of those you have knocked down may never recover, so that
+their blood will lie at your door."
+
+"What is to be done?" asked Grettir.
+
+The king considered.
+
+"I see you are a very wicked or at all events a very unlucky man.  When
+you were here before you were the occasion of several deaths.  I do not
+desire to keep you in Norway, but as winter has set in you may tarry
+here till next spring, and then you shall be outlawed and return to
+Iceland."
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER XIX.*
+
+                        *THE WINTER IN NORWAY.*
+
+
+    _At Einar's Farm--The Bearsarks--A Visit from Snoekoll--The
+    Bearsark's Demand--Grettir Temporizes--The Bearsark has a
+    Fit--Death of Snoekoll--Dromund's History--Grettir's Arms--A
+    Pair of Tongs_
+
+
+King Olaf had decided that Grettir must leave Norway and return to
+Iceland.  If he was not a guilty man he was a most unfortunate one.
+Now, the Norse race, whether in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, or Iceland,
+believed in luck.  They said that certain men were born to ill-luck, and
+such men they avoided, because they feared lest the ill-luck that clung
+to them might attach itself to, and involve those who came in contact
+with them.
+
+It was not possible for Grettir to return that year to Iceland, for all
+the ships bound for his native land had sailed before winter set in, so
+King Olaf agreed to allow him to remain in the kingdom through the
+winter, but bound him to depart on the first opportunity next year.
+
+Somewhat sad at heart with disappointment, and with the impression that
+perhaps Olaf the king was right, and that ill-luck really did weigh on
+him, Grettir left the court, and went at Yule to the house of a bonder
+or yeoman called Einar, and remained with him awhile.  The farm was in a
+lonely place in a fiord opening back to the snowy mountains.  Einar was
+a kindly man, hospitable, and he did his best to make Grettir's stay
+with him pleasant.  He had a daughter, a fair, beautiful girl, with blue
+eyes, and hair like amber silk, and her name was Gyrid.  Perhaps the
+beautiful Gyrid was one attraction to Grettir, but if so he never spoke
+what was on his heart, because he knew it would be useless.  He was an
+unlucky man; he had made himself a name, indeed, as one of great daring,
+but he had won for himself neither home, nor riches, nor favour.
+
+Now it fell out that at this time there were some savage ruffians in the
+country who were called Bearsarks.  They were outlaws in most cases, and
+they lived in secret dens in the dense forests, whence they issued and
+swooped down on the farms, and there challenged the bonders to fight
+with them, or to give up to them whatever they needed.  These ruffians
+wore bear-skins drawn over their bodies, and they thrust their heads
+through the jaws of the beasts, so that they presented a hideous and
+frightening appearance.  Then they worked themselves into paroxysms of
+rage, when they were like madmen; they rolled their eyes, they roared
+and howled like wild beasts, and foam formed on their mouths and dropped
+on the ground.  They were wont also, when these fits came on them, to
+bite the edges of their shields, and with their fangs they were known to
+have dinted the metal quite deep.  Some folks even said they had bitten
+pieces out of solid shields. It was usually supposed that these
+Bearsarks were possessed by evil spirits, and it is probable that in
+many cases they were really mad--mad through having given way to their
+violent passions, till they knew no law, and thought to carry everything
+before them by their violence.  It was even at one time thought by the
+superstitious that they could change their shapes, and run about at will
+in the forms of bears or wolves; but this idea grew out of the fact of
+their clothing themselves in bear or wolf skins, and drawing the skull
+of the beast over their heads as a rude helmet, and looking out through
+the open jaws that thus formed a visor.
+
+One day, just after Yule, to the terror and dismay of Einar, one of the
+most redoubtable of these Bearsarks, a fellow called Snoekoll, came
+thundering up to his door on a huge black horse, followed by three or
+four others on foot, all clothed in skins; but Snoekoll, instead of
+wearing the bear's skin over his head, had on a helmet with great tusks
+of a boar protruding from it, and a boar's head drawn over the metal.
+
+It is worth remark that the crests worn later by knights, and which we
+have still on our plate and on harness, are derived from similar
+adornments to helmets.  Some warriors put wings of eagles on their
+head-pieces, others put the paws of bears or representations of lions.
+These were badges of their prowess, or marks whereby they might be
+known.
+
+Snoekoll struck the door of the farmhouse with his spear, and roared to
+the owner to come forth. At once Einar and Grettir issued from the hall,
+and Einar in great trepidation asked the Bearsark what he wanted.
+
+"What do I want?" shouted Snoekoll.  "I want one of two things.  Either
+that you give me up your beautiful daughter to be my wife, and with her
+five-score bags of silver, or else that you fight me here. If you kill
+me, then luck is yours.  If I kill you, then I shall carry off your
+daughter and all that you possess."
+
+Einar turned to Grettir and asked him in a whisper what he was to do.
+He himself was an old man whose fighting days were over, and he had no
+chance against this savage.
+
+Grettir answered that he had better consult his honour and the happiness
+of Gyrid, and not give way to a bully.  The Bearsark sat on his horse
+rolling his eyes from one to another.  He had a great iron-rimmed shield
+before him.
+
+Then he bellowed forth: "Come!  I am not going to wait here whilst you
+consider matters.  Make your selection of the two alternatives at once.
+What is that great lout at your side whispering? Does he want to play a
+little game of who is master along with me?"
+
+"For my part," said Grettir, "the farmer and I are about in equal
+predicament; he is too old to fight, and I am unskilled in arms."
+
+"I see!  I see!" roared Snoekoll.  "You are both trembling in your
+shoes.  Wait till my fit is on me, and then you will shake indeed."
+
+"Let us see how you look in your Bearsark fit," said Grettir.
+
+Then Snoekoll waxed wroth, and worked himself up into one of the fits of
+madness.  There can be no doubt that in some cases this was all bluster
+and sham.  But in many cases these fellows really roused themselves into
+perfect frenzies of madness in which they did not know what they did.
+
+Now Snoekoll began to bellow like a bull, and to roll his eyes, and he
+put the edge of the great shield in his mouth and bit at it, and blew
+foam from his lips that rolled down the face of the shield. Grettir
+fixed his eyes steadily on him, and put his hands into his pockets.
+Snoekoll rocked himself on his horse, and his companions began also to
+bellow, and stir themselves up into madness.  Grettir, with his eye
+fixed steadily on the ruffian, drew little by little nearer to him; but
+as he had no weapon, and held his hands confined, Snoekoll, if he did
+observe him, disregarded him.  When Grettir stood close beside him and
+looked up at the red glaring eyes, the foaming lips of Snoekoll, and
+heard his howls and the crunching of his great teeth against the strong
+oak and iron of the shield, he suddenly laughed, lifted his foot, caught
+the bottom of the shield a sudden kick upwards, and the shield with the
+violence of the upward shock broke Snoekoll's jaw.  Instantly the
+Bearsark stopped his bellows, let fall the shield, and before he could
+draw his sword Grettir caught his helmet by the great boar tusks, gave
+them a twist, and rolled Snoekoll down off his horse on the ground,
+knelt on him, and with the ruffian's own sword dealt him his death-blow.
+
+When the others saw the fall of their chief they ceased their antics,
+turned and ran away to hide in the woods.
+
+The bonder, Einar, thanked Grettir for his assistance, and the lovely
+Gyrid gave him also her grateful acknowledgments and a sweet smile; but
+Grettir knew that a portionless unlucky man like himself could not
+aspire to her hand, and feeling that he was daily becoming more attached
+to her, he deemed it right at once to leave, and he went away to a place
+called Tunsberg, where lived his half-brother, Thorstein Dromund.
+
+Now, to understand the relationship of Dromund to Grettir, you must know
+that his father, Asmund, had been twice married.  He had been in Norway
+when a young man with a merchant ship, and he had also gone with his
+wares to England and France, and had gained great wealth; and as he had
+many relations in Norway he was well received there in winter, when he
+came back from his merchant trips.  On one of these occasions he had met
+a damsel called Ranveig, whose father and mother were dead.  She was of
+good birth, and was wealthy. Asmund asked for her hand and married her,
+and settled on the lands that belonged to her in Norway. They had a son
+called Thorstein, who, because he was rather slow of speech and manner,
+was nicknamed Dromund; but as we meet with other Thorsteins in this
+story, to prevent confusion we will speak of him as Dromund.
+
+After a while Asmund's wife Ranveig died, and then her relatives
+insisted on taking away all her lands and possessions and keeping them
+in trust for little Dromund.  Asmund did not care to quarrel with them,
+so he left Dromund with his late wife's relatives and went home to
+Iceland, where, after a few years, he married Asdis, and by her became
+the father of Atli, Grettir, and Illugi, and of two daughters, one of
+whom he named after his first wife.
+
+Dromund grew up in Norway on his estates at Tunsberg, and became a man
+of wealth and renown, a quiet man, but one who held his own, and was
+generally respected.
+
+Now Grettir went to him, and his half-brother received him very
+affectionately, and insisted on his remaining with him all the rest of
+the winter till it was time for him to sail to Iceland.
+
+One little incident is mentioned concerning that time that deserves to
+be recorded.
+
+Grettir slept in the same apartment as did his brother.
+
+One morning Dromund awoke early, and he saw how that Grettir's arms were
+out of bed, and he wondered at their size.
+
+Presently Grettir awoke, and then Dromund said to him: "Grettir, I have
+been amused with looking at your bare arms.  What muscles you have got!
+I never saw the like."
+
+"I need strong muscles to do what I have to do."
+
+"True enough, brother," said Dromund.  "But I could wish there were a
+little more luck as well as muscle attached to those bones."
+
+"Let me look at your arms," said Grettir.
+
+Then Dromund put his arms out of bed, and when he saw them Grettir burst
+out laughing, for they were so thin and scraggy.
+
+"Upon my word, brother, I never saw such a wretched pair of tongs in my
+life," he said.
+
+"They may be a pair of tongs, old boy," answered Dromund, "but they are
+tongs that shall ever be extended to help you when in need.  And," added
+Dromund in a lower tone, "if it should ever befall you that your
+ill-luck should overmaster you, and you not die in your bed; then,
+Grettir, I promise you, if I am alive, that I shall not let this pair of
+tongs rest till, with them, I have avenged you."
+
+No more is related of their talk together.  The spring wore on, and in
+summer Grettir took ship.
+
+The brothers parted with much affection, and they never again saw each
+other's face.
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER XX.*
+
+                       *OF WHAT BEFELL AT BIARG.*
+
+
+    _Thorbiorn's Servant--Ali at Biarg--Seeking a Quarrel--A Fair
+    Answer--Atli's Dilemma--Thorbiorn's Revenge--The Slaying of
+    Atli--Atli's Grave_
+
+
+Whilst Grettir was in Norway, that ill-luck which pursued him did not
+fail to touch and trouble his Icelandic home as well.
+
+It will be remembered that Grettir had been forced to fight the
+Slowcoach, and had killed him. Now the cousin of this man was Thorbiorn
+Oxmain, who lived in the Ramsfirth.  This Thorbiorn had got a
+serving-man named Ali, a somewhat lazy man, strong, but unruly.  As he
+did his work badly, and was slow about it, his master rebuked him, and
+when rebukes failed, he threatened him.  Threats also proved unavailing,
+so Thorbiorn one day took the stick to his back, and beat him till he
+danced.  After this Ali would remain no longer in his service; he ran
+away, crossed the ridge to the Midfiord, and came to Biarg, where he
+presented himself before Atli, who asked him what he wanted.
+
+The fellow said that he was in quest of service.
+
+"But," said Atli, "you are, I understand, one of Thorbiorn's workmen."
+
+"I was so, but I have left his service because I was badly treated.  He
+beat me till I was black and blue; no one can remain with him, he is so
+rough with his men, and he exacts of them too much work.  I have come
+here because I hear that you treat your servants well."
+
+Atli replied: "I have hands enough, you had better go back to Thorbiorn,
+for I do not want you."
+
+"I will never go back to him, that I declare," said the churl.  "If you
+turn me away, I have nowhere to which I can go."
+
+So he remained for a few nights at Biarg; and Atli did not like to turn
+him out of the house.  Then one day he went to work with Atli's men, and
+worked hard and well, for he was a powerful man. So time passed.  Atli
+did not agree to pay him any wage, and he did not send him away.  He did
+not feel best pleased at having the man there, but he was too
+kind-hearted to drive him away.
+
+Not only did he remain there and work well, but he showed himself ready
+to turn his hand to anything, and was the most useful man about the
+place.
+
+Now Thorbiorn heard that his churl was at Biarg. The death of Slowcoach
+had rankled in his breast. He had felt that it was his duty to take up
+the case and demand recompense, yet he had not done so; now he was
+angered that Atli had opened his doors to his runaway servant.  He had
+covenanted with the man for a year, but the fellow was so disagreeable
+that he would have gladly dispensed with his service; but that Atli
+should have received him, and that the man should be making himself
+useful at Biarg,--that made him very angry indeed.
+
+So he mounted his horse and rode to Biarg, attended by two men, and
+called out Atli to talk with him.
+
+Atli came forth and welcomed him.
+
+Then Thorbiorn said: "You are determined to pick up fresh occasion of
+quarrel, and stir ill-will between us.  Why have you enticed away my
+servant?  You had no right to behave thus to me."
+
+Atli replied quietly: "You are mistaken.  I did not entice him away.
+The fellow came to me.  I did not know for certain that he was your
+servant, nor did I know for how long he was engaged to you. Show me that
+I have done wrong and I will make reparation.  If he is yours, reclaim
+him, I will not keep him.  At the same time I do not like to shut him
+out of my house."
+
+"I claim the man," said Thorbiorn; "I forbid him to do a stroke of work
+here.  I expect him returned to me."
+
+"Nay," said Atli, "take the man, you are welcome to him; but I cannot
+bind him hand and foot and convey him to your house.  If you can get him
+to go with you, well and good, I will not detain him."
+
+Atli had answered fairly, but this did not satisfy Thorbiorn; he knew
+that he could not drag the man back to his farm, nor could he persuade
+him to follow, so he rode home in a mighty bad temper, his heart boiling
+with anger against Atli.  And now he thought that he would at one and
+the same time punish Atli for taking away his servant, and wipe out the
+wrong of the slaying of the Slowcoach.
+
+In the evening when the men came in from work, Atli said that Thorbiorn
+had been there and had reclaimed his churl, and Atli bade the fellow
+depart and go back to his master.
+
+Then the man said: "That's a true proverb, He who is most praised is
+found most faulty at the test. I came to you because I heard so much
+good of you, and now that I have toiled for you without wages all the
+early summer, as I have worked for none else, you want to kick me out of
+doors as winter draws on.  I will not go.  You will have to beat me as
+Thorbiorn beat me to make me leave this house, and then, even, I am not
+sure but that I shall remain in spite of being beaten."
+
+Atli did not know exactly what to do.  He did not wish to ill-treat the
+fellow, and yet without ill-treatment there was no getting rid of him.
+So he let him remain on.
+
+One day a warm wet rainy mist covered the land, the hills were enveloped
+in cloud; Atli sent out some of his men to mow at a distance where there
+was some grass, and others he sent out fishing.  He remained at home
+himself with only two or three men.
+
+That day Thorbiorn rode over the ridge that divided the dales, with a
+helmet on his head, a sword at his side, and a barbed spear in his hand.
+He came to Biarg, and no one noticed his approach. He went to the main
+door, and knocked at it.  Then he drew back behind the buildings, so
+that no one might see him from the door.  In Iceland the walls of a
+house between the gables are buttressed with turf--thick walls or
+buttresses that project several feet, and are about six or nine feet
+thick.  Such buttresses stood one on each side of the hall door at
+Biarg, and behind one of these Thorbiorn concealed himself.
+
+When he had knocked at the door, a woman came to it, unbarred and looked
+up and down the terrace or platform on which the house was built, but
+saw no one.  Thorbiorn peeped from behind the wall of turf and caught a
+glimpse of her, and then backed again into his hiding-place.  The woman
+then returned into the house, and told Atli that there was no one
+outside.
+
+She had hardly spoken before Thorbiorn knocked again.  Then Atli jumped
+up and said: "There must be someone there, and I will go and see myself
+who it is."
+
+Then he went forth and looked out of the door, but saw no one, as
+Thorbiorn had again retreated behind the bank of turf.  The water was
+streaming down, so Atli did not go from under cover, but laid a hand on
+each of the door-posts, and looked up and down the valley.
+
+Just as he was looking away from where Thorbiorn was concealed, that man
+suddenly swung himself round the bank of turf, and with all his might
+drove the spear against Atli, using both his hands. The spear entered
+him below the ribs, and ran right through him.  Atli uttered no cry, and
+fell forward over the threshold.  At that the women rushed forth, and
+they took Atli up, but he was dead.
+
+Then Thorbiorn, who had run to his horse, which was tied up behind the
+house, rode out on the terrace, and halting before the door proclaimed
+that he had done this deed.
+
+Now this was a formality which, according to Icelandic law, made his act
+to be not regarded as a murder.  A murder by law was the slaying of a
+man by one who concealed his name.
+
+Then Thorbiorn rode home.
+
+The goodwife, Asdis, sent for her men, and Atli's body was laid out, and
+he was buried beside his father, old Asmund, who had died during the
+winter. There was a church in those days at Biarg, but there is none
+there now.  When I was there I asked of the farmer now living in Biarg
+where was the old churchyard, but its site was lost; so I could not tell
+where were the graves of Atli the kind-hearted, honourable man, and the
+rest of the family.
+
+Great was the lamentation through the district at the death of one so
+loved and respected, and hard things were said of Thorbiorn for what he
+had done.
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER XXI.*
+
+                        *THE RETURN OF GRETTIR.*
+
+
+    _An Old Charge--Trial in Absence--Three Messengers of
+    Ill--Grettir and his Mother--Grettir goes to Revenge Atli_
+
+
+That same summer news reached Iceland of the burning of the hostel by
+Grettir.  When Thorir of Garth heard of the death of his sons he was
+furious.  He rode to the great annual assize at Thingvalla, with a large
+retinue, and charged Grettir with having killed his boys maliciously;
+and he demanded that for this offence Grettir should be outlawed.
+
+Then Skapti the judge said: "If things are as reported, then surely
+Grettir has committed an evil deed; but we have only heard one side of
+the story, and we only know of what has happened at third hand, by
+report; there are two ways of telling every story.  Let us wait till
+Grettir returns to Iceland. There will be time enough for this action to
+be taken.  I will not give my word that Grettir is guilty till we have
+heard what he has to say for himself."
+
+But Thorir was such a powerful chieftain that he overbore all
+resistance.  It was said that he could not lawfully take action against
+a man in his absence; but this was overridden by Thorir, who by packing
+the court was able to carry out what he wanted.  Moreover, owing to the
+death of Atli there was no one to oppose him vigorously.
+
+He pushed on matters so hard that nought could avail to acquit Grettir,
+and he was proclaimed an outlaw throughout the whole of Iceland, and
+Thorir also put a price on his head of many ounces of silver, which he
+said he would pay to that man who would kill him in Norway or Iceland,
+or wherever he might find him.
+
+Towards the close of the summer Grettir arrived in a vessel off the
+mouth of the White-river, an exile from Norway.
+
+It was a still summer night when the ship dropped anchor.  A boat came
+from the shore, and was rowed to the ship.  Grettir stood watching it
+from the bows, leaning on his sword.  As it touched the side of the
+ship, he called, "What news do you bring?"
+
+"Are you Grettir, Asmund's son?" asked a man rising in the boat.
+
+"I am," replied Grettir.
+
+"Then we bear you ill news: your father is dead."
+
+Another man stood up in the boat, and said: "Grettir, he was an old man,
+and you can hardly have expected to hear that he was still alive.  But
+what I have to say concerns you as closely, and is unexpected.  Your
+brother Atli has been slain by Thorbiorn Oxmain."
+
+Then a third man rose and said: "But these tidings concern others first
+and you secondly.  What I have to say concerns you mainly.  You have
+been made an outlaw throughout the length and breadth of the land, and a
+price is set on your head."
+
+It is said that Grettir did not change colour, nor did a muscle in his
+whole body quiver; but he lifted up his voice and sang this strain--
+
+    "All at once are showered
+    Round me, the Rhymer,
+    Tidings sad--my exile,
+    Father's loss and brother's,
+    Branching boughs of battle!
+    Many a blue-blade-breaker
+    Shall suffer for my sorrow."
+
+
+The branching bough of battle is a periphrasis for a man, so also is a
+blue-blade-breaker; and it is the use of such periphrases that
+constituted poetry to Icelandic ideas.  One night Grettir swam ashore.
+He thought that his enemies would be awaiting him, and should he venture
+to land in a boat would fall on him in overwhelming numbers; so he took
+to the water and swam to a point at some distance. Then he took a horse
+that he found in a farm near where he came ashore, and he rode across
+country to the Middle-firth, and reached home in two days.  He reached
+Biarg during the night when all were asleep; so instead of disturbing
+the household, he opened a private door, stepped into the hall, stole up
+to his mother's bed, and threw his arms round her neck.
+
+She started up, and asked who was there.  When he told her, she clasped
+him to her heart, and laid her head, sobbing, on his breast, saying.
+"Oh, my son!  I am bereaved of my children!  Atli, my eldest, has been
+foully murdered, and you are outlawed; only Illugi remains."
+
+Grettir remained at home a few days in close concealment.  Even the men
+of the farm were not suffered to know that he was there.  He heard the
+story of how Thorbiorn Oxmain had basely and in cowardly manner slain
+his brother, when Atli was unarmed; and Grettir considered that it was
+his duty to avenge his death.
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER XXII*
+
+                        *THE SLAYING OF OXMAIN.*
+
+
+    _By the Boiling Spring--Grettir knocks the Nail from his
+    Spear--Oxmain places his Son in Ambush--The Fight with
+    Oxmain--Grettir's Spear-head--The Law concerning Manslaying--A
+    Rising Black Cloud_
+
+
+One fine day, soon after his return, Grettir mounted a horse, and
+without an attendant rode over the hill to the Ramsfirth, and came down
+to Thorod's-stead.  This is still a good farm, the best on the fiord,
+and it is by far the best built pile of buildings thereabouts.  It faces
+the south and is banked up with turf to the north, to shelter it against
+the cold and furious gales from the Polar Sea.  The soil is
+comparatively rich there, and there are tracts of good grass land on the
+slope of the hill by the side of the inlet of sea.  The farm buildings
+consists at present of a set of wooden gable ends painted red, and the
+roofs are all of turf, where the buttercups grow and shine luxuriantly.
+
+Grettir rode up to the farmhouse, about noon, and knocked at the door.
+Some women came out and welcomed him; they did not know who he was, or
+they would have been more sparing in their welcome.  He asked after
+Thorbiorn, and was told that he was gone to the meadow, a little way
+further down the firth, where he had gone to bind hay, and that he had
+taken with him his son, called Arnor, who was a boy of sixteen.
+
+When Grettir heard this, he said farewell to the women, and turned his
+horse's head to ride down the fiord towards a boiling spring that
+bubbles up out of the rock, throwing up a cloud of steam, and running in
+a scalding rill into the sea.  Now the rock is perhaps warm there, or
+the warm water helps vegetation; certain it is that thereabouts the
+grass grows thickly, and there it was that Thorbiorn was making his
+bundles of hay.  As Grettir rode along near the water, below the field,
+Thorbiorn saw him. He had just made up one bundle of hay, and he was
+engaged on another.  He had set his shield and sword against the load,
+and his lad Arnor had a hand-axe beside him.
+
+Thorbiorn looked hard at Grettir as he came along, and he said to the
+boy: "There is a fellow riding this way.  I wonder who he is, and
+whether he wants us. Leave tying up the hay, and let us find out what
+his errand is."
+
+Then Grettir leaped off his horse; he had a helmet on his head, and was
+girt with the short sword, and he bore a great spear in his hand that
+had a long sharp blade but no barbs.  The socket was inlaid with silver,
+and a nail went through the socket fastening it on to the staff of the
+spear.  He sat down on a stone, and knocked the nail out.  His reason
+was that he intended to throw the spear at Thorbiorn, and if he missed
+him, he thought the spear-head and the haft would come apart, and would
+be of no use to Thorbiorn to fling back at him.
+
+Oxmain said to his son: "I verily believe that is Grettir, Asmund's son,
+he is so big; I know no one else so big.  He has got occasion enough
+against us, and if he is come here it is not with peaceable intentions.
+Now we must manage cunningly.  I do not know that he has seen you; so
+you hide behind the bundle of hay, and lie hid till you see him engaged
+with me.  Then you steal up noiselessly behind with your axe, and strike
+him one blow with all your might between the shoulder-blades.  When I
+see you coming up, I will fight the more furiously so as to draw off his
+attention, that he may not be able to look round.  Have no fear, he
+cannot hurt you, as his back will be turned to you.  Get close enough to
+make sure, and you will kill him with one blow."
+
+Now Grettir came uphill into the field, and when he came within a
+spear-throw of them, he cast his spear at Thorbiorn; but the head was
+looser on the shaft than he had expected it would be, and it became
+detached in its flight, and fell off and dropped into a marshy place and
+sank, and the shaft flew on but a little way and then fell harmlessly to
+the ground.
+
+Then Thorbiorn took his shield, put it before him, drew his sword and
+ran against Grettir and engaged him.  Grettir had, as already said, the
+short sword that he had taken out of the barrow, and with that he warded
+off the blows of Thorbiorn and smote at him.  Oxmain was a very strong
+man, and his shield was covered with well-tanned hide stretched over
+oak, and the blade of Grettir fell on it, hacked into it, and sometimes
+caught so that he could not at once withdraw it.  Thorbiorn now began to
+deal more furious blows.  Now just as Grettir was wrenching his sword
+away from the shield, into which it had bitten deep, he saw someone
+close behind him with an axe raised.  Instantly he tore out his sword
+and smote back over his head to protect his back from his assailant
+behind, and the blow came on Arnor just as he was on the point of
+driving his axe in between the shoulders of Grettir, so that he
+staggered back, mortally wounded.  Thorbiorn, whose eye was on his son,
+retreated a step, lost his presence of mind for a moment, and thereupon
+down came Grettir's sword on his shield and split it in half.  Grettir
+pursued his advantage, pressed on him, and struck him down at his feet,
+dead at a blow.
+
+Then he went in search of his silver-inlaid spear-head, but could not
+find it.  So he mounted his horse again, rode on to the nearest
+farmhouse, and there told what he had done.  Many, many years after,
+about 1250, the spear-head was found in the marsh.  When I was in
+Iceland I also obtained a very similar spear-head, only not
+silver-inlaid, that was found in the volcanic sand; it had probably been
+lost in a very similar manner.
+
+It seems to us in these civilized times very horrible this continual
+slaying that took place in Iceland; but we must remember that, as
+already said, there were in those days not a single policeman, soldier,
+or officer of justice in the island.  When a trial took place, the
+prosecutor was the person aggrieved, or the nearest akin.  The court
+pronounced sentence, and then the prosecutor was required to carry out
+what the law had ordered.  He was to be constable and executioner.  Now
+the law, or custom which was the same as law, for there was no written
+code, was that when one man had been killed, the next of kin was bound
+to prosecute the slayer and obtain from him money compensation, or
+outlawry, or else he might kill the slayer himself, or one of his kin.
+This latter provision seems to us outrageous, that because A kills B,
+therefore that C, who is B's brother, may kill D, who is brother to A.
+But so the law or custom stood and was recognized as binding, and not to
+carry out the law or custom was regarded as dishonourable.  It must be
+remembered that Iceland was colonized about A.D. 900, and that Grettir
+was born only about 97 years after, and that Christianity was adopted in
+1000; that is to say, it was sanctioned by law, but no one was forced to
+become a Christian unless he liked.  Also, that there was no government
+in the island, no central authority, and that the colonists lived much
+as do the first settlers now in a new colony which is not under the
+crown, or like the diggers at the gold mines.
+
+When Grettir had slain Thorbiorn Oxmain, he went home to Biarg and told
+his mother, who said it was well that Atli's blood was wiped out by the
+death of the man who had so basely and in such cowardly fashion slain
+him; but she said she foresaw more trouble coming like a rising black
+cloud, and that this would make it more difficult for Grettir to get
+relief from his outlawry.
+
+
+
+
+                            *CHAPTER XXIII.*
+
+                             *AT LEARWOOD.*
+
+
+    _At Hvamsfiord--Iceland Scenery--An Iceland Paradise--One Lucky
+    Chance--Kuggson's Story--Onund's Voyage--In Search of
+    Uninhabited Land--The Landing--Eric's Gift--A Cold Back!--Better
+    than Nothing--An Oversight--Death of Onund--Planning a
+    Murder--Killing the Curd Bottle--The Churl's Axe--The Red
+    Stream--Hard Times--The "Wooden-tub"--The Stranded Whale--The
+    Fight over the Whale--Retreat of the Coldbackers--Before the
+    Assize--The Judgment--An Evil Act--Ill-luck follows Ill_
+
+
+After the slaying of Thorbiorn Oxmain, Grettir would not remain at home,
+lest trouble should come on his mother; so he rode across the Neck first
+of all to his brother-in-law, at Melar, at the head of the Ramsfirth, to
+ask his advice.  His brother-in-law there was called Gamli; he was not
+very rich or powerful, and he represented to Grettir that it would never
+do for him to remain in such near proximity to Thorod's-stead, in the
+same valley, at the head of the same firth.  This Grettir acknowledged,
+so he stayed there but a few days, and then rode over the high
+table-land to the Lax, or Salmon-dale, where was the watershed, and the
+river of the salmon ran west into Hvamsfiord.  One of the most
+interesting and best written of the Icelandic sagas relates to the
+history of this valley.  The Hvamsfiord is by nature wonderfully
+protected against western storms, for the entrance is almost blocked to
+the west by a countless multitude of islands, of which only one is
+moderately large, and to the north-west is not only a grassy promontory,
+but also a natural breakwater of three long narrow islands.
+
+Outside the cluster of islands are eddies and whirlpools, and the
+passage between them is not always safe; but when a vessel has passed
+through between the islets it enters as into a wide beautiful inland
+lake, the shape of which is that of a boot, with the sole to the east
+and the toe turned up north.  Moreover, along the north side of this
+sheltered firth are high and steep hills that screen from the water all
+gales sweeping from the Pole; and in the glens and under the crags of
+these hills exposed to the south are beautiful woods of birch.
+
+Formerly in Iceland the woods were much more extensive than they are
+now; for the old settlers found in them plenty of fuel, and the
+birch-trees grew to a fair size.  Now, alas, with fatal want of
+consideration, the trees have been so cut down that the woods are rare
+and the trees are small.  There is hardly a birch-tree whose top one
+cannot touch when riding through a wood on a little pony no bigger than
+a Shetlander.
+
+Exactly at the toe of the boot is a rich grassy basin, where two streams
+flow into the fiord, and here is a beautiful view from the water.  One
+sees in front the green basin, and above it rise the mountains to
+Skeggoxl, a cone covered with eternal snows and with glaciers streaming
+down its flanks.  Here, in a sweet sheltered nook, basking in the sun,
+in spring with the river-side and the marshes blazing with immense
+marigolds, and with the short grass slopes speckled with blue tiny
+gentianella, is the farm, and near it the wooden church of Hvam.  In
+another part of the basin is a settlement called Asgard, the "Home of
+the gods;" for those who settled there first thought the spot so
+delightful, so warm, that they named it after the sunny land of fable,
+where it was said that their ancestors, the hero-gods of the northern
+race, had lived in the east before ever they crossed Russia and settled
+in Norway.  Asgard to their minds was Paradise.
+
+Paradise in Iceland is not a paradise elsewhere; nevertheless, to one
+who has travelled over barren hills and between glaciers, this warm nook
+with its green grass and woods of glistening birch was a place of
+inexpressible charm.  Now, just to the east, where would come the ball
+of the toe, looking across the end of this still blue lake-like fiord,
+up the valleys to the snows of Skeggoxl, is the farm of Learwood, in a
+grassy flat by the water, backed by birchwood and hills, and screened
+from the east as well as from the north winds.  Here lived Thorstein
+Kuggson. Kuggson's mother was the daughter of Asgeir, the father of
+Audun of Willowdale, with whom Grettir had a tussle on the ice, and whom
+he afterwards upset with his foot when he was carrying curds. Kuggson
+through his father was related to the influential and wealthy family in
+the Laxdale, whose history is well known through the noble saga that
+relates the story of that valley.
+
+Grettir spent the autumn with his relative Kuggson.  Now, whilst he was
+there he fell to talking one day with Kuggson about his trial of
+strength with Audun, and Grettir said how glad he was that nothing had
+come of it.  It was said that he was a man of ill-luck; yet luck had
+befriended him on that occasion in sending Bard to interrupt the
+struggle before both lost their tempers and the quarrel became serious.
+
+Then said Kuggson: "You remind me of the story of Bottle-back, which, of
+course, you know."
+
+"It is many years since I have heard the tale," answered Grettir; "for,
+indeed, I can be little at home now, and am out of the way of hearing
+stories of one's forefathers.  Tell me the tale."
+
+Then Kuggson told Grettir
+
+
+
+                       *The Story of Bottle-Back*
+
+
+"You know very surely, Grettir, that your great-grandfather was Onund
+Treefoot.  He was so called because in the great battle of Haf's fiord,
+fought against King Harald, he had one of his legs cut off below the
+knee.  You have been told how that Onund had first to wife Asa, and that
+he settled at Cold-back; and he had by his first wife two sons, Thorgeir
+and Ufeig, who was also called Grettir, and it is after him that you are
+named.  Onund's second wife was the mother of Thorgrim Grizzlepate, your
+grandfather.
+
+"The story I am going to tell you relates to Thorgeir, the eldest son of
+Onund, and how he got the name of Bottle-back.  You might think he
+acquired the designation from a rounded back.  It was not so, he had a
+back as straight as yours.
+
+"But to understand the story of how he got the name, I must go back to
+the time when Onund, your great-grandfather, came to Iceland.  That was
+in the year of Christ 900; he was unable to remain any longer in Norway,
+because the king, Harald, was in such enmity with him.  So he resolved
+that he would come to Iceland and seek there a new home. Now this was
+somewhat late, for the colonization of this island had begun some five
+or six and twenty years before, and there had come out great numbers of
+Norwegian chiefs, who fled from the rapacity and the vengeance of King
+Harald Fairhair, who outlawed every man who took up arms against him."
+
+But the story shall be told not in Kuggson's words, but in mine.
+
+Onund sailed to Iceland from Norway in the summer of A.D. 900, and he
+had a hard voyage and baffling winds from the south that drove him far
+away to the north into the Polar Sea, till he came near the pack-ice;
+and then there came a change, and he made south, and after much beating
+about, for he had lost his reckoning, he made land, and found that he
+had come upon the north coast of Iceland, and those who knew the looks
+of the land said he was off the Strand Bay.  To the west rose the rocks
+and glaciers of the Drang Jokull, and to the east the long promontory
+that separated the Hunafloi from Skagafiord.
+
+Presently a ten-oared boat put off from shore, rowed by six men, and
+approached Onund's vessel, and the men in the boat hailed the vessel and
+asked whose it was.  Onund gave his name and inquired to whom the men
+belonged.  They said they were servant men belonging to a farm at
+Drangar, just under the mighty field of glacier of Drang Jokull. Onund
+asked if all the land was taken up by settlers, and the men answered
+that along the north coast all such land as was worth anything was taken
+already, and that most was also settled to the south.
+
+Then Onund consulted with his shipmates what was to be done, whether
+coast along the north protuberance of Iceland in search of uninhabited
+land, or go into the great bay and see whether any chance opened for
+them there.  They had arrived so late in Iceland after the main rush of
+settlers that they could not expect to get any really favourable
+quarters. The men advised against exploring the north, exposed to the
+cold gales from the Polar Sea, where the fiords would be blocked with
+ice half the year; and thought there would be no harm trying what they
+could find further south.
+
+So Onund turned his vessel in towards the head of the splendid bay
+Hunafloi; but seeing a creek that seemed fairly sheltered, having on the
+north some quaint spikes of rock, and a great mountain to the south like
+a horn, and finding that this fiord gave a turn northwards under the
+shelter of the mountains, the men with Onund's consent ran in there, and
+having anchored the vessel, entered a boat and rowed ashore.  On
+reaching the strand they were met by men who asked them who they were
+and what they did there.  Onund said he had come with peaceable
+intentions, and then he was told that all that fiord was occupied, and
+that the owner of the land was Eric Trap, a wealthy man.  Eric came to
+the beach and hospitably invited Onund and his ship's crew to his house.
+There Onund told him his difficulty.  He had come to Iceland too late,
+and he feared that he would be able nowhere to find unclaimed lands.
+
+Eric considered a while, and then said there was more land that he had
+claimed than he could well keep in hand, and that he would be pleased to
+accommodate a man of such noble family and character as was Onund.
+Onund pressed him to receive payment for the land, but this Eric
+generously refused. When he had come there, said Eric, the country had
+been unpeopled, and he had just claimed what he liked, and had claimed
+more than he wanted.  Now he desired to have neighbours, and if Onund
+would be friendly none would be better pleased than himself to have him
+near.
+
+This gratifying offer satisfied Onund, but, as the saying is, 'Don't
+look a gift-horse in the mouth,' he did not at once close with the
+offer, but asked to be allowed to see the land Eric was so ready to part
+with.
+
+Accordingly he rode with Eric along the coast, passed the headland where
+was the horn-shaped mountain, and came upon a fiord where some boiling
+springs poured up in the sea out of its depths; the mountains on the
+north came down so abruptly to the water's edge that the only habitable
+ground lay at the head of the firth and on the south side, having a
+northern aspect.  Moreover there was a lofty range to the south, so that
+in winter the sun would never light up this firth.  Onund did not much
+like it, he thought that Eric had offered him the place because he did
+not care for it himself; so he went across the mountain range and down
+into the little bay south of it.  As they rode it was over snow, a long
+descent of wintry mountain, till they reached a valley in which was a
+hot spring, a little lake, and some grass.  The situation was somewhat
+more inviting than that Onund had already seen, but it was not very
+attractive, and looking back on the long dreary slope of snow he said,
+"A cold back! a cold back! I would like to have had one warmer."  "That
+is not easily acquired," answered Eric.  "Further south there is no
+fiord for many miles till you come to one occupied by a man called
+Biarni.  That I can tell you is a fertile settlement, there are woods
+and pastures, and hot springs and good anchorage; but that is not my
+land to give you."
+
+Then Onund sang a stave:
+
+    "All across life's strands do run,
+    I who many war-wagers won,
+    Meadows green and pastures fair
+    Once were mine, and woods to spare.
+    Left behind, I rid the steed
+    That o'er wave, with wind doth speed.[#]
+    Cold--cold, icy back behind,
+    This is what alone I find,
+    Hard the lot that fate doth yield
+    To the bearer of the shield."
+
+[#] _i.e._ a ship.
+
+
+Eric answered, "Many men have lost everything in Norway, and have got
+nothing in exchange. Cold may be the back against which to lean; but
+better cold back than none at all."
+
+This was true.  Onund had not received Eric's offer graciously; but he
+now accepted it, and he called the second bay he saw--that into which he
+had descended over snow--Coldback, and that remains the name to this
+day.
+
+Eric behaved very nobly; he gave up to Onund the whole tract of land
+from the Horn-headland to the limit where Biarni's land began.  He
+received the whole of Reykjafiord, Fishless Creek, and Coldback Bay.
+
+Then Onund built himself a house at Coldback; and there was no
+difficulty about wood, for the Gulfstream flowed up past the great
+north-west promontory of Iceland, curled round into Hunafloi, and
+deposited a quantity of American timber as drift all along that coast.
+Indeed, the drift was so abundant that neither Eric nor Onund made any
+agreement about it.  Now, as it happened in the sequel, this was an
+oversight.
+
+Onund prospered at Coldback, and even set up for himself a second farm
+at the head of the firth to the north, called Reykja-firth, from the
+boiling springs that puffed and bubbled up in the sea at the entrance;
+and a hot spring is in Icelandic--Reykr.
+
+Now, a few years after Onund had settled in Iceland, his good wife Asa
+died.  He had by her two sons--the elder was called Thorgeir, and the
+younger Ufeig Grettir.  After a while Onund went courting a woman called
+Thordis, in Middle-firth, and he married her, and by her had a son
+called Thorgrim; he grew to be a big man, very strong, wise, and a
+capital man at husbandry.  When he was twenty-five years old his hair
+grew gray, and so he went by the name of Thorgrim Grizzle-pate, and he
+was the grandfather of Grettir.  After the death of Onund, his widow
+married, as already said, Audun of Willowdale, and their son was Asgeir,
+the father of Grettir's cousin Audun, with whom he had that affray on
+the ice, and then with the bottle of curds.
+
+When Onund was a very old man, then he died in his bed, and he was
+buried under a great mound, which you may see at Coldback if you go
+there.  It is called Old Treefoot's cairn.  When he was dead, then
+Thorgrim Grizzlepate and his half-brothers, Thorgeir and Ufeig Grettir,
+lived together on the best of terms at Coldback, and managed the
+property between them.
+
+In time Eric Trap of Arness died also, and left his lands to his son
+Flossi.  He had remained in friendship with Onund all his life; but
+Flossi, his son, was a grasping man, and he was often heard to grumble
+about the Coldback family, and say that they were squatters on his
+father's land, and had no title to show for the land they held.
+Thorgrim Grizzlepate and his half-brothers did not wish to quarrel with
+Flossi, so they kept out of his company; and when there were sports of
+hurling, and wrestling, and horse-fighting, strayed away, so as not to
+be involved in a quarrel with him.
+
+Now, Thorgeir was the eldest of the three brothers at Coldback, and he
+was mightily fond of fishing.  This was known to Flossi, and he made a
+plot for slaying him; for he was envious of the brothers, and wanted to
+get back all their lands into his own possession.  He had got a
+house-churl called Finn, and he and Finn had some talk together. The end
+of this talk was that Finn started secretly for Coldback armed with a
+hatchet, and he hid himself in the boat-house at Coldback.
+
+Early in the morning Thorgeir got ready to go out fishing, for the
+weather was good, the sea calm and was alive with fish.  His nets were
+in the boat, and before sunrise he left his bed and dressed, and went to
+the boat-house to start on his excursion. He had not the smallest
+suspicion of mischief, and as he was like to be on the water for a long
+time, he flung a great leather bottle of curds over his back. As already
+said, these leather bottles were no other than the hides of goats or
+sheep, sewn up and converted into receptacles for liquid.
+
+So Thorgeir went to the boat-house with the bottle of curd over his
+back, opened the door, and went in.  He did not look round, he had no
+suspicion of evil, and he did not see Finn lurking in the dark corner.
+It was, moreover, very dark in the boat-house.  Thorgeir stooped to get
+hold of the boat and thrust her out, when all at once out from the dark
+corner leaped the churl, and brought the axe down on Thorgeir's back.
+The blow made the bottle squeak, and all the curds gushed out.  That was
+enough for Finn.  He made sure he had killed Thorgeir, so he ran away as
+fast as he could back to Arness, burst into the house, and shouted to
+his master "I have killed him!  I have killed him!  And he squeaked!  he
+squeaked!"
+
+"Let me look at the axe," said Flossi.  Then, when he had the axe in his
+hand he turned it about and laughed, and said, "Verily, I did not think
+that Thorgeir had milk in his veins instead of blood. That accounts for
+it, that you have been able to slay him."
+
+This affair was a subject of much comment, and much laughter did it
+provoke.  Thorgeir had not received the smallest wound, only his bottle
+was split, and ever after he went by the name of Bottle-back.
+
+But a song was made about this event which was never forgotten.  It runs
+thus:--
+
+      "Of the days of old
+      Great tales are told
+    How heroes went forth to fight,
+      Their shields, for show
+      Were whitened as snow,
+    And their weapons were burnished bright
+      The battle began,
+      In the weapon-clang,
+    The red blood flowed apace
+      In rivers shed
+      It dyed red
+    The shields o'er all their face.
+      But nowaday
+      We tune our lay
+    To tell a different story.
+      The churls who fight
+      Bring axes white,
+    With curds and whey made gory."
+
+
+When Kuggson ceased, Grettir laughed heartily. "Ah!" said he, "that
+cannot be said now, for indeed there flows much blood."
+
+"You speak the truth," answered Kuggson; "and I wish that this red
+stream flowed less abundantly."
+
+"That may be," said Grettir; "but I would fain hear the rest of the
+story.  I have not heard it told me for a long time; and, indeed, to
+speak the truth, much of it I have clean forgotten, though I did hear it
+when I was a boy at home."
+
+"If you will hear what follows, it must be as a new story," said
+Kuggson.  Again I will tell it in my own words.
+
+
+
+                   *The Story of the Stranded Whale*
+
+
+Hard times came to Iceland, such as had not been known since it was
+settled, for the timber that had been thrown up by the sea came to an
+end, or very nearly so.  There had been great accumulations, and these
+were exhausted, and for some reason or other that cannot now be
+explained the Gulf-stream ceased to carry on its current the amount of
+timber it had formerly, the wreckage of the forests on the Mississippi,
+swept down into the great Mexican Gulf, and thence washed out over the
+vast Atlantic, borne on the warm stream to the north, to give fuel to
+those lands which were by nature unprovided with trees.  At this time
+the axe was laid against the largest and finest birch that grew in the
+forests in Iceland.  But none of that timber was big and good enough for
+building purposes.
+
+This deficiency in drift-wood continued for many seasons, and if men
+required building timber they were constrained to send to Norway for it.
+Now, it happened that about this time a great merchant vessel was
+wrecked in the fiord in the lap of which was Arness, where lived Flossi,
+and he took four or five of the chapmen to his house, and lodged them
+there well and hospitably, and the other wrecked men were quartered in
+other farmhouses near.  All winter the men were engaged in building a
+new ship out of the wreck and what other timber they could get; but they
+were not skilful over their work, and they built a badly-proportioned
+vessel, over small at the stem and stern and over big amidships; and
+this vessel was much laughed at, and men called it the Wooden-tub, and
+that bay where Flossi lived was ever after called Wooden-tub Bay,
+because this broad-beamed, comical vessel was built there.[#]
+
+[#] It is still so called, Tr�kyllis-v�c.
+
+Now, it fell out that at the spring equinox there was a great storm from
+the north, and it lasted a week.  The waves came in huge rollers against
+the cliffs, and spouted like geysers into the air, and all the air was
+in a haze with spray, and was full of the noise of the sea.  Those who
+lived on the coast were not sorry for the storm, because they hoped it
+would blow in drift-wood and other spoils of the deep upon the shores;
+and sure enough, when it abated, a man who lived out on Reykja-ness came
+and told Flossi that there was a great whale washed ashore there. Then
+Flossi sent word to all the farms round to the north.  But hard-by where
+the whale had come ashore lived a farmer named Einar, who was a tenant
+under the brothers at Coldback, so he took a boat and rowed off to
+Coldback, and told them about the monster that was stranded.
+
+When Thorgrim and his brothers Thorgeir and Ufeig heard this, they got
+ready at once, and were twelve in a ten-oared boat, with axes and knives
+for cutting up the whale.  Another boat put off from another of their
+farms, with six men in it, and others were sure to come as soon as they
+could get ready.
+
+In the meantime, Flossi and all his company, his kindred, servants, and
+tenants, had hurried to the spot, and were already engaged in cutting up
+the whale, when round the ness came the boat of the brothers.  Now, the
+shore where the whale was cast up belonged to the brothers, and they
+called out to Flossi to assert their right to whatever was found on the
+strand.  Flossi answered that if they had any right to the drift they
+must show their claim. They had, he said, been allowed by his father to
+squat on his land, but his father had never given over to them all his
+rights, certainly not the lordship over the strand, and claim to flotsam
+and jetsam. Whilst the dispute continued, up came other boats of the
+Coldback party, and then a long boat, that contained a fellow called
+Swan, who lived in Biornfiord, to the south of Coldback, a very warm
+friend of the brothers, and a plucky, resolute man.
+
+Thorgrim was hesitating what to do, when Swan told him it would be mean
+to allow himself to be robbed.  Moreover, this assault on his rights, if
+not resisted would establish a precedent, and Flossi would claim
+everything found on their strand, even at their very doors.
+
+So a fight began.  The Coldback men came ashore, and Thorgeir
+Bottle-back mounted the carcase of the whale, to drive off the servants
+of Flossi. Among these was Finn; he was near the head of the whale, and
+stood in a foothold he had cut for himself.  Then Thorgeir Bottle-back
+said, "Ah!  I owe you a stroke of the axe, which has not been repaid as
+yet," and he smote at him, and felled him.
+
+Flossi egged on his men, and a desperate fight ensued; some fought on
+the body of the whale, some about it.  There were hardly any present who
+had other weapons save choppers and axes, and they hewed at each other
+with these.  But some had no other weapons than the ribs of the whale,
+and it is even said that some of the churls flourished great strips of
+blubber, with which they banged each other about, nearly smothering each
+other in oil, but not doing much harm.
+
+The battle was going ill with Flossi, when there arrived a contingent of
+men from Drangar, with many boats, and gave help to Flossi, and then
+those of Coldback were borne back overpowered; but they did not retreat
+till they had loaded their boats. Swan shouted to the Coldbackers to get
+on board as quickly as they could, for he saw more men coming against
+them from the north.  Flossi received a wound, but Ufeig, one of the
+three brothers, was dealt his death-wound before he could get into the
+boat, and he fell on the strand.  Thorgeir Bottle-back at once leaped
+out of the vessel, ran to his brother, heaved him up in his arms and
+plunged back through the surf with him, and lifted him into the boat,
+where he died.  It is told that in this battle one man was beaten to
+death by the rib of a whale, and that was one of the chapmen of the
+wrecked vessel.
+
+After this, the matter was brought before the assize, for the question
+of the right to the shore had to be decided one way or the other.  And
+it was decided in this manner: Flossi was condemned to outlawry for his
+high-handed proceeding, and because of the death of Ufeig Grettir; but
+the question of the rights was thus settled by the judge, Thorkel Moon.
+He said, "I cannot see that the claim made by the Coldback men is
+established, for no money passed between Onund and Eric.  I know this
+about the land that was possessed by my grandfather Ingolf, and which is
+now my own.  He received it from Steinver the Old; but then he gave her
+a mottled cloak, and that was a pledge of sale; and this has never been
+contested.  In the matter of the lands inhabited by the Coldback men, as
+far as I can learn, not even a straw was given in exchange.  However, it
+is proved that they have held the land, and have taken the drift for a
+long time; and that the original owner, Eric, did not dispute their
+doing so.  I therefore decide that a compromise shall hold good.  The
+Coldback brothers must surrender all the Reykja-firth, and content
+themselves with the land south of that.  And I also decide that they
+shall exercise full and undisputed rights to the land, to all that grows
+on it, to the sea and what it throws up, along that bit of strand that
+remains to them."
+
+
+Now when Kuggson had finished this story, then Grettir said, "You have
+not told how my grandfather and great-uncle parted."
+
+"No," said Kuggson.  "There is not much to tell about that.  The two
+brothers agreed to separate, as your grandfather wanted to marry in the
+Middlefirth. Bottle-back remained at Coldback."
+
+"Now that you have spoken so much about Coldback," said Grettir, "I will
+tell you something, though it is to my discredit."
+
+"Say on," answered Kuggson.  "Men are generally more ready to boast than
+to discredit themselves."
+
+"When I was a little boy," said Grettir, "my father suffered from a cold
+back and great pains in it, in winter, and he only got ease when it was
+rubbed with a hot flannel.  I was a bad, idle boy, and I was set in
+winter to rub his cold back.  This I resented.  I thought it was a work
+fit only for servants, and one day when my father had made me rub his
+old back till I was tired, then he said to me, 'You are growing slack;
+rub harder, that I may feel your hand.'  'Do you so want to feel my
+hand, father,' I said.  Then I saw a wool-comb hard by that the women
+had used for carding wool, and I caught it and rubbed down my father's
+back with that--so that he shrieked with pain, and I made the blood
+flow.  It was a wicked act.  I think of it now the old man is dead, and
+I am sorry."
+
+"Yes," said Kuggson, "it was an evil act.  Men say that you are an
+unlucky man.  Now, I do not wonder at your ill-luck, for none ever
+raised his hand against his father but there followed him ill in
+consequence of so doing all his days."
+
+
+
+
+                            *CHAPTER XXIV.*
+
+                         *THE FOSTER-BROTHERS.*
+
+
+    _Grettir's Promise--The Yule Ox--Holding the Boat--A Hard
+    Pull--Grettir and the Ox--Thorgeir's Hatred--The Concealed
+    Axe--Evil Sport--An Iceland Moor_
+
+
+Now, the kinsmen of Oxmain heard where Grettir was, so they resolved to
+form a party, and fall upon him at Learwood.  But Grettir's
+brother-in-law was aware of this and forewarned Grettir, so he went away
+to the north, and he followed Gilsfiord till he reached Reyk-knolls,
+where was a pleasant farm near the sea, where also were a great number
+of ever-boiling springs, that poured and squirted and fizzed out of
+mounds of red-clay.  Here lived a man called Thorgils Arison, and he
+asked this man if he would give him shelter through the winter.
+
+Arison said that he would.  "But," said he, "there is only plain fare in
+my house."
+
+"I am not choice as to my food, so long as I have a roof over my head,"
+answered Grettir.
+
+"There is one matter further," said Arison. "Somehow or other I get men
+come to me and offer to become my guests who cannot settle elsewhere,
+and I get a rough lot at times.  That comes of being too good-hearted to
+bid them pack.  Even now I have two such good-for-naughts guesting with
+me, two foster-brothers, Thorgeir and Thormod; rough, unkempt men, of
+bad tempers both, and I wot not how you will agree together.  You may
+come and put your head within my doors if you will, but on one
+condition, that there be no fighting and knocking about of my other
+guests."
+
+Grettir answered that he would not be the first to raise strife, and
+that if the foster-brothers provoked him beyond endurance he would go
+elsewhere, and not give his host annoyance by a brawl in his house.
+
+With this promise Arison was content.
+
+Thorgils Arison was a firm man, and he told the foster-brothers that he
+would have no disturbance whilst they were with him, and they also
+promised to be orderly.  Thorgeir did not like Grettir.  He scowled at
+him and contradicted him, but did not pursue his rudeness beyond bounds;
+and when Grettir was ruffled, a word from the master of the house served
+to appease the rising blood.
+
+So the early winter wore away.
+
+Now, the good man, Thorgils Arison, owned a cluster of islands in the
+firth that are called Olaf's Isles; they lie a good sea-mile and a half
+beyond the ness.  On them grass grows, and there the bonder kept his
+cattle to fatten in autumn.  Now, there was an ox on one of these isles
+that Arison said he must have home before the snows and storms of winter
+came on, as he intended to kill the beast for the feastings of Yule.  So
+the foster-brothers and Grettir volunteered to go out to the island, and
+fetch the ox home.
+
+They went down to the sea and got out a ten-oared boat, and there were
+but these three to man it.  The weather was cold, and the wind was
+shifting from the north and not settled.  They rowed hard, and reached
+the island; but the sea was running and foaming over the shore, and they
+saw it would be no easy matter to get the ox on board with such a surf.
+So the brothers told Grettir he must hold the boat, whilst they got the
+ox in.  He agreed, and went into the water, and stood amidships on the
+side out to sea, and thrust the boat towards the shore, whilst the
+brothers laboured to get the ox in.  Thorgeir took up the ox by the hind
+legs, and Thormod by the fore legs, as the beast refused to be driven on
+board, and so they carried the animal into the boat; but Grettir, who
+held the craft, had the sea up to his shoulder-blades, and he held her
+perfectly fast.
+
+When the ox was hove in, Grettir let go and got into the boat.  Thormod
+took oar in the bows, Thorgeir amidships, and Grettir aft, and so they
+made out into the open bay.  As they came out from the lee of the island
+the squall caught them, the waves leaped and foamed, and Thorgeir
+shouted "Now then, stern!  Have you gone to sleep?  Why are you
+lagging?"
+
+Grettir answered, "The stern will not lag when the rowing afore is
+good."
+
+Thereupon Thorgeir fell to rowing so furiously that both the tholes were
+broken.  So he called to Grettir, "Row on steadily whilst I mend the
+thole-pins."
+
+Then Grettir rowed so mightily, whilst Thorgeir was engaged mending the
+pins, that he wore through the oars, and when Thorgeir was ready they
+snapped like matches.
+
+"Better row with less haste and more caution," growled Thormod.
+
+Then Grettir stooped and picked out of the bottom of the boat two
+unshapen oar-beams that lay there; but as they were too big to go
+between the thole-pins, he bored large holes in the gunwales, and thrust
+the oars through, and rowed thus so mightily that every rib and plank of
+the boat creaked, and the foster-brothers were in fear lest with his
+rowing he would tear the craft to pieces.  However, they reached the
+shore in safety.
+
+Then Grettir asked whether the brothers would rather haul up the boat,
+or go home with the ox. They preferred to haul the boat ashore, and
+found that it was hung with icicles, for the water had frozen on the
+sides; but Grettir led home the ox, which was very fat, and very
+unwilling to be dragged along, so that Grettir became impatient.
+
+When the foster-brothers had finished bailing out the boat, and had put
+her under cover, they went up to the house, and on reaching it Thorgeir
+inquired after Grettir, but Arisen the bonder said he had not seen him
+or the ox.  Then he sent out men in quest of him, for he supposed
+something must have befallen him; and when they came to where the land
+dipped towards the sea they saw a strange object indeed coming towards
+them, and did not know at first whether what they saw was a human being
+or a troll.[#]  On approaching nearer they saw that this strange object
+was Grettir, who was carrying the ox on his back, and striding up the
+hill with the beast, which had the head hanging over his shoulder, the
+tongue out, and was lowing plaintively.  The sight was infinitely
+comical, and the men who saw it burst out laughing, and this made
+Grettir also laugh, so that he dropped the ox.
+
+
+[#] A troll is a mountain demon or giant.
+
+
+Now, it must be known that this story is not manifestly absurd, for the
+Icelandic cattle are very small, like Brittany cows, and bear the same
+relation to a good English ox that a pony does to a horse. Nevertheless
+the feat was only such as a strong man could have accomplished.  It had
+taken the two brothers to carry the ox down into the boat, and here was
+Grettir alone carrying him up hill.
+
+This deed of Grettir was much talked of, and this made Thorgeir, the
+elder of the foster-brothers, very jealous of Grettir, and he hated him,
+and sought to do him an injury.  One day after Yule, Grettir went down
+to the bath that was made by turning a stream of hot water from one of
+the natural boiling springs into a walled basin into which also cold
+water could be turned from a rill.  In former times the Icelanders were
+very particular about bathing, and were a clean people.  At the present
+day they never bathe at all, and such of the old baths as remain are out
+of order and full of grass and mud.
+
+Thorgeir said to his brother, "Let us go now and try how Grettir will
+start, if I set upon him as he comes away from his bath."
+
+"I do not like this," answered Thormod; "you will vex our host, and get
+no advantage over Grettir."
+
+"I will try what I can do," said the elder; and he took his axe, hid it
+under his cloak, and went down towards the bathing-place.
+
+When he had reached it he said, "Grettir, there is a talk that you have
+boasted that no man could make you take to your heels."
+
+"I never said that," answered Grettir, "but anyhow you are not the man
+to make me run."
+
+Then Thorgier swung up his axe and would have cut at Grettir; but
+Grettir suspected that the man meant mischief, and he was ready, so that
+the instant he drew out the axe and swung it, Grettir clashed forward at
+him, struck him in the chest and sent him staggering back, so that he
+sprawled his length on the ground.
+
+Then Thorgeir shouted to his brother, "Why do you stand by and let this
+savage kill me?"
+
+Thormod then laid hold of Grettir, and endeavoured to drag him away, but
+his strength was not sufficient to effect this.
+
+At that moment up came Arison, the bonder, and he bade them be quiet and
+have nought to do with Grettir.
+
+So the brothers stood up, and Thorgeir pretended it was all sport, that
+he had only proposed giving Grettir a fright; but the bonder hardly
+believed him.  As for the younger of the brothers, it was well seen that
+he had been drawn into the matter against his will.  So the winter
+passed, and peace was kept.  This little struggle with Grettir had shown
+Thorgeir that it would be ill for him to have dealings with a man so
+prompt and strong as Grettir, and he controlled himself and did not seek
+to pick a quarrel with him any more.  At the same time he did not like
+him any better.  Thorgils Arison got great credit, when it was reported
+that throughout an entire winter he had maintained such turbulent men as
+the foster-brothers and Grettir under his roof without their having
+fought.[#]
+
+
+[#] There is an entire saga relating to the history of these brothers,
+called the Foster-Brothers' Saga.
+
+
+But when spring came then they went away, all of them, away over the
+heaths and moors of the interior.
+
+When we say that Grettir was on the heaths and moors, it must not be
+supposed that the region so called was at all like the moors of Scotland
+or England.  The heaths and moors of Iceland are upland desert regions
+with only here and there a scanty growth of vegetation, a little
+whortleberry, no heath at all, but vast tracts of broken stone and mud
+and black sand, with perhaps here and there an occasional hill of yellow
+sandstone.  Most of the rock is perfectly black, and breaks into pieces
+with sharp angles.  What is called Icelandic moss is a black lichen that
+grows on the stones, and there is a very little gray moss to be seen.
+Where there is a burn or a stream a little grass may grow, but the
+amount is small indeed.
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER XXV.*
+
+                   *HOW GRETTIR WAS WELL-NIGH HUNG.*
+
+
+    _The Law-man's Judgment--Snorri's Compromise--The Compromise
+    Declined--Grettir Helps Himself--The Spy--Thirty to One--An
+    Undesirable Prisoner--The Gallows for Grettir--Thorbiorg Saves
+    Grettir--Grettir Conquers Himself_
+
+
+Now, after the slaying of Thorbiorn Oxmain, his kinsman Thorod took the
+matter up, and rode to the great assize with a large train of men.
+
+The relatives of Grettir also appeared at the assize, and they took
+advice of Skapti, the law-man; and he said that Atli was slain a week
+before the sentence of outlawry was pronounced against Grettir, that
+Thorbiorn Oxmain was guilty of that, and his relatives must pay a heavy
+fine for the murder.  But he said that Grettir was an outlaw when he
+slew Thorbiorn.  Now being an outlaw he was outside the cognizance of
+the law, he was as one not a native of the country, as one over whom the
+law had no longer jurisdiction; that, therefore, his slaying of
+Thorbiorn could not count as expiation of the slaying of Atli; that,
+moreover, no suit against an outlawed man could stand--it was illegal:
+that the only way in which Grettir could be brought into court was by
+the removal of the sentence of outlawry, when at once he could be
+prosecuted.
+
+Thorod was disconcerted at this; for he could not bring an action
+against Grettir, and the Biarg people did now bring an action against
+him for the slaying of Atli, and the court gave sentence that he should
+pay down two hundred ounces of silver as blood fine for Atli.
+
+Now, at this court, Snorri the judge proposed a compromise.  He
+suggested that the fine should be let drop, and that Grettir should be
+held scatheless, that the outlawry should be set aside, and the slaying
+of Thorbiorn be put against the slaying of Atli, and so reconciliation
+be made.
+
+Thorod did not at all want to pay down two hundred ounces of silver, and
+the Biarg family were very willing to have the outlawry done away with;
+so both parties were quite willing to accept this compromise, but Thorir
+of Garth had to be reckoned with.  Grettir was outlawed at his suit for
+the burning of his sons, and he must be brought to consent, or this
+arrangement could not take place.
+
+But Thorir was not to be moved.  In vain did the law-man Snorri urge
+him, and represent to him that Grettir, at large, an outlaw, was a
+danger menacing the country, that he was driven to desperation, Thorir
+absolutely refused to allow the sentence to be withdrawn.  Not only so,
+but he said he would set a higher price on his head than had been set on
+the head of any outlaw before, and that was three marks of silver.  Then
+Thorod, not to be behind with him, offered three more.
+
+Grettir resolved to get as much out of the way of his enemies as he
+could, so he went into that strange excrescence, like a hand joined on
+by a narrow wrist to Iceland, that extends to the north-west.  In this
+peninsula are two great masses of snow and glacier mountain, called
+Glam-jokull and Drang-jokull.  They do not rise to any great height,
+hardly three thousand feet, but they are vast domes of snow, with
+glaciers sliding from them to the firths, and these fall over the edges
+of the precipitous cliffs in huge blocks of ice that float away on the
+tide as icebergs. The largest of all the fiords that penetrates this
+region is called the Ice-firth, and it runs between these great
+mountains of snow and glaciers.  At the extremity of the estuary the
+valleys are well-wooded--that is to say, well-wooded for Iceland--with
+birch-trees, for their valleys are very sheltered, and the sea-water
+that roll in bears with it a certain amount of heat, for it has been
+affected by the Gulf-stream.
+
+One of these valleys is called Waterdale, and at the time of our story
+there lived there a man named Vermund the Slim, and his wife's name was
+Thorbiorg; she was a big, fine woman.  Another valley is Lang-dale.
+Grettir went to Lang-dale--there he demanded of the farmers whatever he
+wanted, food and clothing, and if they would not give him what he asked,
+he took it.  This was not to their taste at all, and they wished that
+they were rid of Grettir.  He could not remain long in one place, so he
+rode along the side of the Ice-firth demanding food, and sleeping and
+concealing himself in the woods.  So in his course he came to the upland
+pastures and dairy that belonged to Vermund Slim, and he slept there
+many nights, and hid about in the woods.
+
+The shepherds on the moors were afraid of him, and they ran down into
+the valleys and told the farmers everywhere that there was a big strange
+man on the heights, who took from them their curd and milk, and dried
+fish, and that they were afraid to resist his demands.  They did not
+quite know what he was, whether a man or a mountain spirit.
+
+So the farmers gathered together and took advice, and there were about
+thirty of them.  They set a shepherd to watch Grettir's movements, and
+let them know when he could be fallen upon.  Now, it fell out one warm
+day that Grettir threw himself down in a sunny spot to sleep.  The
+glistening beech leaves were flickering behind him, the rocks were
+covered with the pale lemon flowers of the dry as, and between the
+clefts of the stones masses of large purple-flowered geranium stood up
+and made a glow of colour deep into the wood.
+
+It is a mistake to suppose that Iceland is bare of flowers; on the
+contrary, there are more flowers there than grass.  Beneath Grettir the
+turf was full of tiny deep-blue gentianellas, just as if the turf were
+green velvet, with a thread of blue in it coming through here and there.
+
+The shepherd stole near enough to see that Grettir really was fast
+asleep, and then he ran and told the bonders, who came noiselessly to
+the spot.  It was arranged among them that ten men should fling
+themselves on him, whilst the others fastened his feet with strong
+cords.
+
+They made a noose, and cautiously without waking him managed to get it
+about his legs; then, all at once, ten of them threw themselves on his
+body, and tried to pin down his arms.  Grettir started from his sleep,
+and with one toss sent the men rolling off him, and he even managed to
+get to his knees. Then they pulled the noose tighter and brought him
+down, he, however, kicked out at two, whom he tumbled head over heels,
+and they lay stunned on the earth.  Then one after another rushed at
+him, some from behind.  He could not get at his weapons, which they had
+removed, and though he made a long and hard fight, and struggled
+furiously, they were too many for him, and they overcame him in the end,
+and bound his hands.
+
+Now, as he lay on the grass, powerless, they held a council over him
+what should be done.  The chief man of that district was Vermund Slim,
+but he was from home.  So it was settled that a farmer named Helgi
+should take Grettir and keep him in ward till Vermund came home.
+
+"Thank you gratefully," said Helgi; "but I have other business to attend
+to than to keep sentinel over this man.  My hands are fully occupied
+without this.  Not if I know it shall he cross my threshold."
+
+So the farmers considered, and decided that another man who lived at
+Giorvidale should have the custody of Grettir.
+
+"You are most obliging," said he; "but I have only my old woman with me
+at home, and how can we two manage him?  Lay on a man only such a burden
+as he can bear."
+
+They considered again, and came to the conclusion that one Therolf of
+Ere should have the charge of Grettir.
+
+But he replied, "No, thank you, I am short of provisions, there is
+hardly food enough at my house for my own party."
+
+Then they appointed that he should be put with another farmer; but he
+said, "If he had been taken in my land, well and good, but as he has
+not, I won't be encumbered with him."
+
+Then every farmer was tried, and all had excuses why they should not
+have the care of Grettir; and consequently, as no one would have him,
+they resolved to hang him.  So they set to work and constructed a rude
+gallows there in the wood, and a mighty clatter they made over it.
+
+Whilst thus engaged, it happened that Thorbiorg, Vermund's wife, was
+riding up to her mountain dairy, attended by five servants.  She was a
+stirring, clever woman, and when she saw so many men gathered together
+and making such a noise, she rode towards them to inquire what they were
+about.
+
+"Who is that lying in bonds there?" she asked.
+
+Then Grettir answered and gave his name.
+
+"Why, now, is it, Grettir," she said, "that you have given so much
+trouble in this neighbourhood?"
+
+"I must needs be somewhere," he answered.  "And wherever I am, there I
+must have food."
+
+"It is a piece of ill-luck that you should have fallen into the hands of
+these bumpkins," said she. Then turning to the farmers she asked what
+they purposed doing with Grettir.
+
+"Hang him," answered they.
+
+"I do not deny that Grettir may have deserved the rope," said Thorbiorg;
+"but I doubt if you are doing wisely in taking his life.  He belongs to
+a great family, and his death will not be to your quietness and content
+if you kill him."  Then she said to Grettir, "What will you do if your
+life be given you?"
+
+"You propose the conditions," said he.
+
+"Very well, then you must swear not to revenge on these men what they
+have done to you to-day, and not to do any violence more in the
+Ice-firth."
+
+Grettir took the required oath, and so he was loosed from his bonds.  He
+said afterwards that never had he a harder thing to do than to control
+his temper, when set free, and not to knock the farmers' heads together
+like nuts and crack them, for what they had done to him.
+
+Then Thorbiorg invited him to her house, and he went with her to the
+Water-firth, and there abode till her husband returned, and when Vermund
+heard all, then he was well pleased; and deemed that his wife had acted
+with great prudence and kindness. He asked Grettir to remain there as
+long as was consistent with his safety, and Grettir accepted his
+hospitality, and continued there as his guest till late in the autumn,
+when he went south to Learwood, where was Kuggson, with whom he purposed
+spending the winter.  However, he was not able to stay there, for it
+soon became known where he was, and his enemies prepared to take him.
+He accordingly left and went to a friend in another fiord, and remained
+a short while with him, but was obliged for the same reason to fly
+thence also; and so he spent the winter dodging about from place to
+place, never able to remain long anywhere, because his enemies were so
+resolved on his death, and were on the alert to fall on him wherever
+they heard he was sheltering.
+
+
+
+
+                            *CHAPTER XXVI.*
+
+                            *IN THE DESERT.*
+
+
+    _The Center of the Island--Ice, Desert, and Volcanoes--The
+    Bubble-Caves--A Dweller in the Desert--Grettir Stops the
+    Rider--Hall-mund Stronger than Grettir--Grettir Seeks Skapti's
+    Advice--Grettir's Night Fears--Grettir Builds a House_
+
+
+The island of Iceland is one-third larger than Ireland, but then the
+population is entirely confined to the coast.  All the centre of the
+island is desert and mountain.  One mighty mass of mountain covered with
+eternal snow and ice occupies the south of the island and approaches the
+sea very closely in the south-east.  Much of this is unexplored; it has
+of recent years been traversed once, across the great Vatna-jokull, but
+there are passes west of the Vatna.  The mountain masses are broken into
+three main masses.  The vast Vatna-jokull is to the east, then comes a
+pass, and next the circular Arnafells-jokull, then another pass, and
+lastly the jumble of snow mountains that form the Ball-jokull and the
+Lang-jokull, the Goatland and the Erick's-jokull. North of the
+Vatna-jokull is a vast region, as large as a big county, covered with
+lava broken up into bristling spikes and deep clefts of glass-like rock,
+which no one can possibly get across.  In the midst of it, inaccessible,
+rise the cones of volcanoes that have poured forth this sea of molten
+rock.  East and west of this mighty tract of broken-up lava come
+extensive moors also quite desert, covered with inky-black sand which
+has been erupted by volcanoes, burying and destroying what vegetation
+there was. The extent of desert may be understood when you learn that
+there are twenty thousand square miles of country perfectly barren and
+uninhabitable, and only partially explored.  There are but four thousand
+square miles in Iceland that are inhabited; the rest of the country is a
+chaos of ice, desert, and volcanoes. The great lava region mentioned
+north of the Vatna covers one thousand one hundred and sixty square
+miles, and the Vatna envelopes three thousand five hundred square miles
+in ice.  Now, here and there in this vast region there are certain
+sheltered spots where some grass grows, valleys that have escaped the
+overflow of the molten rock, or the thrust of the glacier; and during
+the ninety years that Iceland had been inhabited, every now and then a
+churl who got tired of service, or a murderer afraid of his life, ran
+away into the centre of the island, and lived a precarious existence on
+the wild birds, their eggs, and on the fish that abounded in the
+countless lakes. Probably also they stole sheep, and carried them away
+to the mysterious recesses of the desert where they had made for
+themselves homes.  They lived chiefly in caverns, of which there are
+plenty thus formed:--When the lava poured as a fiery stream out of the
+volcanoes, in cooling great bubbles were formed in it, sometimes these
+bubbles exploded, blew the fragments into the air, which fell back and
+made a mass of broken bits of rock like an exploded soda-water bottle;
+but all the bubbles did not burst, and such hardened when the rock
+became cool.  These bubbles remain as great domed halls, and some of
+them run deep underground, forming a succession of chambers.  I have
+explored one where a band of outlaws once lived, and found numbers of
+sheep-bones frozen up in ice in the place where, after they had eaten
+the mutton, they threw away what they could not devour.  At the end of
+the cave they had erected a wall so as to inclose a space as a store
+chamber.
+
+These men, living in the desert and rarely seen, were the subject of
+many tales, and it was not clearly known who and what they really were,
+whether altogether human, or half mountain-spirits. Imagination invested
+them with supernatural powers.
+
+When spring came and the snows melted, then Grettir left the farmhouse
+where he had been last in hiding, and went into the desert, to find food
+and shelter for himself.
+
+One day he saw a man on horseback alone riding over a ridge of hill.  He
+was a very big man, and he led another horse that had bags of goods on
+his back.  The man wore a slouched hat so that his face could not
+clearly be seen.
+
+Grettir looked hard at the horse and the goods on the pack-saddle, and
+thought he would probably find some of these latter serviceable to him,
+and in his need he was not particular how he got those things which he
+wanted.  So he went up to the rider and peremptorily ordered him to
+stand and deliver.
+
+"Why should I give you things that are my own?" asked the stranger.  "I
+will sell some of my wares if you can pay for them."
+
+"I have no money," answered Grettir, "what I want I take.  You must have
+heard that by report."
+
+"Then I know with whom I have to deal; you are Grettir the outlaw, the
+son of Asmund of Biarg."  Thereat he struck spurs into his horse and
+tried to ride past.
+
+"Nay, nay!  We part not like this," said Grettir, and he laid his hands
+on the reins of the horse the stranger rode.
+
+"You had better let go," said the mounted man.
+
+"Nay, that I will not," answered Grettir.
+
+Then the rider stooped and put his hands to the reins above those of
+Grettir, between them and the bit, and he dragged them along, forcing
+Grettir's hands along the bridle to the end and then wrenched them out
+of his grasp.
+
+Grettir looked at his palms and saw that the skin had been torn in the
+struggle.  Then he found out that he had met with a man who was stronger
+than himself.
+
+"Give me your name," said he.  "For, good faith! I have not encountered
+a man like you."
+
+Then the horseman laughed and sang:
+
+    "By the Caldron's side
+    Away I ride,
+    Where the waters rush and fall
+    Adown the crystal glacier wall
+    There you will find a stone
+    Joined to a hand--alone."
+
+
+This was a puzzling answer.  The meaning was that he lived near a
+waterfall that poured out of the Ice mountain, and that his name was
+Hall-mund, _hall_ is a stone and _mund_ is the hand.
+
+Grettir and he parted good friends; and as he rode away Hall-mund called
+out to Grettir that he would remember this meeting, and as it ended in
+friendliness he hoped to do him a good turn yet,--that when every other
+place of refuge failed he was to seek him "by the Caldron's side, where
+the waters rush and fall, adown the crystal glacier wall" under
+Ball-jokull, and there he would give him shelter.
+
+After this Grettir went to the house of his friend the law-man Skapti,
+and asked his advice, and whether he would house him for the ensuing
+winter.
+
+"No, friend," answered Skapti, "you have been acting somewhat lawlessly,
+laying hands on other men's goods, and this ill becomes a well-born man
+such as you.  Now, it would be better for you not to rob and reive, but
+get your living in other fashion, even though it were poorer fare you
+got, and sometimes you had to go without food.  I cannot house you, for
+I am a law-man, and it would not be proper for me who lay down the law
+to shelter such a notorious law-breaker as yourself.  But I will give
+you my advice what to do.  To the north of the Erick's-jokull is a
+tangle of lakes and streams.  The lakes have never been counted they are
+in such quantities, and no one knows how to find his way among them.
+These lakes are full of fish, and swarm with birds in summer.  There is
+also a little creeping willow growing in the sand, and some scanty
+grass.  It is only one hard day's ride over the waste to Biarg, so that
+your mother can supply you thence with those things of which you stand
+in absolute need, as clothing, and you can fish and kill birds for your
+subsistence, and will have no need to rob folk and exact food from the
+bonders, thereby making yourself a common object of terror and dislike.
+One more piece of advice I give you--Beware how you trust anyone to be
+with you."
+
+Grettir thought this advice was good--only in one point was it hard for
+him to follow.  He was haunted with these fearful dreams at night which
+followed the wrestle with Glam, and in the long darkness of winter the
+dreadful eyes stared at him from every quarter whither he turned his, so
+that it was unendurable for him to be alone in the dark.
+
+Still--he went.  He followed up the White River to the desert strewn
+with lakes from which that river flowed, and there found himself in
+utter solitude and desolation.
+
+A good map of Iceland was made in 1844, and on that fifty-three lakes
+are marked, but the smaller tarns were not all set down.  In such a
+tangle of water and moor Grettir might be in comparative security.  He
+settled himself on a spot of land that runs out into the waters of the
+largest of the sheets of water, which goes by the name of the Great
+Eagle Lake, and thereon he built himself a hovel of stones and turf, the
+ruins of which remain to this day, and I have examined them.
+
+
+
+
+                            *CHAPTER XXVII.*
+
+                       *ON THE GREAT EAGLE LAKE.*
+
+
+    _The Ruins of the Hut--Erick's-jokull--A Craving for
+    Companionship--A Traitor--Grim Tries to Kill Grettir--Redbeard
+    Undertakes the Task--Redbeard's Stratagem--A Base
+    Fellow--Grettir sinks to the Bottom--Caught in his own
+    Trap--Grettir attacked by Thorir--The Attack Baffled--The
+    Guardian of Grettir's Back--A Summer with Hallmund_
+
+
+Grettir was settled now on the Great Eagle Lake.  This lake is shaped
+like the figure 8, only that the spot of land between the upper and
+lower portion of the lake does not run quite across. On one side of this
+spot the rock falls away precipitously into the water, whereas it slopes
+on the other. If I had had a spade and pick, and if there had been more
+grass on the moor so as to allow of a longer stay, I would have dug
+about the foundations of Grettir's hut, and, who can tell!  I might
+perhaps have found some relic of him.  There is no record of anyone else
+having inhabited it since he was there, and in the middle of the 13th
+century, when the Saga of Grettir was committed to writing, there
+remained the ruins of his hut, but no one lived at the place.  Now there
+is no human habitation for many miles; the lake was a day's journey on
+horseback from the nearest farm, where I had spent the night.  You must
+get some idea of the place where now for some years Grettir was to live.
+
+The moor is made up of rock split to fragments by the frost, and with
+wide tracts between the ridges of rock strewn with black volcanic ash
+and sand.  It lies high; when I camped out there at the end of June,
+there was no grass visible, only angelica shoots, and a little trailing
+willow, so that my horses had to feed on these.  The willow does not
+rise above the surface of the ground, but its roots trail long distances
+under the surface, groping for nutriment; and for fuel one has to dig
+out these roots with one's fingers, and employ those which are dryest.
+Every dip in the moor is filled with a lake, and every lake has in it a
+pair of swans; in addition there are abundance of other wild fowl, and
+on the moor are ptarmigan that live on the flowers of the whortle or
+blae-berry.
+
+Above the rolling horizon of moor, to the south rises the great snowy
+dome of Erick's-jokull.  This is in reality a huge volcano, with
+precipitous sides of black lava towering up like an immense giant's
+castle.  The great crater has been choked up with the snow of centuries,
+and the snow in falling had piled up a vast cupola of snow and ice
+standing high above the black walls, and sliding and falling over the
+edges in a succession of avalanches.  When, at eleven o'clock at night,
+I looked out of my tent at Erick's-jokull, the scene was sublime.  The
+sun had just gone under the northern horizon of snow and hill, but shone
+on the great dome of Erick's-jokull, turning it to the purest and most
+delicate rose colour, and the walls of upright basalt that sustained the
+dome were of the purple of a plum.  Grettir obtained nets and a boat
+from home, and such things as he wanted for his hut.  One great
+advantage of his present situation was that three different roads or
+rather tracks led to it from Biarg, so that those who wanted to come to
+him from home could select their way and avoid observation, till they
+got among the lakes, when they were in a labyrinth in which anyone might
+easily be lost, and any one could escape a pursuer. It is true that it
+was a long and arduous day's ride from Biarg to the Eagle Lake, but the
+whole of the course along each of the ways lay through uninhabited land.
+
+Now, when other outlaws heard that Grettir was on the Eagle Lake Heath,
+they had a mind to join themselves to him, and Grettir was not unwilling
+to have a companion, so lonely did he feel on this waste, and also so
+fearful was he of being by himself in the dark.
+
+There was a man called Grim, who was an outlaw; and Grettir's enemies
+made a bargain with him, that he should go to the Eagle Lake Heath,
+pretend to be friends with Grettir, seek opportunity, and kill him. They
+on their side undertook, if he would do this, to get his sentence of
+outlawry reversed, and to furnish him liberally with money.
+
+Accordingly he went to the moor, and after some trouble, found Grettir,
+and asked if he might live with him.
+
+Grettir replied, "I do not much relish such company as yours, for you
+have got into outlawry through very infamous deeds.  I mistrust you;
+nevertheless I will suffer you to remain if you work hard and be
+obedient. I do not want idle hands here."
+
+Grim said he was willing, and prayed hard that he might dwell there, and
+carried his point.  He remained with Grettir the whole of the winter;
+there was not much friendship between them.  Grettir mistrusted him all
+along, and was never parted from his weapons, night or day, and Grim did
+not venture to attack him whilst he was awake.
+
+But one morning, when Grim came in from fishing, he went into the hut
+and stamped his foot and made a noise, seeing that Grettir lay in his
+bed asleep; and he was desirous to know how soundly he slept. Grettir
+did not start and open his eyes, but lay quite still.  Then Grim made
+more noise, thinking that if Grettir were awake he would chide him; but
+Grettir made no motion.  Then Grim made sure that he was fast asleep,
+and he stepped to his side.  Now, the short sword that had been taken
+out of the barrow of Karr the Old hung above the bed-head.  Grim leaned
+over Grettir and laid hold of the sword, and put both hands to it to
+draw it out of the sheath. At that instant Grettir started up, caught
+Grim round the waist and flung him backwards so that he was stunned, and
+the sword fell from his hand.  So Grettir made him confess that he had
+been bribed to set on him and murder him.  And then Grettir would have
+no more of him, and resolved to live entirely alone.  Yet--directly he
+was alone, his dreams, and his horror of the dark, returned on him. Now,
+Thorir of Garth heard of an outlaw named Thorir Redbeard, a very big
+man, who for murder had been outlawed, and was therefore in hiding
+somewhere.  Thorir of Garth sent out messengers in search of him, and at
+last brought about a meeting, and then he offered him a great deal of
+money if he would kill Grettir.  Redbeard said it was no easy task, for
+that Grettir was wise and wary.
+
+"It is because it is no easy task that I set you to do it," said Thorir
+of Garth.  "You are no milksop to do easy jobs."
+
+This flattered Redbeard, and he undertook to do what was required.  He
+came out on the Eagle Lake Heath in the autumn after that winter when
+Grim had been with Grettir and made the attempt on his life.  Grettir
+was feeling uneasy and troubled, as the days grew shorter, with the eyes
+that he thought stared at him from every quarter, and although his
+judgment prompted him to refuse hospitality to Redbeard, yet his dread
+of being alone in the dark induced him to disregard his doubts.  So he
+reluctantly admitted Redbeard to be an inmate of his cot.
+
+"Now, mind this," said Grettir.  "I let a man be with me here last
+winter, and he lay wait for my life.  If I find that you are false, then
+I shall not spare you."
+
+Redbeard said he wished for nothing else; and so Grettir received him,
+and found him to be a very powerful man, and so energetic that he was of
+the greatest assistance to Grettir.
+
+Redbeard was with him all that winter (1019-1020) and found no occasion
+on which he could take Grettir unawares.  Then set in the next winter
+1020-1021, and Redbeard had begun to loathe his life on the heath, and
+no wonder, for he saw no one save Grettir; the cold and desolation of
+the spot was surpassingly wretched.  Now he became impatient to kill
+Grettir and get away.
+
+One night a great storm broke over the moor whilst he and Grettir were
+asleep.  The roar of the wind woke Redbeard and he ran outside the hut,
+down to the water-side, and with a huge stone he smashed the
+fishing-boat, so that it sank; and the oars and bits he had broken off
+he threw away into the lake.  So did he with the nets.
+
+When he came in Grettir was awake also, and he asked how fared the boat.
+
+"She has broken from her mooring," answered Redbeard, "and has been
+dashed to bits on the rocks."
+
+Then Grettir jumped up, and taking his weapons ran out to the end of the
+spit of land on which his hut was built, and saw how the nets were
+drifting in the waves and were entangled with the oars.
+
+"Jump in, swim out, and bring them to shore," said he to Redbeard.  The
+man shook his head and answered:
+
+"I can do anything save swim.  I have not held back from any other work
+you have set me, but swim I cannot."
+
+Then Grettir laid his weapons down by the waterside and prepared to jump
+in.  But he mistrusted Redbeard, so he said, "I will get in the nets, as
+you cannot; but I trust you will not deal treacherously by me."
+
+Redbeard answered, "I should be a base fellow and unworthy to live if I
+were false to you now--after you have housed me so long."
+
+Then Grettir put off his clothes, and went into the water, and swam out
+to the nets.
+
+He swept them up together and brought them towards the land, and cast
+them up on the bank; but the moment he attempted to land Redbeard caught
+up the short sword, drew it hastily and ran at Grettir and smote at him,
+just as he was heaving himself up out of the water.  The blade would
+have cut into his neck, or between his shoulder-blades, had not Grettir
+instantly let go, and fallen backwards into the water and sunk like a
+stone.  Sinking thus headlong he reached the bottom, and instead of
+rising to the surface again he clung to the rocks under water, and
+groped his way along as close as he could to the bank, so that Redbeard
+might not see him till he had reached the back of the creek and got
+aland.
+
+Now, Redbeard stood at the end of the promontory, looking into the
+water, much puzzled.  He had not cut Grettir with the sword, and yet
+Grettir was gone down, and did not rise.  He thought he must have struck
+his head against a stone, and so have sunk, and he looked out into the
+water wondering where and when he would rise.  Meanwhile Grettir had
+come ashore behind him and was approaching stealthily.  Redbeard was
+unaware of his danger till Grettir had his arms about him, had heaved
+him over his head and dashed him down on the rocks, so that his skull
+was broken.  After that Grettir resolved not to take another outlaw into
+his house, though he could hardly endure to be alone.
+
+Thorir of Garth did not hear of the death of Redbeard till next summer
+at the great assize; and then he was so angry, and so resolved to make
+an end of Grettir, that he collected a body of resolute men, his
+servants and others whom he hired for the purpose, to the number of
+nearly eighty, to sweep the Eagle Lake Heath and take and kill Grettir.
+
+One day, when Grettir was out on the moor, he saw a large body of armed
+men riding towards the lake.  He had time to fly to a hill that rises at
+a little distance, where there is a rift in the rock that traverses the
+top of the hill.  When I read the account in the saga I could not quite
+understand what follows, but no sooner was I on the spot than all
+appeared quite clear.  One could see, at once, that Grettir, taken by
+surprise, would run to this very spot and no other.  It was the nearest
+available place of vantage, with stone and crag.  The situation was not
+the best that might have been chosen, as it left Grettir's back
+unprotected; however, he had no time to seek a better.
+
+[Illustration: GRETTIR ATTACKED IN THE RIFT BY THORIR'S PARTY.]
+
+Thorir came with his men to the bottom of the hill, and shouted to
+Grettir and taunted him.
+
+Grettir replied, "Though you may have put the spoon to your lips you
+have not swallowed the broth."
+
+Then Thorir egged on his men to go up the slope at Grettir, but this was
+not easy.  It was steep, and the rocks were close on either side so that
+Grettir could not be surrounded.  Only one man could get at him from
+before at once.  Several attempts were made, but all failed; some of the
+assailants were killed, some wounded.  Then Thorir broke up his party
+into two, and sent one detachment round to the back of the rocks, to
+fall on Grettir from behind. Grettir saw the manoeuvre, and did not see
+how to meet it.  All he could do would be to sell his life dearly.  He
+could not hold out long when assailed simultaneously from before and
+behind.
+
+Thorir bade the attack slacken till he thought those sent to the rear
+would be ready, and then he ordered a grand, and, as he believed, a
+combined assault.  Grettir fought with desperation, expecting every
+moment to be cut down from behind, but to his surprise and that of
+Thorir he was left unmolested in the rear.
+
+Thorir called off his men, and went round the hill to inquire why the
+attack from behind had not taken place.  To his amazement he came on a
+discomfited party bleeding, faint, and baffled, and to find that twelve
+men had fallen in it.[#]
+
+
+[#] At the time, or rather shortly after I had been on the spot, I
+wrote, "There is a nook like a sentry-box in the side of the cleft, and
+it was in this that Hallmund ensconced himself, so that he could hew
+down anyone who attempted to pass through this cleft to get at Grettir's
+back, whilst remaining himself screened from observation. I could not
+understand the saga account before I saw the spot, and how it was that
+those attacking Grettir from behind did not see Hallmund. The sight of
+the place made all plain."
+
+
+Then he bade a retreat.  "Oft," he said, "have I heard that Grettir is a
+man of marvel for prowess, but I never knew before that he was a wizard,
+and able to kill as many at his back as he does in front of him."
+
+When he numbered his men, Thorir found that he had lost eighteen.  Then
+he and his retinue rode away, and they carried on them many and grievous
+wounds.
+
+Now Grettir was no less perplexed with the event than was Thorir, and
+when the latter had withdrawn he went through the rift in the rocks to
+see why he had not been fallen on from the rear,--and he lighted on a
+tall strong man leaning against the rocks, sore wounded.
+
+Grettir asked his name, and the tall man replied that he was Hallmund.
+
+"Do you remember meeting me on the heath one day?" asked the wounded
+man, "when you tried to stop my horse, and I pulled the reins through
+your hands so as to skin the palms'?  Then I promised if I had the
+chance to back you up."
+
+"Indeed," said Grettir, much moved, "I remember that right well, and now
+I thank you with all my heart, for this day you have saved my life."
+
+Then Hallmund said, "You must now come with me, for time must drag with
+you solitary here on the heath."
+
+Grettir said he was glad to accept the offer; so they went together
+south to the Ball-jokull, and there Hallmund had a great cave, and his
+daughter, a big muscular girl, lived there with him; there the girl
+applied plasters to the wounds of her father and healed him.
+
+Grettir remained with them in the cave all the ensuing summer.  But when
+summer came to an end, he wearied of being so long in the desert, and
+longed to see and be with his fellow-men in inhabited parts once more;
+so he bade farewell to Hallmund, and went away to the west to Hit-dale
+that opens on the Marshland, through which six or seven large rivers
+flow.  Here he had a friend named Biorn living at Holm.
+
+
+
+
+                           *CHAPTER XXVIII.*
+
+                             *ON THE FELL.*
+
+
+    _The Hollow of Fairwood Fell--Above the Shale Slide--The
+    Outlaw's Lair--The Boaster--A Dandified Warrior--Hunter and
+    Hunted--A Skin-dressing--Sadder and Wiser_
+
+
+Biorn when asked by Grettir to give him shelter declined to do so, not
+that the will was lacking, but that he had not the power to protect him.
+"You have made," he said, "enemies on all sides, and if I were to take
+you under my roof all your enemies would become mine also, and I would
+be involved in endless and bitter quarrels.  I cannot give you direct
+assistance and shelter, but indirectly I will do what I can for you.
+There is a long hill, called Fairwood Fell, that runs in front of my
+house on the other side of the river, and ends just above the marshes.
+Now, in one place there is a steep shale slide, and above this is a
+hollow through the mountain, that might very well be made into a dry and
+comfortable place of abode.  From the entrance every one who passes
+along the highway, all who come across the marshes, can be seen.  I can
+supply you with a few necessaries to fit the place up, but when there
+you must shift for yourself.  I must not risk too much by supporting
+you."
+
+Grettir consented to this.  So he went up to Fairwood Fell and built up
+the cave, and hung gray wadmal before the entrance, so that no one below
+could notice that there was anything peculiar or anyone living there.
+In this eagle's nest among the rocks Grettir spent the time from the
+autumn of 1022 to the spring of 1024, that is, two winters. Whatever
+fuel he wanted, all he had to eat, everything he wanted, had to be
+carried up this slippery and steep ascent by him.  Down the shale slide
+he came when short of provisions, and went over the marshes to this or
+that farm and demanded or carried off, sometimes a sheep, sometimes
+curds, dried fish, in a word what he required; and a very great nuisance
+the men of the district found him.  Heartily did they wish they were rid
+of him, yet they could not drive him from his place of abode, for it was
+so difficult of access and so easy of defence.
+
+Now, some years ago, in the summer of 1862, the year after I was in
+Iceland, a very similar lair which Grettir inhabited a little later in
+the east of Iceland was explored by an Icelandic farmer.  This is his
+description of it: "The lair stands in the lower part of a slip of
+stones beneath some sheer rocks. It is built up of stones, straight as a
+line 4-3/4 ells long and 10 inches wide, and is within the walls 7/8 of
+an ell deep.  Half of it is roofed over with flat stones, small thin
+splinters of stone are wedged in between these to fill up the joints,
+and these are so firmly fixed that they could not be removed without
+tools. One stone in the south wall is so large that it requires six men
+to move it.  The north wall is beginning to give way.  On the outside
+the walls are overgrown with black lichen and gray moss."
+
+Something like this was the den of Grettir on the Fairwood Fell, but it
+was less built up, as he had the natural rock for two of the sides and
+for the roof.
+
+Whilst Grettir was there, there came a ship into harbour, in which was a
+man named Gisli, a merchant, very fond of wearing smart clothes, and an
+inordinately vain man.  He heard the farmers talking about Grettir, and
+what a vexation it was to them to have him in their neighbourhood.
+
+"Don't talk to me about Grettir," said Gisli; "I've had battles with
+harder men than he.  I hope he may came in my way, that I may dress his
+skin for him."
+
+The farmer to whom he said this shook his head. "You don't know of whom
+you are speaking.  If you were to kill him you would be well off,--six
+marks of silver were set on his head, and Thorir of Garth has added
+three more, so that there stand on him nine marks of silver."
+
+"All things can be done for money," said Gisli; "and as I am a merchant
+I'll see to it.  And when we meet--I'll dress his skin for him."
+
+The farmer said it would be well not to talk about the matter.  Gisli
+agreed.  "I will abide this winter in Snowfell-ness," he said.  "If his
+lair is on my road thither I'll look out for him, and dress his skin as
+I go along."
+
+Now, whether he talked in spite of the caution given him, or whether
+some one overheard what he said, who was a friend of Biorn of Holm, is
+uncertain.  Any how Gisli's threat reached the ears of Biorn, who at
+once warned Grettir to be on his guard against the merchant.
+
+"If he comes your way," said Biorn, "teach him a lesson; but don't kill
+him."
+
+"No," said Grettir with a grim smile, "I'll merely dress his skin for
+him."
+
+Now it happened one day that Grettir was looking out of the entrance to
+his lair, when he saw a man with two attendants riding along the
+highway.  His kirtle was of scarlet, and his helmet and shield flashed
+in the sun.  Then it occurred to him that this must be the dandified
+Gisli, of whom he had heard, so he came running down the shale descent
+to the road. He reached the man, and at once he went to his horse,
+clapped his hand on a bundle of clothes behind the saddle, and said,
+"This I am going to take."
+
+"Nay, not so," answered Gisli, for it was he. "You do not know whom you
+are addressing."
+
+"Nor do I care," said Grettir.  "I have little respect for persons.  I
+am in poor and lowly condition myself, so low that I am driven to be a
+highway robber."
+
+Then Gisli drew his sword, and called to his men to attack Grettir, who
+gave way a little before them. But he soon saw that Gisli kept behind
+his servants, and never risked himself where the blows fell; so Grettir
+put the two churls aside with well-dealt strokes, and went direct upon
+the merchant, who, seeing that he was menaced, turned and took to his
+heels.  Grettir pursued him, and Gisli in his fear cast aside his
+shield, then, a little further, threw away his helmet, and so as he ran
+he cast away one thing after another that he had with him.  There was a
+heavy purse of silver at his girdle.  This encumbered him, and as he ran
+he unbuckled his belt and dropped it and the purse with it.  Grettir did
+not purposely come up with him; he could have outstripped him had he
+willed, but he let the fellow run a couple of horse lengths before him.
+The end of the Fell is above an old lava bed that has flowed from a
+crater called Eldborg or the Castle of Fire, and like an old ruined
+castle it looks.  Gisli ran over this lava bed, jumping the cracks, then
+dived through a wood of birch that intervened between the lava and the
+river Haf.  The stream was swollen with ice, and ill to ford.  Gisli
+halted hesitating before plunging in, and that allowed Grettir to run in
+on him, seize him and throw him down.
+
+"Are you the Gisli who were so eager to meet Grettir Asmund's son?"
+asked the outlaw.
+
+"I have had enough of him," gasped the fallen man.  "Keep my saddle-bags
+and what I have thrown away, and let me go free."
+
+"Hardly yet," said Grettir grimly.  "I think something was said about
+skin-dressing, that is not to be overlooked."
+
+Then Grettir drew him back to the wood, took a good handful of birch
+rods, pulled Gisli's clothes up over his head, and laid the twigs
+against his back in none of the gentlest fashion.  Gisli danced and
+skipped about, but Grettir had him by his garments twisted about his
+head and neck, and continued to flog till the poor fellow threw himself
+down on the ground screaming.  Then Grettir let go, and went quietly
+back to his lair, picking up as he went the purse and the belt, the
+shield, casque, and whatever else Gisli had thrown away, also he had the
+contents of his saddle-bags.
+
+Gisli never came back to Fairwood Fell to ask for them.  When he got on
+his legs he ran up the river to where it was not so dangerous, swam it,
+and reached a farmhouse, where he entreated to be taken in.  There he
+lay a week with his body swollen and striped; after which he went home,
+and much was he laughed at for his adventure with Grettir.
+
+
+
+
+                            *CHAPTER XXIX.*
+
+                       *THE FIGHT ON THE RIVER.*
+
+
+    _Angry Farmers--A Large Band of Men--The Marshmen are Driven
+    Back--The Attacking Party Reinforced--Fighting in
+    Desperation--Wearied but Unwounded--The Song of Victory_
+
+
+Now, whilst Grettir was on Fairwood Fell, favoured by Biorn of Hit-dale,
+his presence after a while became unendurable to the bonders who lived
+in the marshes.  He had been for two winters in his den on the hill, and
+when they saw that he intended to remain there a third winter, and rob
+them of sheep and whatever he needed, then they took counsel together
+how they might rid themselves of the annoyance.
+
+One day in the winter of 1023, Grettir came down from his place of
+vantage, and went over the marshes to a farm called Acres, and drove
+away from it two bullocks fit for slaughtering, and several sheep, and
+he had got on with them some way over the marshes, on his way to his
+lair, before the farmer at Acres was aware of his loss; he had taken six
+wethers beside from another farm named Brookbend. This angered the
+farmers greatly, and they sent a message to the chief man of the
+district, Thord at Hitness, and urged him to waylay Grettir before he
+could reach his den.  Thord shrank from doing anything; however, they
+pressed him so much that at last he consented to let his son Arnor go
+with them.  Then messengers were sent throughout all the country side,
+to every farmer who was concerned.  And it was so planned that two
+bodies of men should march to the taking of Grettir, one on the right,
+the other on the left bank of the Hit River, so as to take him for
+certain.
+
+Grettir was soon aware that the country was roused.  He was not alone,
+he had two men with him--one the son of the farmer at Fairwood Fell,
+with whom he was on good terms, the other a farm-servant. They advised
+him to desert the cattle and sheep and run for it, cross the river and
+take refuge in his place of vantage; but this Grettir was too proud to
+do.
+
+Presently he could see coming on behind him a large band of men, about
+twenty in all, under Thorarin of Acres and Thorfin of Brookbend.  Now,
+as these were pursuing him over the marshes, up the opposite side of the
+river came Arnor, the son of Thord of Hitness, and with him a farmer
+named Biarni of Jorvi.
+
+Grettir managed to reach the river before his enemies came up with him,
+and he had also time to secure a place of vantage.  This was a ness of
+rock that ran out into the river, or round which the river swept, so
+that he was protected by the water on all sides but one.  Grettir said
+to the two men with him, that they must guard his back, see that none
+came up the sides in his rear, and then he took his short-sword in both
+his hands, planted his feet wide apart on the rock, and prepared to sell
+his life dear.
+
+The party headed by Thorarin of Acres and Thorfin of Brookbend came up,
+twenty in all,--but more were coming, for Thorarin had begun the pursuit
+before all the farmers were collected, and he knew that a body of some
+twenty or thirty more would arrive before long.  Thorarin himself was an
+old man, and he did not enter into the fray, but urged on his men.
+
+The fight was hard.  Grettir was not easily reached where he stood, and
+he smote at all who approached.  Some of the Marshmen fell, and several
+were wounded.  In vain did they attempt to dislodge him by combined
+rushes, he drove them over the edge into the water, or cut them down
+with his sword.  At last his arm was weary, and he called to the
+farmer's son to step into his place.  He did so, and held the ground
+valiantly, whilst Grettir rested.  Then the party drew back,
+discomfited.  At that moment up came the fresh body of men under Thrand,
+the brother of Thorarin of Acres, and Stonewolf of Lavadale.  These
+egged on their men eagerly, and they thought they would obtain an easy
+victory, for Grettir had been fighting for some time, and was weary.
+
+Then Thorarin of Acres called out and advised delay.
+
+"For," said he, "the third party of men under Arnor and Biarni of Jorvi
+have not come up on the other side of the river."
+
+This piece of advice was rejected by the newcomers.  What did they want
+with more men? They were a large party, fresh and untired, and Grettir
+had but two men with him, and they were wearied with fighting.  So the
+signal was given for the onslaught.
+
+Then Grettir saw that he must either jump into the river, swim across,
+and desert the sheep and bullocks he had driven there, or use almost
+superhuman exertions to defend himself.
+
+His position was, indeed, desperate; for, even if he did hold his own
+against this second body of men, a third was on its way up the other
+bank of the river to intercept him on his way up to the Fell.  For one
+moment he hesitated, and then was resolved.  No, he would not run.  He
+would die there, and die only after having strewn the ground with his
+foes.  Foremost among his assailants was Stonewolf of Lavadale, and
+Grettir made a sudden rush at him, and with a tremendous stroke of his
+sword he clove his head down to the shoulders. Thrand, who sprang
+forward to avenge him, Grettir struck on the thigh, and the blow took
+off all the muscle, and he fell, crippled for life.  Then Grettir fell
+back to his place of safety, and dared others to come on.  They sprang
+out on the neck of rock, but would not meet his weapon, one after
+another fell or was beaten back.
+
+Then Thorarin cried out, and bade all draw off.
+
+"The longer ye fight," said he, "the worse ye fare.  He picks out what
+men among you he chooses."
+
+The party withdrew, and there were ten men fallen, and five had received
+mortal wounds, or were crippled; and hardly one of the two parties was
+without some hurt or other.
+
+Grettir, moreover, was marvellously wearied, but had received no wounds
+to speak of.
+
+Now, hardly had the men withdrawn, carrying their dead and wounded, than
+up came the third detachment under Arnor and Biarni, on the other side
+of the river.  There can be no question but that, had they crossed and
+fallen on Grettir, he could not have defended himself longer, so
+overcome was he with weariness; but Arnor knew that his father had
+entered on the matter reluctantly, and he was discouraged by the
+ill-success of the other companies. Consequently, he neither waded
+through the river at the ford, a little higher, nor did he maintain his
+ground and cut off Grettir's retreat.  Instead, he withdrew with all his
+men, and left Grettir to recover his strength, and cross and escape to
+the Fell. This conduct of Arnor provoked much comment; and he was
+accused of cowardice, an accusation that clung to him through life.
+Even his father rebuked him, for the father saw what discredit he had
+brought upon himself.
+
+The point on the river Hit where this affray took place is still shown;
+and is called Grettir's-point to this day.
+
+When the fight was over Grettir and the two men went to the Fell, and as
+they passed the farm the farmer's daughter came out of the door, and
+asked for tidings.
+
+Then Grettir sang:--
+
+    "Brewer of strong barley-corn,
+    Pourer forth of drinking-horn,
+    Lo! to-day the Stonewolf fell,
+    Ne'er again his head be well.
+    Many more have got their bane,
+    Many in their blood lie slain;
+    Little life has Thorgils now,
+    After that bone-breaking blow.
+    Eight upon the river's bank
+    In their gore expiring sank."
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER XXX.*
+
+                          *A MYSTERIOUS VALE.*
+
+
+    _The Dome of Snow--Cold Dale--A Fair Valley--The Mottled
+    Ewe--With Thorir and his Daughters--The Stone on
+    Broad-shield--Thorir's Cave_
+
+
+In the spring of 1024 Grettir went away from Fairwood Fell; for he had
+been there so long, and had preyed for such a time on the bonders of the
+marshes, that he himself saw that it would be best for him to remove
+into quite another part of the island.  So he visited his friend
+Hallmund once more, under the ice of Ball-jokull, and Hallmund advised
+him where to go.  He could not give him hospitality himself that winter,
+because his stock of goods was run so short that it would hardly suffice
+for his daughter and himself; but he told him of a valley unknown to
+anyone, save a friend of his called Thorir and himself.  And he informed
+him how it was to be reached.
+
+Now, as already said, there are passes in Iceland between the several
+blocks of ice mountains, and such a pass exists between Goatland-jokull
+and a curious domed snowy mountain called Ok.  The pass is called the
+Cold Dale, because it lies for many hours ride between ice mountains,
+and under the precipitous Goatland-jokull, whose rocks are crowned with
+green ice that falls over incessantly in great avalanches.  It is seven
+hours' ride from one blade of grass to another through that dale.  I
+went through it on midsummer-day, and saw the bones of horses lying
+about that had died unable to get through; perhaps becoming lame or
+exhausted on the way.
+
+Half through this long trough of the Cold Dale stands up a buttress of
+rock, or rather a sort of ness, projecting from Goatland-jokull, so
+precipitous that hardly any snow rests on it, and this is called the
+Half-way Fell.
+
+Now, Hallmund told Grettir he must go through the Cold Dale till he
+reached the Half-way Fell, and there he must strike up over the snow and
+glaciers of Goatland-jokull, due south, and he would all at once drop
+into a valley known to few.
+
+So Grettir went up the moor till he struck the White River, that flowed
+out of the Eagle Lakes he knew so well, and under the cliffs and icy
+crown of Erick's-jokull, then he climbed over broken trachyte rocks for
+several hundreds of feet, till he found himself in the Cold Dale, and
+along that he trudged till he had reached Half-way Fell, standing up
+like a wall as though to stop the pass.  There he turned to the left,
+and as at this point Goatland is no longer precipitous, but slopes in a
+series of steps to the Cold Dale, he climbed up through the snow, a long
+and tedious ascent, till he stood on the neck of the mountain, and there
+he saw that the snow slopes fell away rapidly to the south, and he
+descended and soon beheld before him a valley in which were a great many
+boiling springs that threw up clouds of steam, and he saw also, what
+greatly pleased him, that there was rich and abundant grass in this
+valley. This is what the saga says: "The dale was long and somewhat
+narrow, locked up by glaciers all round, in such a manner that the ice
+walls overhung the dale.  He scrambled down into it, as best he could,
+and there he saw fair hillsides grass-grown and set with bushes.  Hot
+springs were there, and it appeared to him that it was the earth-fires
+which prevented the ice walls from closing in on the valley.  A little
+river ran down the dale, with level banks.  The sun rarely shone into
+the valley; but the number of sheep there could hardly be reckoned, they
+were so many; and nowhere had he seen any so fat and in such good
+condition."
+
+Grettir did not see Thorir, Hallmund's friend, at first; so he built
+himself a hut of such wood as he could get, and with turf.  He killed
+the sheep he wanted, and found that there was more meat on one of them
+than on two elsewhere.
+
+The Saga says:--
+
+"There was one ewe there, brown mottled, with a lamb, and she was a
+beauty.  Grettir killed the lamb, and took three stone of suet off it,
+the meat was some of the best he had ever eaten.  But when the mottled
+ewe missed her lamb, she went up on Grettir's hut every night, and
+bleated so plaintively as to trouble his sleep, and made Grettir quite
+troubled that he had killed her lamb."
+
+Now Grettir noticed that at evening the sheep ran in one direction, and
+once or twice he heard a call; so he went after the sheep one evening,
+and was led by them to the hut where Thorir dwelt.  He was a strange
+man, who had spent so many years away from the society of his fellow-men
+as not to care any more to meet them, so he did not welcome Grettir very
+warmly.  However he had three daughters, and they were glad to have
+someone to talk to, and as the winter crept on Thorir himself became
+more amiable, and so the winter did not pass as drearily as Grettir had
+feared it would.  He sang his songs and related stories, and the party
+played draughts with knuckle-bones of sheep.
+
+When spring came, however, he was fain to go; and he did not leave by
+the way he came, but followed the little river, and it led him out
+between rock and glaciers into a piece of desert, covered with lava beds
+that have poured out of a volcano, or rather two that stand opposite
+this entrance to Thorir's valley.  These two volcanoes are quite unlike
+each other, though side by side, one, called Hlothu-fell has upright
+walls, like Erick's-jokull, and a crater filled up and brimming over
+with ice; but the other Skialdbreith, or the Broad-shield, is like a
+conical round silver shield laid on the ground. The entrance to Thorir's
+Dale is completely hidden by a round snowy mountain that blocks it, and
+then a second snowy mountain stands further out in front of the opening,
+so that not a sign of any valley can be seen from anywhere.
+
+So difficult did Grettir think it would be to find it, that he ascended
+on Broad-shield and set up a stone there with a hole in it, so that
+anyone looking through this hole would see directly into the narrow
+entrance of Thorir's Dale.  This stone still stands where Grettir had
+placed it; but has sunk on one side, so that by looking through the hole
+the eye is no longer directed to the entrance.
+
+No one had ever visited Thorir's Dale since Grettir left it till the
+year 1654, when it was explored by two Icelandic clergymen, and an
+account of their expedition in Icelandic is to be found in the British
+Museum.[#]  The valley as far as I know has not been explored since.  It
+is marked on the map of Iceland, but apparently from the description
+left by the two clergymen, not from any visit made to it by the
+map-maker.
+
+
+[#] I have given a translation of it in my _Curiosities of Olden Times_,
+London, Hayes, 1869.
+
+
+When the two men visited the valley they went to it in the same way as
+did Grettir.  They found no hot springs, and the valley was utterly
+barren; but then they had no time to descend it, they only looked down
+on it from above.  They found the cave with a door, and a window to it,
+which was probably the habitation of Thorir and his daughters.
+
+
+
+
+                            *CHAPTER XXXI.*
+
+                        *THE DEATH OF HALLMUND.*
+
+
+    _Grim's Fish Disappear--The Thief Wounded and Tracked--Death of
+    Hallmund_
+
+
+Now, there was a man called Grim, who was an outlaw for his ill-deeds,
+and he thought that as Grettir no longer abode in his hut on the Eagle
+Lake, he might go there and occupy it.  This did not please Hallmund,
+for Grettir had left him his nets, and he was wont to fish in the lake.
+
+Grim had supplied himself with nets, and he one day caught a hundred
+char, large red-fleshed fish, delicious eating; so he piled them up
+outside his hut.  Next morning to his great surprise all his char had
+disappeared.  Then he went fishing again, and caught even more fish, and
+he brought them to land, and heaped them up as before.
+
+Next morning they also had disappeared.
+
+He could not understand it; so he fished again, and had on this occasion
+extraordinary luck: he must have netted nearly three hundred fish.  He
+brought them home, and put them in the same place as before; but he did
+not go to sleep this time: he remained within, and watched his store
+through a peep-hole in the door.
+
+During the night he heard someone who trod heavily coming along the
+ness, and then he saw a man picking up his fish, and putting them into a
+basket he had on his back.  Grim watched till he had filled the basket,
+which he now heaved upon his shoulders.  Instantly Grim threw open the
+door, rushed out, and whilst the man was still stooping adjusting his
+load, he swung up a very sharp axe he held, holding it in both hands,
+and smote at the man's neck.  The axe hit the basket, and that somewhat
+broke its force, but it glanced aside and sank into the shoulder.  Then
+the man started aside, and set off running with the basket to the south,
+skirting a lava field that had flowed out of Erick's-jokull, and which
+now goes by the name of Hallmund's Lava-bed.
+
+Grim ran after him, and saw that he was making for Ball-jokull; but the
+man, who was of great size and strength, though wounded and losing
+blood, ran on, and did not stay till he reached a cave in the face of
+the cliff, above which was the ice, and with long icicles hanging over
+the front.  Into this he entered.  There was a fire burning inside, and
+a young woman sitting by it.
+
+Grim heard her welcome the man, and call him her father, and name him
+Hallmund.  He cast his basket of fish down, and groaned aloud.
+
+Then the girl saw that blood was flowing from him, and she asked him
+what had happened.
+
+Hallmund told what had befallen him, and said that he was wounded to the
+death, and that he trusted Grettir would avenge him, for he had no other
+friend to do so.
+
+After that Hallmund began a lay, and sang the history of his life, the
+achievements he had wrought, and he sang on till his breath failed, and
+either he was unable to finish his lay, or Grim could not remember all
+of it.  A good deal, however, of Hallmund's death-song has been retained
+and is given in the saga.
+
+But Hallmund's hope or expectation that Grettir would avenge him was
+disappointed, for Grim managed to get away from Iceland, and did not
+return to it again during the lifetime of Grettir.
+
+
+
+
+                            *CHAPTER XXXII.*
+
+                 *OF ANOTHER ATTEMPT AGAINST GRETTIR.*
+
+
+    _Thorir raises a Party against Grettir--Grettir plays the
+    Herdsman--A Daring Trick--Thorir a Laughing-Stock_
+
+
+Now, during the summer, tidings came to Thorir of Garth that Grettir was
+somewhere about on Reekheath in the north-east.  There was his lair
+which was examined a few years ago, and which remains in tolerable
+condition, as already mentioned when his lair at Fairwood Fell was
+described.  Now, Thorir of Garth, when he got this tidings was resolved
+to make another attempt to kill him; and no wonder, for with singular
+audacity Grettir had come into his neighbourhood.  Grettir no doubt
+thought that he had preyed long enough on men who had not harmed him,
+and that now he would prey on the goods and cattle of the man who had
+made an outlaw of him, and who pursued him with such remorseless
+hostility.  Thorir gathered a number of men together and went in pursuit
+of Grettir. Grettir was not at that time in his den but out on the moor,
+and he was near a mountain-dairy that stood back somewhat from the
+wayside, and there was another man with him, when they spied the party
+of Thorir, all armed, coming along.  They had not been observed, so they
+hastily led their horses into the shed attached to the dairy, and
+concealed themselves.  Thorir came along, went to the dairy, looked
+about to see if anyone were there who could inform him if Grettir had
+been seen, noticed only a couple of horses tied up, but supposed they
+belonged to the farmer whose summer dairy this was, and, without looking
+further, went on.
+
+As soon as Thorir and his band had gone out of sight, Grettir crept from
+his place of hiding, and said to his companion:
+
+"It is a pity they should have come such a ride to see me, and should be
+disappointed.  You watch the horses, and I will go on and have a word
+with them."
+
+"You surely will not be so rash?" exclaimed the other man.
+
+"I cannot let them come all this way without exchanging words with me,"
+said Grettir, and leaving the horses under the care of his comrade, he
+strode away over the moor to a place where he was sure he could be
+observed.  Now, Grettir had a slouched hat on and a long staff in his
+hand, and at the dairy he had found some clothes belonging to the
+herdsman usually there, and these he had put on.
+
+Directly Thorir and his party saw a man with a staff striding about on
+the moor they rode to him. None of them knew Grettir's face, for,
+indeed, they had not been given the chance.  So they thought this great
+rough man was the herdsman, and they asked him if he had seen the outlaw
+Grettir.
+
+"What sort of man is he?" asked Grettir.  "Is he armed?"
+
+"Armed indeed is he, with a casque on his head, a long sword, and also a
+short one in his girdle."
+
+"Is he riding?"
+
+"Most certainly he is."
+
+"Then," said Grettir, "you had better get you along after him due south;
+he has gone that way not so long agone."
+
+When they heard this Thorir and his party struck spurs into their
+horses, put them into a gallop, and away they went as hard as they could
+in the direction indicated.  Now, Grettir knew the country very well,
+and he was well aware that south of where he stood were impassable bogs.
+Thorir and his fellows were too eager in pursuit to attend to the nature
+of the ground over which they rode; besides, they thought that if
+Grettir had ridden that way they could ride it as well.  They were
+speedily mistaken, for in they floundered into a bottomless morass; some
+of the horses were in to their saddles; the men got off and got out with
+difficulty, and they had much ado to get their horses out at all.
+Indeed, some were wallowing there more than half the day. Many curses
+were heaped on the churl who had befooled them, but they could not find
+him when the went after him to chastise him.
+
+Grettir hastened back to the dairy, mounted his horse, and rode to Garth
+itself, whilst the master was floundering in the bog.  As he came to the
+farm he saw a tall, well-dressed girl by the door, and he asked who she
+was.  He was told this was Thorir's daughter.  Then Grettir sang a stave
+to her, the meaning of which was that he who came there was the man whom
+Thorir was vainly pursuing.
+
+Much laughter was occasioned by this failure of Thorir to take Grettir
+when he was in his own neighbourhood, and by his being so deceived and
+befooled by Grettir when he had him in his power.
+
+
+
+
+                           *CHAPTER XXXIII.*
+
+                            *AT SANDHEAPS.*
+
+
+    _A Deadly Enemy--In the Service of Steinvor--The Way to
+    Church--Crossing the Quivering Flood--The Priest's Caution--A
+    Weird Tale--The Old Hag--The Stream-churl--Steinvor's Husband's
+    Death--The Foundation of the Story--The Troll-woman of
+    Grettir--The Basaltic Troll-wife--The Search under
+    Goda-foss--Grettir's Dive--The Fight with the
+    Stream-churl--Runes of the Fight--A Bag of Bones_
+
+
+The summer was passing away, and Grettir could not remain without
+shelter through the winter; so he considered what was best to be done.
+He could not ask any farmer in the north-east to shelter him, because
+they were all afraid of Thorir of Garth, who would have pursued with
+implacable animosity the man who befriended and housed the outlaw.
+Moreover, Thorir had his spies everywhere, and Grettir found he had to
+shift quarters repeatedly to escape his deadly enemy.
+
+Now, when the first snows fell Grettir sent his man away with his horses
+across country to Biarg, and he went further away from where Thorir was;
+but never stayed long anywhere, nor gave his real name.  He had no
+relatives in this part of the island, and no friends.
+
+Now, a little before Yule--that is Christmas--he came to a farm called
+Sandheaps, on that river which is called the Quivering Flood.  This farm
+belonged to a widow woman called Steinvor, who had recently lost her
+husband.
+
+Grettir came and offered his services; he said his name was Guest, that
+he was out of work, and that he had come there because he heard she was
+short of hands.
+
+Steinvor looked at him, and saw that he was a very powerfully-built man,
+and that there was a certain dignity and nobility in his face; so she
+accepted him, against the opinion of the rest in the house, who were
+frightened at the appearance of Grettir, and did not know what to make
+of him, whether he were an ordinary human being or a wild man, half
+mountain-goblin or troll.
+
+It came to pass on Christmas-eve that the widow Steinvor was very
+desirous to go to church, but the church was on the further side of the
+river, and there was no bridge.
+
+Grettir heard Steinvor lament that she could not go to church, so he
+said bluntly: "You can go.  I will attend you and see you over the
+water."
+
+Then she made ready for worship, and took her little daughter with her.
+Now, at times the river froze hard across, and then it was possible to
+cross on the ice.  At other times it might be traversed at a ford.  But
+when Grettir came to the side of the Quivering Flood, it was plain to
+him that by the ice the water could not be crossed.  For there had been
+a rapid thaw, and now the river was overflowed and very full of water;
+and, moreover, it was rolling down great masses of ice.
+
+When Steinvor saw the condition of the river, she said, "There is
+plainly no way across for horse or man."
+
+"I suppose there is a ford somewhere," said Grettir.
+
+"Yes," answered Steinvor, "there is a ford at this place; but I do not
+see how it is to be traversed."
+
+"I will carry you across," said Grettir.
+
+"Carry over the little maiden first," said the widow.  "She is the
+lightest."
+
+"I don't care about making two journeys when one will suffice," answered
+Grettir.  "Come, jump up; I will carry you in my arms."
+
+[Illustration: FORDING THE QUIVERING FLOOD.]
+
+The widow crossed herself, and said, "That will never do.  How can you
+manage such a burden?"
+
+But without more ado Grettir caught up Steinvor on his arm, and then he
+picked up the little girl and set her on her mother's lap, and strode
+into the water; they were on his left arm, but he kept the right free.
+They were so frightened that they durst not cry out.  He waded on in the
+river, and the water foamed up to his breast; and then he saw a great
+ice-floe coming bearing down upon him.  He put out his right hand, gave
+the mass of ice a thrust, and it was whirled past them by the current.
+Then he waded further, and the water washed about his shoulders, and
+that was the deepest point.  After that the river shallowed, and he bore
+the mother and child safely to the shore and set them down.
+
+Now Grettir turned to go back, and he took up a great stone and set it
+on his head, and so waded back.  If he had tried to go through the water
+without a stone he would have been washed away; but the great stone on
+his head enabled him to stand firm and resist the current of the water.
+Those who have not been through an Icelandic river can hardly imagine
+the intensity of the cold.  I have ridden through these rivers, my horse
+swimming under me, and when I reached the further side have thrown
+myself off and lain on the sand for a quarter of an hour before I could
+recover from the numbness caused by the deadly cold; for some of these
+rivers are as broad as the Thames at London Bridge, and the water is
+milky because full of undissolved snow.
+
+When Steinvor reached the church every one was astonished to see her,
+and asked how she had managed to get across the Quivering Flood.  But
+when the priest heard the story, he called Steinvor aside, and said:
+
+"Mind and do not say too much about your new man; do not talk about his
+strength, and set folk a-wondering who he may be.  I have my own
+opinion, and I think you will do well to house him, and say nothing to
+anyone about his being in any way remarkable."
+
+And now there comes into the saga of Grettir a story which is certainly
+untrue, but how it comes in can be made out pretty easily.
+
+The real truth was, as the saga writer confesses, that Grettir remained
+hidden at Sandheaps all that winter, and no one in the country round
+knew that he was there.  But then, the saga writer did not feel
+satisfied with such a dull winter, in which nothing happened; so, to
+fill out his story and say something interesting, he worked into his
+history a wonderful tale.  The story, which I tell in my own words, is
+this:--
+
+
+
+                    *The Story of the Stream-Troll*
+
+
+There is on the Quivering Flood some miles below Sandheaps a mighty
+foss, or waterfall.  The whole river pours over a ledge in a thundering,
+magnificent cascade.  The stream in the middle is broken by an island.
+You can hear the roar of the falling water for a long way around, and
+see the spray thrown up from the fall like a cloud or column of steam
+rising high into the air.  This waterfall is called Goda-foss, and was
+long supposed to be the finest in the island; but there is another,
+which I was the first to see, on the Jokull-river, called Detti-foss,
+which is infinitely finer, but which is in a region of utter desert of
+sand and volcanic crater, many miles from any human habitation.
+
+It happens that there is a curious black lava rock standing near the
+river, higher up than the fall, which bears a quaint resemblance to an
+old woman, and this stone is called The Old Hag; and the story goes that
+it is a troll-woman turned to stone.
+
+Now, you must know that throughout Norway and Iceland, and, indeed,
+wherever the Scandinavian race is found, a superstition exists that
+every river has its spirit, that lives in the river; and it was held
+that these river-spirits demanded a sacrifice of a human life, at least
+once a year.  If a sacrifice were not given to them, then they took some
+man or woman, when crossing the water, and carried the victim away.  And
+in heathen times there can be no doubt whatever that human sacrifices
+were offered to every river; generally an evildoer or a prisoner was
+thrown in and drowned, to propitiate the Stream-churl, as he was called,
+so that he should not snap at and carry off other and more valuable
+lives.  Wherever there was a cataract, there the Stream-churl was
+believed to live, hidden away behind the curtain of falling water.  If
+the stream was small, then this spirit or demon was small; if, however,
+it were a mighty river, then the spirit was a great troll or giant.
+Even to this day in Iceland and Norway, the ignorant and superstitious
+believe that there are these Stream-churls, and tell stories about them,
+and cannot but suspect that, when anyone is drowned, it is the
+Stream-churl exacting his toll.
+
+Now, it is quite certain that Steinvor, although she was a Christian,
+believed in there being a great Stream-churl living under Goda-foss; and
+as she had lost her husband and one of her servants who had been drowned
+in the Quivering Flood, she held that they had been carried off by the
+Troll of the waterfall.
+
+There had been, as it happened, something mysterious about the death of
+Steinvor's husband.  Two years before Grettir came to Sandheaps, on
+Christmas-eve, he had disappeared.  She had gone off to see some friends
+at a distance, and when she returned home next day she heard that her
+husband had not been seen--he was gone, and not a trace of him remained.
+It occurred to her that in all probability he had gone across the river
+to church, and had been carried off by the river--that is, by the
+Stream-churl. But she could be certain of nothing, and she was greatly
+distressed because she could not give his body burial.  A year passed
+and not a word about her husband could she hear.  His body had not be
+found anywhere washed up by the river, supposing he had been drowned.
+
+Next year she lost one of her men-servants in the same way.  He
+vanished, and none knew how or whither he had gone.  If he had run away,
+she would probably have had tidings of him; but she heard none, and his
+body was also never found.
+
+I have no doubt that she told Grettir about this, and also that she
+believed that the Stream-churl who lived under Goda-foss had carried off
+both her husband and the servant.  I believe also that, to satisfy her,
+Grettir undertook to look, and that he actually dived under the fall,
+and came up and searched between the sheet of falling water and the
+rock, and found--nothing.
+
+That is the foundation of a wonderful story which has found its way into
+the saga.  It did not satisfy those who told the tale of Grettir that he
+should have spent the winter at Sandheaps and done nothing--that he
+should have dived under Goda-foss and found nothing.
+
+So by degrees old nursery tales got mixed up with this incident about
+Grettir's search for the Stream-churl, and all was worked into a
+wonderful story, which you shall hear.
+
+On that night on which Grettir had carried Steinvor across the river, he
+returned to the farm, and lay down in his bed.
+
+When midnight arrived, then a great din was heard outside, and presently
+the hall door was thrown open and in through it came a gigantic woman, a
+Troll-wife, with a trough in one hand and a huge chopper in the other.
+
+As she entered she peered about her, and saw Grettir where he lay, and
+she ran at him.  Then he jumped up and went to meet her, and they fell
+a-wrestling terribly, and struggled together so furiously, that all the
+panelling of the hall side was broken.
+
+She was the stronger, and she dragged Grettir towards the door, and
+forth towards the entrance, in spite of all his efforts.  She had got
+him as far as the entrance, when there he made a final struggle, and in
+the struggle the door-posts and fittings were torn from their place, and
+fell outwards.
+
+Then the Troll-woman laboured away with him towards the river, and right
+down towards the gulfs.
+
+Grettir was exceedingly weary, yet he saw that his only chance was to
+make a last effort, or be flung by her over the edge into the deep,
+boiling river.
+
+All night they contended in such fashion, and ever was he drawing nearer
+to the edge.  But just as she was preparing to fling him into the water,
+he got his right hand free, and he swiftly seized his short-sword, and
+struck off her arm; and at that moment the sun rose, and the Troll-woman
+was turned into stone.  There she stands with her amputated arm-socket,
+as a mass of black basalt or lava to this day.
+
+If the reader will recall the story of Grettir's struggle with Glam at
+Thorod's-stead, in the valley of Shadows, he will see that this is only
+the same story over again almost in every particular,--except that the
+first fight was with a man, and this is with a woman.  The reason why
+this story was concocted and put in here, was to account for the stone
+figure which stands by the river, and which is called the Troll-wife.
+So far the story carries its character on its face.
+
+Now we will go on to the next part of the tale. It did not satisfy
+people that Grettir should have dived under Goda-foss and found nothing,
+so the story was thus told:
+
+When the goodwife, Steinvor, came from church, she thought that her
+house had been rudely handled; so she went to Grettir and asked him what
+had occurred.  Then he told her all, and she prayed him to go and make a
+search for her husband's bones, under Goda-foss.
+
+Grettir consented, but he asked that the priest might be sent for.  His
+name was Stone.  Steinvor sent for him, and Stone was curious to know
+whether his suspicions about this stranger were true.  So he asked him
+questions, but Grettir answered that if the priest wanted to know who he
+was, he must find out.  The priest laughed at the story of the
+Troll-wife, and said he did not believe a word about the struggle.
+
+Then Grettir said, "Well, priest, I see that you have no faith in my
+tale; now I propose that you accompany me to Goda-foss, and we will
+search for the Troll himself, and see if we can recover the bones of
+Steinvor's husband."
+
+The priest, Stone, agreed, and they went together to the side of the
+waterfall, and they had a rope with them.
+
+Stone shook his head, and he said, "It would be too risky for anyone to
+venture down there."
+
+"I will go," said Grettir.  "But you mind the rope."
+
+The priest drove a peg into the sward on the cliff, and heaped stones
+over it, so as to make the end firm, and then he seated himself by the
+heap.
+
+Then Grettir made a loop in the end of the rope, and put a stone through
+the loop, and threw the stone down, and the end of the rope went to the
+bottom of the gulf.
+
+"How are you going down?" asked Stone.
+
+"I shall dive," said Grettir.
+
+Then he stripped, but girt on a short-sword, and so leaped off the cliff
+into the foss.  The priest saw only the soles of his feet as he went
+into the water, and then saw no more.
+
+Now, Grettir had gone in below the fall, and he dived and went under the
+curtain of water and came up near the rock.  The whirlpool below the
+falls was so strong that he had a desperate struggle with the water
+before he could reach the rock.
+
+When he rose, he saw that the water fell over a lip of rock, quite
+clear, and that in the face of the rock was a cavern, and that smoke
+issued from this cave, and mingling with the spray and foam passed away,
+and was not discerned beyond.
+
+Grettir climbed over the stones into the cave, and there he saw a great
+fire flaming from amidst brands of drift-wood; and there was the
+Stream-churl seated there, a great Troll with a hideous face.  When he
+saw Grettir he roared and jumped up, and caught a glaive that was near
+him, and smote at the newcomer.  Grettir hewed back at him with his
+short-sword, and smote the handle of the glaive and broke it.  Then the
+giant stretched back for a sword that hung up to a peg against the side
+of the cave, but as he was thus leaning back Grettir smote him across
+the breast, and cut through to the ribs, and gashed open his belly.  The
+blood poured forth out of the cave and mingled with the stream.  When
+the priest saw the bloody foam beneath the fall, he was so frightened
+that he ran away, for he made sure that Grettir was dead.
+
+Grettir remained in the cave, standing across the giant, till he had
+killed him.  Then he took up a flaming brand and searched the cave
+through.  He found nothing more than dead men's bones, and these he put
+together into a bag, threw that over his shoulder, and went again into
+the water.
+
+He rose beyond the foss and looked up, but could see nothing of the
+priest; so he caught the rope, and by means of that he swarmed up to the
+top of the cliff.
+
+Then he sat down, and with a sharp knife he cut runes on a staff.  And
+what he wrote was this:
+
+    "Down into the gulf I went,
+    Where the rocks are widely rent;
+    Where the swirling waters fall
+    O'er the black basaltic wall;
+    Where, with voice of thunder, leap
+    In the foaming darkling deep.
+    There the stream with icy wave
+    Washes the grim giant's cave."
+
+He had cut as much as he could on one stick, so now he took another, and
+on that he cut:
+
+    "Dreadful dweller in the cave
+    Underneath the falling wave,
+    Fierce at me he brandished glaive;
+    Full of rage at me he drove,
+    Desperate we together strove.
+    Lo!  I smote his halft in twain,
+    Lo!  I smote and he was slain,
+    Bleeding from each riven vein."
+
+
+Then Grettir carried the bag of bones and the staves to the church, and
+laid them in the porch.
+
+Next morning when the priest came to the church he found the bag of
+bones and the staves.
+
+Such is the story.
+
+Now, it is clear that a good bit of it is simply transferred from the
+story of Grettir going down into the cairn of Karr the Old.
+
+The real truth of the tale is no more than what has been stated, that
+Grettir went under the waterfall and found nothing.  It is, of course,
+possible that he may have hoaxed the priest; but I think it more
+probable that all this marvellous matter is simply tacked on to one
+simple fact, and that it was taken, partly from the story of Grettir in
+the barrow of Karr, and partly from that of his struggle with Glam.
+
+What the saga writer does admit is that the versions of the story do not
+quite agree, and that--in spite of this wonderful achievement, folks did
+not know that Grettir was at Sandheaps that winter.
+
+
+
+
+                            *CHAPTER XXXIV.*
+
+                    *HOW GRETTIR WAS DRIVEN ABOUT.*
+
+
+    _Thorir comes too Late--The Needle of Basalt--The Island of
+    Drangey--The Terrors of the Dark--Brother holds to Brother_
+
+
+After a while rumours reached Thorir of Garth that either Grettir, or
+someone very like Grettir,--a tall, powerful man with reddish hair, and
+one who gave no account of whence he came,--was lodging at Sandheaps,
+and Thorir made ready to go there after him.  Fortunately Grettir, or
+rather the housewife Steinvor, heard of his intention, and so Grettir
+made off out of the valley of the Quivering Flood before Thorir came
+there in quest of him.
+
+He escaped to Maddervales, in the Horg-river Dale.  This is a noble
+valley of the Horg River, with chains of snowy peaks on each side, of
+peculiar shape, barred with precipices of basalt, on which lie slopes of
+snow.
+
+Some way up this valley are some very remarkable spires of basaltic
+rock, one of which that is like a needle is said to have been climbed by
+Grettir whilst staying in this valley.  It is not so said in the saga,
+but I was told so on the spot, and the tale goes that when he climbed to
+the top he slipped his belt round the needle, and there it hangs round
+it still--but no one has been up since to find if it be there where he
+left it.
+
+He could not remain long there, for Gudmund the Rich, who was farmer at
+Maddervales, was afraid to house him for long.  Thorir of Garth would
+come and burn his house if he harboured Grettir.  However, he kept him
+for some little while, and then he gave him advice what he should do.
+
+It had come to such a pass with Grettir now that no one dared to shelter
+him for long, and Thorir had spies everywhere to inform him where
+Grettir was.
+
+Gudmund the Rich said to Grettir: "You can find no safety anywhere that
+men dwell; for if there be not treachery, yet the news flies about that
+you are there.  So I advise you to go where you shall be alone."
+
+"Where shall I go?" asked Grettir.  "I am hunted like a dog."
+
+"There is an island," answered Gudmund, "lying in the Skagafirth, called
+Drangey.  It is a place excellent for defence, as no one can reach it
+without a ladder.  If you could get upon Drangey, no one could come on
+you unawares.  You would see anyone who came by boat to the island, and
+you could pull up a rope-ladder, without which no one would be able to
+ascend."
+
+"I will try that," said Grettir; "but I have become so fearsome in the
+dark that not even at the risk of my life can I endure to be alone."
+
+"Well," said Gudmund, "that is my counsel. Trust none but yourself.
+Treachery lies where least expected."
+
+Grettir thanked him for his advice, and went away west to see his
+mother.  And he was most joyfully welcomed by her and his young brother
+Illugi at Biarg.  There he remained some nights--not many; for Ramsfirth
+was only over a brow of hill, and the tidings of his return home was
+sure in a few days to reach the relatives of Oxmain, when he would again
+be set on.
+
+I said, after giving an account of Grettir's adventure at
+Thorhall's-stead with Glam, that there must have been something of fact
+in that story, and not pure fiction; and now it has been seen how that
+event coloured and affected his whole after life, leaving his nerves so
+shaken, that he could not drive off the impression then made on him, and
+he was ready to run serious risks rather than be subject to the terrors
+that came on him in the dark when alone.
+
+He told his mother and Illugi how it was with him, and how that he had
+been advised to go to Drangey, but that he could not; he dare not, in
+the long winter night, be on that lonely islet by himself.
+
+Then Illugi his brother said, "Grettir, I will be with you."
+
+"Brother holds to brother as hand clasps hand," answered Grettir, and so
+they parted.  All that summer he wandered about in wild places, shifting
+his quarters repeatedly, and living how he could.
+
+
+
+
+                            *CHAPTER XXXV.*
+
+                             *ON THE ISLE.*
+
+
+    _Illugi will go to Drangey--Asdis gives Consent--Asdis
+    prophesies Woe--Within Sight of Drangey--Glaum becomes Grettir's
+    Servant--Thorwald rows Grettir to Drangey--Thorbiorn Hook--The
+    Bonders visit the Island--Grettir in Possession--An Inaccessible
+    Spot_
+
+
+When summer was now over, and the first snow of winter began to fall,
+when the days were rapidly shortening, and the sun had gone out of the
+north to the south, where it began to move in a rapidly narrowing arc,
+Grettir returned to Biarg and remained there a while.  "But," says the
+saga, "so great grew his fear in the dark that he durst go nowhere as
+soon as dusk set in."  We can see that the many years strain on his
+nerves had broken them.  Hunted about as a wild beast, always forced to
+be on his guard, never able to sleep without fear of being murdered in
+his sleep, the trial had told on him.  This was now the winter of 1028.
+He was aged but thirty-one; his strength of body was not abated, only
+his nervous force.  He had been in outlawry altogether fifteen years,
+three for the slaying of Skeggi, then he had been outlawed by King Olaf
+in 1016.  On his return to Iceland he had been outlawed in 1017; this
+was the eleventh year of his outlawry at the suit of Thorir of Garth, an
+outlawry not only unjust, but according to general opinion illegal,
+because he had been tried and sentenced in his absence, and without any
+witnesses having been called to establish his guilt--condemned on
+hearsay evidence, and he never allowed to defend himself.
+
+Now Illugi, Grettir's sole surviving brother, was aged fifteen, and was
+a very handsome, honest-looking boy.
+
+"Grettir," said he, "you know what I said.  I will go with you to
+Drangey, if you will take me. I know not that I will be of much help to
+you, but this I know, that I will be ever true to you, and will never
+run from you so long as you stand up. Besides, I shall like to be with
+you, for here at home we are ever in anxiety for news about you, always
+fearing the worst; but if I am at your side, I shall know how you fare."
+
+"I would rather have you with me than anyone else," answered Grettir.
+"But I cannot take you unless our mother consent."
+
+Then said Asdis, "Now I can see that I have the choice of evils.  I can
+ill spare Illugi; yet I know your trouble, Grettir, and that something
+must be done for you.  It grieves me, my sons, to see you both leave me;
+yet I will not withhold my youngest from you, Grettir.  It is right that
+brother should help brother."
+
+That rejoiced Illugi.  Then Asdis gave her sons what things she thought
+they might want on the island, and they made them ready to depart.
+
+She led them outside the farm inclosure, and then she took farewell of
+them, saying, "My two sons! There you depart from me, and I dreamed last
+night that you left me for ever, and would fall together. What is fated
+none may fly from.  Never shall I see you again, either of you.  Be it
+so, that one fate overtake you both.  In my dream I saw your bones
+whitening on Drangey.  Be careful and watchful. My dreams have troubled
+me greatly.  Above all beware of witchcraft.  None can cope with the
+craft of the old."
+
+When she had said this she wept sore.
+
+Then said Grettir, "Weep not, mother, for if we be set on with weapons
+it will be said of thee that thou hadst men and not girls for thy
+children.  Live on well, and be hale."
+
+So they parted.  Grettir and Illugi went to their relatives and visited
+them, never, however, staying long in any place, and so on by Swine
+Lake, a long sheet of water in a shallow basin, to the Blend River. This
+river is of the colour of milk and water, because it is so full of
+undissolved snow, and milk and water is called Bland, _i.e._ Blend, in
+Icelandic.  Another river enters it that is called the Black Stream,
+because of the dark colour of the water.  Grettir turned up the valley
+of the Black River and then over a pass by a pretty lake lying in a
+mountain lap, down into a broad marshy valley in which are three or four
+rivers, and boiling springs pouring forth clouds of steam on the
+hill-slopes.  The valley is commanded by a beautiful mountain peak,
+called the Measuring Peak, because the natives thereabouts reckon
+distances from it.
+
+Grettir and Illugi went down this valley till they reached the sea, and
+now there opened before them a glorious view of the fiord, extending out
+north about forty miles, and from ten to fifteen miles across, between
+mountains and precipitous cliffs.  A little way back from the eastern
+shore stood up the Unadals Jokull, crowned with perpetual snows and with
+glaciers rolling down the sides, and on the west, close to the sea,
+seeming to rise in a wall out of it and running up into fantastic peaks,
+was the range of Tindastoll, famous for its cornelians and agates and
+other precious stones.  In the offing, fifteen miles out, right in the
+midst of the fiord, stood up the isle of Drangey with sheer cliffs,
+about which the sea perpetually danced and foamed.
+
+Grettir and Illugi skirted the shore on the west. The wind was blowing
+cold, and snow was driving before it, as they passed a farm.  The farmer
+stood in his door, and saw a great man stride by with an axe over his
+shoulder, his hood thrown back, and his wild red hair blowing about in
+the gale.  "Verily," said the farmer, "that must be a strange fellow not
+to cover his head with his hood in such weather as this."  Near this
+little farm the brothers stumbled upon a tall, thin man, dressed in rags
+and with a very big head.  They asked each other's names, and the fellow
+called himself Glaum.  He was out of work, and he went along with the
+brothers chatting, and telling them all the gossip of the neighbourhood.
+Then Glaum asked if they were in want of a servant, and Grettir gladly
+accepted him, and the man became thenceforth his constant attendant. But
+the fellow was a sad boaster, and most people thought him both a fool
+and a coward.  He was not fond of work, and he spent his time strolling
+about the country picking up and retailing news.
+
+Grettir and his brother and Glaum reached a farm called Reykir as the
+day closed in, where was a hot spring in the farm paddock.  The farmer's
+name was Thorwald; and Grettir asked him to put him across in a boat to
+Drangey.  Thorwald shook his head and said, "I shall get into trouble
+with those who have rights of pasturage on the island. I had rather
+not."
+
+Then Grettir offered him a bag of silver which his mother had given him,
+and at the sight of this, Thorwald raised his eyebrows and thought that
+he might perhaps do what was asked.  The distance was just five miles.
+
+So on a moonshiny night Thorwald got three of his churls and they rowed
+Grettir and the two who went with him over.  On reaching his destination
+Grettir was well pleased with the spot, for it was covered with a
+profusion of grass, and the sides were so precipitous that it seemed a
+sheer impossibility for anyone to ascend it without the aid of the
+rope-ladder that hung from strong staples at the summit. In summer the
+place would swarm with sea-birds, and at the time there were eighty
+sheep left on the island for fattening.
+
+A good many farmers had rights of pasturage on the island.  Hialti of
+Hof was one, whose brother's name was Thorbiorn Hook, of whom more
+hereafter. Another was Haldor, who lived at Head-strand; he had married
+the sister of these brothers.  Biorn, Eric, and Tongue-stone were the
+names of three others.
+
+Thorbiorn Hook was a hard-headed, ill-disposed fellow.  His father had
+married a second time, and there was no love lost between the stepmother
+and Thorbiorn.  It is said that one day as The Hook was sitting at
+draughts, she passed, and looking over his shoulder laughed, because he
+had made a bad move. Thorbiorn Hook thereupon said something abusive and
+insulting; this so enraged her that she snatched up a draught-man, and
+pressing it against his eye-socket, drove the eyeball out.  He started
+to his feet, and with the draught-board struck her over the head such a
+blow that she took to her bed, and died of the injury.  The Hook now
+went from bad to worse, and leaving home settled at Woodwick on the
+fiord, a small farm.  It will be understood from this story that he was
+a violent and brutal fellow, and that, indeed, the life in his father's
+house had not been of an orderly description.
+
+As many as twenty farmers claimed rights to turn out their sheep on
+Drangey in summer.  The way they managed it is the way still employed by
+their successors.  They take the sheep out in boats, and then put them
+over their shoulders, with the feet tied under their chins, and so they
+climb the rope-ladder, carrying the sheep up on their backs. Though all
+these farmers claimed rights on Drangey, The Hook and his brother had
+the largest share, that is to say, the right to turn out more sheep than
+the rest.
+
+Now, about the time of the winter solstice, that is just before Yule,
+the bonders made ready to visit the island, and bring home their sheep
+for slaughtering for the Christmas feasting.  They rowed out in a large
+boat, and on nearing the island were much surprised to see figures
+moving on top of the cliffs.  How anyone had got there without their
+knowledge puzzled them, for Thorwald had kept his counsel, and told no
+one what he had done for Grettir.  They pulled hard for the
+landing-place, where hung the ladder, but Grettir drew it up before they
+landed.
+
+The bonders shouted to know who were on the crags, and Grettir, looking
+over, told his name and those of his companions.  The farmers then asked
+how he had got there? who had put him across?
+
+Grettir answered, "If you very much wish to know, it was not one of you
+below now speaking to us.  It was someone else, who had a good boat and
+a pair of lusty arms."
+
+"Let us fetch our sheep away," called the bonders, "then you come to
+land with us.  We will not make you pay for the sheep you have eaten,
+and we will do you no harm."
+
+"Well offered," answered Grettir; "but he who takes keeps hold; and a
+bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.  Believe me, I will not leave
+this island till the time of my outlawry is expired, unless I be carried
+from it dead."
+
+The bonders were silenced, it seemed to them that they had got an ugly
+customer on Drangey, to get rid of whom would be no easy matter; so they
+rowed home, very ill-satisfied with the result of their expedition.
+
+The news spread like wildfire, and was talked about all through the
+neighbourhood.  Thorir of Garth was the more embittered, because he
+could see no way in which Grettir could be reached and overmastered in
+this inaccessible spot.
+
+
+
+
+                            *CHAPTER XXXVI.*
+
+                      *OF GRETTIR ON HERON-NESS.*
+
+
+    _Grettir goes to Heron-ness--At the Games--The Hook's
+    Challenge--Amongst Strangers--The Oath of Safe-conduct--An old
+    Formula--A Surprise for the Bonders--Regretting the Oath--The
+    two Brothers--Grettir returns to Drangey_
+
+
+Winter passed, and at the beginning of summer the whole district met at
+an assize held on the Herons'-ness, a headland in the Skaga-firth,
+between the rivers that discharge into the fiord. It is, in fact, the
+seaward point of a large island in the delta of the river that divides
+about eight miles higher up, inland.  The gathering was thronged, and
+the litigations and merry-makings made the assize last over many days.
+Grettir guessed what was going on by seeing a number of boats pass to
+the head of the fiord.  He became restless, and at last announced to his
+brother that he intended being present at the assize, cost what it
+might.  Illugi thought it was sheer madness, but Grettir was resolute.
+He begged his brother and Glaum to watch the ladder and await his
+return.
+
+Now, Grettir was on very good terms with the farmer at Reykir, and with
+some others on that side of the firth, and they were not unwilling to
+help him.  Sometimes his mother sent things to the brothers that she
+thought they would need, and then there were not wanting men to take
+these over to the island.  So Grettir got put across by his friend
+Thorwald to the mainland, and he borrowed of him a set of old clothes,
+and thus attired he went along the coast boldly to Heron-ness.  He had
+on a fur cap, which was drawn closely over his eyes, and concealed his
+face, so that no one might recognize him.  Now, in parts of Iceland, the
+flies are such torments that men have to wear literally cloth helmets,
+with only nose and eyes showing, the cloth fitting tight to the head,
+and round over the ears and neck, exactly like a helmet, or a German
+knitted sledging cap.  When I was in Iceland, when the flies were
+troublesome, I put my head into a butterfly net, and buckled it round my
+neck tightly with a leather strap.  Now, Grettir's cap was something
+like those I have described, and no one was surprised at his wearing it,
+as the whole of that valley is one vast marsh, and is infested with
+flies that blacken the air and madden men and beasts.
+
+Grettir thus attired sauntered between the booths erected on the
+headland, till he reached the spot where games were going on.
+
+Now, Hialti and Thorbiorn Hook were the chief men in these sports.  Hook
+was specially noisy and boisterous, and drove men together to the
+sports, and whether men liked it or not, he insisted on their
+attendance.  He would take this man and that by the hands and drag him
+forth to the field, where the wrestling and other games went on.
+
+Now, first wrestled those who were weakest, and then each man in turn,
+and great fun there was. But when most men had tried their strength
+except the very strongest, it was asked who would be a match for Hialti
+and The Hook.  These two being the strongest and the roughest of all,
+went round inviting each man in turn to wrestle with them, but all
+declined.
+
+Then Thorbiorn Hook, looking round, spied a tall fellow in the shabbiest
+and quaintest of suits, sitting by himself, speaking to no one.
+Thorbiorn walked up to him, laid his hands on his shoulders and asked
+him to wrestle.
+
+The man sat still, and The Hook could not drag him from his seat.
+
+"Well!" exclaimed The Hook, "no one else has kept his place before me
+to-day.  Who are you?"
+
+"Guest," answered Grettir shortly.
+
+"A wished-for guest thou wilt be, if thou furnish some entertainment to
+the company," said Thorbiorn Hook.
+
+Grettir answered, "I am indisposed to make a fool of myself before
+strangers.  How am I to know, supposing that I give you a fall, that I
+shall not be set upon by you or your kindred, and be unfairly treated?"
+
+Then many exclaimed that there should be fair play.
+
+"It is all very well your saying Fair-play now; but will you say
+Fair-play, and stick to it, supposing I get the better of this man.  You
+are all akin, or friends, and I am a stranger to you all."
+
+Again he was assured that no one would resent what he did.
+
+"But see," said Grettir, "I have not wrestled for many years, and have
+lost all skill in the matter."
+
+Yet they pressed him the more.
+
+Then he said, "I will wrestle with whom you will, if you will swear to
+show me no violence so long as I am among you as a guest."
+
+This all agreed to, and an oath of safe conduct was made, the form of
+which is so curious that it must be given.
+
+A man named Hafr recited the terms of the oath, and the rest agreed to
+it.
+
+"Here set I peace among all men towards this man Guest, who sits before
+us, and in this oath I bind all magistrates and well-to-do bonders, and
+all men who bear swords, and all men whatsoever in this district,
+present or absent, named or unnamed. These are to show peace to, and
+give free passage to the aforenamed stranger, that he may sport,
+wrestle, make merry, abide with us and depart from us, without stay,
+whether he go by land or flood. He shall have peace where he is, in all
+places where he may be till he reaches his house whence he set out, so
+long and no longer.
+
+"I set this treaty of peace between him and us, our kinsmen male and
+female, our servants and children.  May the breaker of this compact be
+cast out of the favour of God and good men, out of his heavenly
+inheritance and the society of just men and angels.  May he be an
+outcast from land to its farthest limits, far as men chase wolves, as
+Christians frequent churches, as heathen men offer sacrifices, as flame
+burns, earth produces herb, as baby calls its mother, and mother rocks
+her child; far as fire is kindled, ships glide, lightnings flicker, sun
+shines, snow lies, Finns slide on snow-shoes, fir-trees grow, falcons
+fly on a spring day with a breeze under their wings; far as heaven
+bends, earth is peopled, winds sweep the water into waves, churls till
+corn; he shall be banished from churches and the company of Christian
+men, from heathen folk, from house and den, from every house--save hell!
+Now let us be agreed whether we be on mountain or shore, on ship or
+skate, on ground or glacier, at sea or in saddle, as friend with friend,
+as brother with brother, as father with son, in this our compact.  Lay
+we now hand to hand, and hold we true peace and keep every word of this
+oath."
+
+Now, this formula is very curious.  It must have been brought by the
+Icelandic settlers with them from Norway, for parts of it are
+inappropriate to their land.  There are no Finns there, nor do fir-trees
+grow there, nor is any corn tilled.  But all that about Christians is of
+later origin.
+
+After a little hesitation the oath was taken by all.
+
+Then said Grettir, "You have done well, only beware of breaking your
+oath.  I am ready to do my part, without delay, to fulfil your wishes."
+
+Thereupon he flung aside his hood and garments, and the assembled
+bonders looked at each other, and were disconcerted, for they saw that
+they had in their midst Grettir Asmund's son.  They were silent, and
+thought that they had taken the oath somewhat unadvisedly, and they
+whispered the one into another, to find if there were not some loophole
+by which they might evade the obligation to observe the oath.
+
+"Come now," said Grettir, "let me know your purpose, for I shall not
+long stand stripped.  It will be worse for you than for me if you break
+your oath, for it will go down in story to the end of time that the men
+of Heron-ness swore and were perjured."
+
+He received no answer.  The chiefs moved away; some wanted to break the
+truce, and argued that an oath taken to an outlaw was not legally
+binding; others insisted that the oath must be observed. Then Grettir
+sang:
+
+    "Many trees-of-wealth (_men_) this morn,
+    Failed the well-known well to know,
+    Two ways turn the sea-flame-branches (_men_),
+    When a trick on them is tried;
+    Falter folk in oath fulfilling,
+    Hafr's talking lips are dumb."
+
+
+Then Tongue-stone said, "You think so, do you, Grettir?  Well, I will
+say this of you, you are a man of dauntless courage.  Look how the
+chiefs are deep in discussion how to deal with you."
+
+Then Grettir sang:
+
+    "Shield-lifters (_men_) rubbing of noses,
+    Shield-tempest-senders (men) shake beards,
+    Fierce-hearted serpent's-lair-scatterers (_men_),
+    Lay their heads one 'gainst another,
+    Now that they know, are regretting
+    The peace they have sworn to to-day."
+
+
+In these staves a number of periphrases for men or warriors are
+used--and the use of these periphrases constitute the charm of these
+verses.
+
+Then Hialti of Hof burst away from the rest, and said, "No, never, never
+shall it be said of us men of Heron-ness, that we have broken an oath
+because we have found it inconvenient to keep it.  Grettir shall be at
+full liberty to go to his place in peace, and woe betide him who lays
+hand on him, to do him an injury.  But an oath no longer binds us should
+he venture ashore again."
+
+All except Thorbiorn Hook, Hialti's brother, agreed to this, and felt
+their minds and consciences relieved, that he had spoken out as a man of
+honour.  And thus was seen how of those two brothers, rude and violent
+though both were, Hialti had some nobleness in him that was lacking in
+the other.
+
+The wrestling began by Grettir being matched with Thorbiorn Hook, and
+after a very brief struggle Grettir freed himself from his antagonist,
+leaped over his back, caught him by the belt, lifted him off his legs,
+and flung him over his back.  This is a throw called "showing the white
+mare," among Cornish wrestlers of the present day, and a very dangerous
+throw it is, for it sometimes breaks the back of the man thrown.  The
+Hook, however, picked himself up, and the wrestling continued with
+unabated vigour, and it was impossible to tell which side had the
+mastery, for, though Grettir was matched against both brothers, and
+after each bout with one brother fell to with the other, he was never
+thrown down. After all three were covered with blood and bruises the
+match was closed, the judges deciding that the two brothers conjointly
+were not stronger than Grettir alone, though they were each of them as
+powerful as two ordinary able-bodied men.
+
+Grettir at once left the place of gathering, rejecting all the
+entreaties of the farmers that he would leave Drangey.  And, so, after
+all but The Hook had thanked him for his wrestling and praised his
+activity and strength, he departed.  He was put across from Reykir to
+his island, and was received with open arms by Illugi.
+
+There now they abode peaceably, and Grettir told his brother and his
+churl Glaum the story of what had taken place at the assize, and thus
+the summer wore away.
+
+There was much talk through the island of Iceland about this adventure,
+and all good men approved the conduct of the men of the Skagafiord that
+they had kept the oath they had so inconsiderately taken.
+
+
+
+
+                           *CHAPTER XXXVII.*
+
+                          *OF HOERING'S LEAP.*
+
+
+    _The Piebald Ram--In want of Fire--Not born to be
+    Drowned--Thorwald aids Grettir--A Stratagem--Hoering climbs the
+    Cliff--Hoering's Leap_
+
+
+The smaller farmers began seriously to feel their want of the islet
+Drangey for pasture in summer, and, as there seemed no chance of their
+getting rid of Grettir, they sold their rights to Thorbiorn Hook, who
+set himself in earnest to devise a plan by which he might possess
+himself of the island.
+
+When Grettir had been two winters on the island, he had eaten all the
+sheep except one piebald ram, with magnificent horns, which became so
+tame that he ran after them wherever they went, and in the evening came
+to the hut Grettir had erected and butted at the door till let in.
+
+The brothers liked this place of exile, as there was no dearth of eggs
+and birds, besides which, some drift-wood was thrown upon the strand,
+and served as fuel.
+
+Grettir and Illugi spent their days in clambering among the rocks, and
+rifling nests, and the occupation of the thrall was to collect drift
+timber and keep up the fire in the hut.  He was expected to remain awake
+and watch the fire whilst the others slept. He got very tired of his
+life on the islet, became idle, morose, and reserved.  One night,
+notwithstanding Grettir's warnings to him to be more careful, as they
+had no boat, he let the fire go out. Grettir was very angry, and told
+Glaum that he deserved a sound thrashing for his neglect.  The thrall
+replied that he loathed the life he led; and that it seemed it was not
+enough to Grettir that he should keep him there as a prisoner, he must
+also maltreat him.
+
+Grettir consulted his brother what was best to be done, and Illugi
+replied that the only thing that could be done was to await the arrival
+of a boat from the friendly farmer at Reykir.
+
+"We shall have to wait long enough for that," said Grettir.  "The
+bonders have taken it ill that he has favoured us, and he is now
+unwilling to be seen visiting Drangey.  The only chance is for me to
+swim ashore and secure a light."
+
+"Do not attempt that!" exclaimed Illugi.  "That is what you did in
+Norway, and that led to all your misfortune."
+
+"This case is different," answered Grettir.  "Then I brought fire for
+ill-conditioned men, now it is for ourselves.  Then I knew not who was
+on the other side, but now I can get the fire for the asking from
+Thorwald."
+
+"But the distance is so great!" remonstrated Illugi.
+
+"Do not fear for me," said Grettir; "I was not born to be drowned."
+
+From Drangey to Reykir is, as already said, about five English miles.
+
+Grettir prepared for swimming, by dressing in loose thin drawers and a
+sealskin hood; he tied his fingers together, that they might offer more
+resistance to the water when he struck out.
+
+The day was fine and warm.  Grettir started in the evening, when the
+tide was in his favour, setting in; and his brother anxiously watched
+him from the rocks.  At sunset he reached the land, after having floated
+and swum the whole distance.  Immediately on coming ashore, he went to
+the warm spring and bathed in it, before entering the house.  The hall
+door was open, and Grettir stepped in.  A large fire had been burning on
+the hearth, so that the room was very warm; Grettir was so thoroughly
+exhausted that he lay down beside the hot embers, and was soon fast
+asleep.  In the morning he was found by the farmer's daughter, who gave
+him a bowl of milk, and brought her father to him.  Thorwald furnished
+him with fire, and rowed him back to the island, astonished beyond
+measure at his achievement, in having swum such a distance.
+
+Now, the farmers on the Skagafiord began to taunt Thorbiorn Hook with
+his unprofitable purchase of the island, and Hook was greatly irritated
+and perplexed what to do.
+
+During the summer, a ship arrived in the firth, the captain of which was
+a young and active man called Hoering.  He lodged with Thorbiorn Hook
+during the autumn, and was continually urging his host to row him out to
+Drangey, that he might try to climb the precipitous sides of the island.
+The Hook required very little pressing; and one fine afternoon he rowed
+his guest out to Drangey, and put him stealthily ashore, without
+attracting the notice of those on the height.  For in some places the
+cliffs overhung, so that a boat passing beneath could not be seen from
+above.  Now Hoering had lain in the bottom of the boat, covered with a
+piece of sailcloth, so that the brothers saw nothing of him as the boat
+was approaching the islet.
+
+They saw and recognized Thorbiorn Hook and his churls, and at once drew
+up the ladder.  Now it was whilst they were watching at the
+landing-place that Thorbiorn put Hoering out on another point, where the
+cliffs seemed possible to be climbed by a very skilful man, and then
+came on to the usual landing place, and there shouted to Grettir.
+Grettir replied, and then Thorbiorn began the usual arguments to
+persuade the outlaw to leave the isle.  He promised to give him shelter
+in his house the winter, if he would do so.  All was in vain.  What he
+sought was to divert Grettir's attention so as to allow time and
+occasion for Hoering to climb the cliffs unobserved and unresisted.
+
+The discussion went on but led to nothing.  In the meantime Hoering had
+managed most cleverly to get up by a way never ascended by man before or
+after; and when he came to the top and had his feet on the turf, he saw
+where the brothers stood with their backs turned towards him, and he
+thought that now an opportunity had come for him to make himself a great
+name.  Grettir suspected nothing, and continued talking to Thorbiorn,
+who was getting, or feigning to get, angry, and used big and violent
+words.
+
+Now, as luck would have it, Illugi chanced to turn his head, and he saw
+a man approaching from behind.
+
+Then he cried out, "Brother!  Brother!  Here comes a man at us with
+uplifted axe!"
+
+"You go after him," said Grettir.  "I will watch at the ladder."
+
+So Illugi started to his feet and went to meet Hoering, and when the
+young merchant saw that he was discovered, he fled away across the
+islet, and Illugi went after him.  And when Hoering came to the edge he
+leaped down, hoping to fall into the sea; but he had missed his
+reckoning, and he went upon some skerries over which the waves tossed,
+and broke every bone in his body, and so ended his life.  The spot is
+called Hoering's Leap to this day.
+
+Illugi came back, and Grettir asked him what had been the end of the
+encounter.  Illugi told him.
+
+"Now, Thorbiorn," shouted Grettir; "we have had enough of profitless
+talk.  Go round to the other side of the island and gather up the
+remains of your friend."
+
+The Hook pushed off from the strand and returned home, ill pleased with
+the result of the expedition, and Grettir remained unmolested on Drangey
+the ensuing winter.
+
+
+
+
+                           *CHAPTER XXXVIII.*
+
+              *OF THE ATTEMPT MADE BY GRETTIR's FRIENDS.*
+
+
+    _The New Law-man--The Outlawry almost at an End_
+
+
+The ensuing summer, that is to say, the summer of 1031, at the great
+annual assize at Thingvalla, all Grettir's kin and friends brought up
+the matter of outlawry, and contended that he ought to have his sentence
+done away with.  They said that no man could be an outlaw all his life,
+that was not a condition contemplated by their laws.  They said that he
+had been outlawed first in 1011 for the slaying of Skeggi, and that he
+had been in outlawry ever since, which made nineteen years.
+
+The old law-man was dead, and now there was another at the assize, whose
+name was Stein.  He laid down that no man might by law be in outlawry
+more than twenty years.  Now, when they came to reckon since 1011 it was
+nineteen years.  It was true that he had been outlawed thrice, once for
+Skeggi, then by King Olaf, and lastly by the court for the burning of
+the sons of Thorir of Garth, still--the fact remained that for nineteen
+years he had been an outlaw, and Stein laid down that by next assize,
+that is to say in one year, his outlawry would have expired.
+
+Thereat Grettir's kinsfolk were pleased, for they thought that he would
+only have to spend one winter more on Drangey, and afterwards his
+troubles would be at an end; Thorir of Garth and his other foes could no
+more pursue him, and the price set on his head would fall away.
+
+But on the other hand, Thorir of Garth, who had not become more
+charitable and forgiving as he grew old, became still more incensed and
+impatient to have Grettir killed before this year would expire, also
+Thorbiorn Hook cast about how he might be avenged for the deprivation of
+his rights over Drangey.  The men who had sold their claims came to
+Thorbiorn, and told him he must do one of two things: get rid of Grettir
+and assert his rights by turning out sheep on the islet, or they would
+regard the sale as quashed, by his non-usance of the pasture, and they
+would reclaim their shares of the island as soon as Grettir's outlawry
+was at an end, and he left the place.
+
+
+
+
+                            *CHAPTER XXXIX.*
+
+                           *OF THE OLD HAG.*
+
+
+    _The Hook's Foster-mother--The Hag's Request--The Witch in the
+    Boat--The Hag's Dooming--An Unlucky Throw--Working Bane--The
+    Magic Runes_
+
+
+Now it was so, that Thorbiorn Hook had a foster-mother, a woman advanced
+in age, and of a very malicious disposition.  When the people of Iceland
+accepted Christianity, she, in her heart, remained a heathen, and would
+not be baptized and have anything to do with the new religion.  She had
+always been reckoned a witch, but with the introduction of Christianity
+witchcraft had been made illegal, and anyone who had recourse to sorcery
+was severely dealt with.  The old woman had not forgotten her
+incantations and strange ceremonies, whereby she thought to be able to
+conjure the spirits of evil, and send ill on such as offended her.
+
+When Thorbiorn Hook found that he could contrive in no way to get
+Grettir out of Drangey, and when he saw that if his expulsion were
+delayed, and Grettir left of his own accord, he would forfeit the money
+he had paid for the rights of pasturage on the island, he went to his
+foster-mother, and told her his difficulty, and pretty plainly let her
+understand that as he could get help nowhere else, he did not mind
+having recourse to the black art.
+
+"Ah!" cackled she, "I see how it is, when all else fails, man's arms and
+man's wit, then you come to the bed-ridden crone and seek her aid.
+Well, I will assist you to the best of my power, on one condition, and
+that is, that you obey me without questioning."
+
+The Hook agreed to what she said, and so all rested till August without
+the matter being again alluded to.
+
+Then one beautiful day the hag said to Thorbiorn, "Foster-son, the sea
+is calm and the sky bright, what say you to our rowing over to Drangey
+and stirring up the old strife with Grettir?  I will go with you and
+hear what he says, then I shall be able to judge what fate lies before
+him, and I can death-doom him accordingly."
+
+The Hook answered, "It is waste of labour going out to Drangey.  I have
+been there several times and never return better off than when I went."
+
+"You promised to obey me without questioning," said the crone.  "Follow
+my advice and all will be well for you and ill for Grettir."
+
+"I will do as you bid me, foster-mother," said Thorbiorn, "though I had
+sworn not to go back to Drangey till I was sure I could work the bane of
+Grettir."
+
+"That man is not laid low hastily, and patience is needed; but his time
+will come, and may be close at hand.  What the end of this visit will be
+I cannot say.  It is hid from me, but I know very well that it will lead
+to his or to your destruction."
+
+Thorbiorn ran out a long boat, and entered it with twelve men.  The hag
+sat in the bows coiled up amongst rugs and wadmal.  When they reached
+the island, at once Grettir and Illugi ran to the ladder, and Thorbiorn
+again asked if Grettir would come to his house for the winter.
+
+Grettir made the same reply as before, "Do what you will, in this spot I
+await my fate."
+
+Now Thorbiorn saw that this expedition also was likely to be resultless,
+and he became very angry. "I see," he said, "that I have to do with an
+ill-conditioned churl, who does not know how to accept a good offer when
+made.  I shall not come here again with such an offer."
+
+"That pleases me well," said Grettir, "for you and I are not like to
+come to terms that will satisfy both."
+
+At that moment the hag began to wriggle out of her wraps in the bows.
+Grettir had not perceived her hitherto.  Now she screamed out, "These
+men may be strong, but their strength is ebbing.  They may have had
+luck, but luck has left.  See what a difference there is between men.
+Thorbiorn makes good offers, and such they blindly, foolishly reject.
+Those who are blinded and cast away chances do not have chances come to
+them again.  And now Grettir"--she raised her withered arms over her
+head--"I doom you to all ill, I doom you to loss of health, to loss of
+wisdom and of foresight.  I doom you to decline and to death.  I doom
+your blood to fester, and your brain to be clouded.  I doom your marrow
+to curdle and chill.  Henceforth, so is my doom, all good things will
+wane from you, and all evil things will wax and overwhelm you.  So be
+it."  As she spoke a shudder ran over Grettir's limbs, and he asked who
+that imp was in the boat.  Illugi told him he fancied it must be that
+old heathen woman, the foster-mother of Thorbiorn Hook.
+
+"Since the powers of evil are with our foes," said Grettir, "how may we
+oppose them?  Never before has anything so shaken me with presentiment
+of evil as have the curses of this witch.  But she shall have a reminder
+of her visit to Drangey."
+
+Thereupon he snatched up a large stone and threw it at the boat, and it
+fell on the bundle of rags, in the midst of which lay the old hag.  As
+it struck there rose a wild shriek from the witch, for the stone had hit
+and broken her leg.
+
+"Brother!" exclaimed Illugi, "you should not have done this."
+
+"Blame me not," answered Grettir gloomily.  "It had been well had the
+stone fallen on her head.  But I trow the working of her curse is begun,
+and what I have done has been because my understanding and wit are
+already clouded."
+
+On the return of Thorbiorn to the mainland the crone was put to bed, and
+The Hook was less pleased than ever with his trip to the island.  His
+foster-mother, however, consoled him.
+
+"Do not be discouraged," she said.  "Now is come the turning-point of
+Grettir's fortunes, and his luck will leave him more and more as the
+light dies away up to Yule.  But the light dies and comes again.  With
+Grettir it will not be so, it will die, and die, till it goes out in
+endless night."
+
+"You are a confident woman, foster-mother," said Thorbiorn.
+
+When a month had elapsed, the old woman was able to leave her bed, and
+to limp across the room.
+
+One day she asked to be led down to the beach. Thorbiorn gave her his
+arm, and she had her crutch, and she hobbled down to where the water was
+lapping on the shingle.  And there, just washed up on the beach, lay a
+log of drift-timber, just large enough for a man to carry upon his
+shoulder.  Then she gave command that the log should be rolled over and
+over that she might examine each side.  The log on one side seemed to
+have been charred, and she sent to the house for a plane, and had the
+burnt wood smoothed away.
+
+When that was done she dismissed every one save her foster-son, and then
+with a long knife she cut runes on the wood where it had been
+planed--that is to say, words written in the peculiar characters made of
+strokes which Odin was supposed to have invented.  Then she cut herself
+on the arm, and smeared the letters she had cut with her blood. After
+that she rose and began to leap and dance, screaming a wild spell round
+the log, making the most strange and uncouth contortions, and waving her
+crutch in the air, making with it mysterious signs over the log.
+Presently, when the incantation was over, she ordered the log to be
+rolled back into the sea.  The tide was now ebbing, and with the tide
+the log went out to sea further and further from land till Thorbiorn saw
+it no more.
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER XL.*
+
+                     *HOW THE LOG CAME TO DRANGEY.*
+
+
+    _Food for the Winter--Cast up by the Sea--The Log comes back
+    again--The Worst is come--An ugly Wound--The Hag's
+    Revenge--Grettir sings his Great Deeds--Presage of Evil_
+
+
+In the meantime Grettir, Illugi, and the churl Glaum were on Drangey
+catching fish and fowl for winter supplies.  The fish in Iceland are
+beaten hard with stones and then dried in the wind, that makes them like
+leather; but it preserves them for a very long time, and they form the
+staple of food, as the people have no corn, and consequently no bread.
+They put butter on these dry fish, and tear them with their teeth.  What
+Grettir did with the fowl he caught was to pickle them with salt water
+from the sea, and when the frost and snow came on then he would take
+them out of pickle and freeze them.  Now, the whole of the sheep had
+been eaten some time ago, except the old mottled ram, which Grettir
+could not find in his heart to kill; and, as may be supposed, he and his
+brother suffered from want of change of food.  Especially deficient were
+they in any green food; and we know, though he did not, that the eating
+of green food is a very essential element of health.  He had nothing for
+consumption but salted birds and dried fish--no milk, no bread, no
+vegetables.  Such a diet was certain to disorder his health.
+
+The day after that on which the hag had charmed the piece of timber, the
+two brothers were walking on the little strand to the west of the island
+looking for drift-wood.
+
+"Here is a fine beam!" exclaimed Illugi.  "Help me to lift it on to my
+shoulder, and I will carry it up the ladder."
+
+Grettir spurned the log with his foot, saying, "I do not like the looks
+of it, Little brother.  Runes are cut on it, and what they portend I do
+not know. There may be written there something that may bring ill.  Who
+can tell but this log may have been sent with ill wishes against us."
+They set the log adrift, and Grettir warned his brother not to bring it
+to their fire.
+
+In the evening they returned to their cabin, and nothing was said about
+the log to Glaum.  Next day they found the same beam washed up not far
+from the foot of the ladder.  Grettir was dissatisfied, and again he
+thrust it from the shore, saying that he hoped they had seen the last of
+it, and that the stream and tide would catch it and waft it elsewhere.
+And now the equinoctial gales began to rage.  The fine Martinmas summer
+was over.  The weather changed to storm and rain; and so bad was it that
+the three men remained indoors till their supply of firewood was
+exhausted.
+
+Then Grettir ordered the thrall to search the shore for fuel.  Glaum
+started up with an angry remonstrance that the weather was not such as a
+dog should be turned out in, with unreason, not considering that a fire
+was as necessary to him as to his master.  He went to the ladder,
+crawled down it, and found the same beam cast at its very foot.
+
+Glad not to have to go far in his search, Glaum shouldered the log,
+crept up the ladder, bore it to the hut, and throwing open the door,
+cast it down in the midst.
+
+Grettir jumped up, "Well done," said he, "you have been quick in your
+quest."
+
+"Now I have brought it, you must chop it up," said Glaum.  "I have done
+my part."
+
+Grettir took his axe.  The fire was low and wanted replenishing, and
+without paying much attention to the log, he swung his axe and brought
+it down on the log.  But the wood was wet and greasy with sea-weed, and
+the axe slipped, glanced off the beam, and cut into Grettir's leg below
+the knee, on the shin, with such force that it stuck in the bone.
+
+Grettir looked at the beam; the fire leaped up, and by its light the
+runic inscription on it was visible.  Grettir at once saw evil.  "The
+worst is come upon us," he said sadly, as he cast the axe away, and
+threw himself down by the fire.  "This is the same log that I have twice
+rejected.  Glaum, you have done us two ill turns, first when you
+neglected the fire and let it go out, and now in that you have brought
+this beam to us.  Beware how you commit a third, for that I foresee will
+be your bane as well as ours."
+
+Illugi bound up his brother's wound with rag; there was but a slight
+flow of blood, but it was an ugly gash.  That night Grettir slept
+soundly.  For three days and nights he was without pain, and the wound
+seemed to be healing healthily, the skin to be forming over it.
+
+"My dear brother," said Illugi, "I do not think that this cut will
+trouble you long."
+
+"I hope not," answered Grettir.  "But none can see where a road leads
+till they have gone through to the end."
+
+On the fourth evening they laid them down to sleep as usual.  About
+midnight the lad, Illugi, awoke hearing Grettir tossing in his bed as
+though suffering.
+
+"Why are you so uneasy?" asked the boy.
+
+Grettir replied that he felt great pain in his leg, and he thought, he
+said, that some change must have taken place in the condition of the
+wound.
+
+Illugi at once blew up the embers on the hearth into a flame, and by its
+light examined his brother's leg.  He found that the foot was swollen
+and discoloured, and that the wound had reopened, and looked far more
+angry than he had seen it yet. Intense pain ensued, so that poor Grettir
+could not remain quiet for a moment, but tossed from side to side.  His
+cheeks were fevered, and his tongue parched.  He could obtain no sleep
+at all.
+
+Illugi never left him, he sat beside him holding his hand, or bringing
+him water to slake his unquenchable thirst.
+
+"The worst approaches, and there is no avoiding it," said Grettir.
+"This sickness is sent by the old witch in revenge for the stone I had
+cast at her."
+
+"I misliked the casting of that stone," said Illugi.
+
+"It was ill that it did not fall on her head," said Grettir.  "But what
+is done may not be undone."  Then he heaved himself up into a sitting
+posture and sang, supporting himself against his brother's shoulder, a
+lay, of which only fragments have come down to us.  A good deal of the
+lay refers to incidents in Grettir's life, of which no record remains in
+the saga, and many staves have fallen away and been lost.  So we give
+but a few verses:--
+
+    "I fought with the sword in the bye-gone day,
+      In the day when I was young;
+    When the Rovers I slew in old Norway,
+      The land with my action rung.
+
+    "I entered the grave of Karr the Old,
+      I rived his sword away;
+    I strove with the Troll at Thorod's-stead,
+      Before the break of day.
+
+    "With Thorbiorn Oxmain in the marsh
+      I fought, and his blood I shed;
+    Against Thorir of Garth have I stood in arms,
+      Who long would have me dead.
+
+    "For nineteen years, I a hunted man,
+      On mountain, on moor, and fen;
+    For nineteen years had to shun and flee
+      The face of my fellow men.
+
+    "For nineteen years all bitter to bear
+      Both hunger and cold and pain;
+    And never to know when I laid me down,
+      If I might awake again.
+
+    "And now do I lie with a burning eye,
+      As a wolf is fain to die;
+    Whilst the skies are dripping and ocean roars,
+      And the winds sob sadly by--"
+
+
+The song was probably composed before, as otherwise it is not easy to
+account for its preservation. His head was burning, his thoughts
+wandered, and he ceased singing.  He seemed to be dozing off.  But
+presently he started and shivered, and looked hastily about him.
+
+"Let us be cautious now," he said, "for Thorbiorn Hook will make another
+attempt.  To me it matters little--but to you, brother.  Glaum, watch
+the ladder by day, and draw it up at night.  Be a faithful servant, for
+now all depends on you.  Illugi will not leave me, so we are in your
+hands."
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER XLI.*
+
+                        *THE END OF THE OUTLAW.*
+
+
+    _The Shadow of Death--Thorbiorn and his Foster-mother--The Hook
+    sails for Drangey--Out in the Gale--The Unguarded Ladder--Glaum
+    is Captured--The Brothers' last Evening--Defending the
+    Hut--Grettir Wounded--Illugi Taken--The Notch in the
+    Sword--Illugi vows Vengeance--Death of Illugi_
+
+
+The weather became daily worse, and a fierce north-east wind raged over
+the country, bearing with it cold and sleet, and covering the fells with
+the first snows of winter.  Grettir inquired every night if the ladder
+had been drawn up, according to order.  Glaum answered churlishly, "How
+can you expect folk to live out in such a storm as this?  Do you think
+they are so eager to kill you that they will jeopardize their lives in
+trying to do this?  It is easy to see that a little cut was all that
+lacked to let your courage leak out."
+
+Grettir answered, "Go! and do not argue with us; guard the ladder as you
+have been bidden!"
+
+So Illugi drove the churl from the hut every morning, notwithstanding
+his angry remonstrances; and Glaum was in the worst of humours.
+
+The pain became more acute, and the whole leg inflamed and swollen,
+signs of mortification appeared, and wounds opened in different parts of
+the limb, so that Grettir felt that the shadow of death hung over him.
+Illugi sat night and day with his brother's head on his shoulder,
+bathing his forehead, and doing his utmost to console the fleeting
+spirit. A week had elapsed since the wound had been made.
+
+Now, Thorbiorn Hook was at home, ill-pleased at the failure of all his
+schemes for dispossessing Grettir of the island.
+
+One day his foster-mother came to him, and asked whether he were ready
+now to pay his final visit to the outlaw?
+
+Thorbiorn replied that he had paid quite as many visits to him as he
+liked, and that he should not go to Drangey again till Grettir left it;
+and then, with a sneer he asked his foster-mother whether she wanted to
+have her second leg broken, and was not satisfied with the fracture of
+one.
+
+"I will not go to Drangey myself," answered the old woman.  "That is
+unnecessary.  I have sent him my salutation, and by this he has received
+it.  Speed away now to Drangey, and find how he relishes my message.
+But I warn you, you must go now or you will be too late."
+
+Thorbiorn would not listen; he said that her advice last time had led to
+no advantage when he followed it, and that the weather was too bad to go
+out in.
+
+"You need go but this once," said the crone. "The storm is of my
+sending, and is sent to work my ends."
+
+Finally he allowed himself to be persuaded.  So he got together men, and
+asked his neighbours to help him; and a large vessel was manned.  That
+is to say, the other farmers consented to lend him men, but none of them
+would accompany him themselves.  The Hook took twelve of his own men;
+his brother, Hialti, lent him three; Erick of Gooddale sent one man;
+Tongue-stone furnished him with two; another, named Halldor, let him
+have six.  Of all these, the only two whose name need be mentioned are
+Karr and Vikarr.
+
+Thorbiorn got a large sailing-boat for his purpose, and started from
+Heron-ness.  None of the men were in good spirits, as the weather was
+bad; moreover, they had no liking for their leader.  By dusk the boat
+was afloat, the sail spread, and they ran out to sea.  As the wind was
+from the north-east, they were under the lee of the high cliffs, and
+were not exposed to the full violence of the storm.
+
+Heavy scuds of rain and sleet swept the fiord; the sky was overcast with
+whirling masses of vapour, charged with snow, and beneath their shadow
+the waters of the firth were black as ink.  For one moment the clouds
+were parted by the storm, the rowers looked up, and saw the heavens
+tinged with the crimson rays of the northern light.  A flame ran along
+the cordage, and finally settled on the masthead of the vessel, swaying
+and dancing with the motion of the boat.  It was that electric spark,
+which is called in the Mediterranean S. Elmo's fire.
+
+A line of white foam marked the base of Drangey; and now and then a
+great wave from the mouth of the fiord boomed against the crags, and
+shot in spouts of foam high into the air.  Along the western shore of
+the firth, which was exposed to the full brunt of the gale, the mighty
+billows were beaten into white yeasty heaps of water.  From the top of
+Drangey one tiny spark shone from the window of the hovel where lay the
+dying outlaw.
+
+Now let us look again at Grettir.
+
+He had been in less pain that day.  Illugi had not left him, but
+remained faithful at his post.
+
+The thrall, Glaum, had been sent out as usual to collect fuel and to
+watch the ladder, and to draw it up at nightfall.  But instead of doing
+as he was bidden, the fellow laid himself down at the head of the steps,
+under a shelter-hut of turf that had been there erected, and went to
+sleep.
+
+When Thorbiorn and his party reached the shore, they found to their
+content that the ladder had not been removed.
+
+"Good luck attends on those who wait," said The Hook "Now, my fellows!
+the journey will not prove as bootless as you expected.  Up the ladder
+with you! and let us all be cautious and bold!"
+
+So they ascended, one after the other, The Hook taking the lead.  On
+reaching the top he looked into the shelter-hut, and there found Glaum,
+asleep and snoring.  Thorbiorn struck him over the shoulders, and asked
+him who he was.
+
+Glaum turned on his side, rubbed his eyes, and growled forth, "Can you
+not leave a poor wretch alone?  Never was a man so ill-treated as am I.
+I may not even sleep out here in the cold."
+
+The Hook then knew who this was.  "Fool!" shouted he.  "Look up, and see
+who are come.  We are your foes, and intend to kill every one of you."
+
+Glaum started now to his feet full awake, and shrieked with dismay when
+he saw the black figures crowding up from the ladder and surrounding
+him.
+
+"Make no noise," said Thorbiorn Hook.  "I give you the choice of two
+things; answer the questions I put to you truthfully, or die at once."
+
+The churl answered sullenly that he would speak, and he had nothing to
+conceal.
+
+"Then tell me where the brothers are?"
+
+"In the hovel I left them, where there is a fire. Not out in the cold.
+Grettir is sick and nigh on death, and Illugi is with him."
+
+The Hook asked for particulars, and then Glaum told him about the log,
+and how Grettir was wounded.  Thereat the Hook burst out laughing, and
+said, "Woe to the man that leans on a churl! That is a true proverb.
+Shamefully have you betrayed your trust, Glaum."
+
+Thereupon Glaum was dragged along to the cabin where Grettir lay, and
+they treated him so roughly, that what with their blows and what with
+fear, he was nearly senseless when he reached it.
+
+Illugi had been sitting by the fire with his brother's head in his lap,
+whilst Grettir lay in some sheepskins beside the hearth.  All that
+evening the sick man's eyes had been wandering about the roof, watching
+the light play among the rafters, as the firewood blazed up or
+smouldered away.  Illugi saw that his fingers plucked at the wool of the
+sheep-skins, riving it out, and that he knew was a bad sign.  He felt
+sure that Grettir would die that night, and he watched his face
+intently, and could not bear to withdraw his eyes from him, for he loved
+him dearly. Presently Grettir turned his head, and smiled when he saw
+how he was watching him, and said that he felt easier, and would sleep.
+In a few moments his eyes closed.
+
+As he dozed, his face became calmer than Illugi had seen it before; the
+muscles relaxed, and the wrinkles furrowed in his brow by care and
+suffering were now smoothed quite away.  Grettir's face was never
+handsome, but it was grave and earnest, and the sorrow and trial he had
+passed through had left its trace on his features.  His breath now came
+more evenly in sleep.
+
+All at once there sounded a crash at the door, and the sleeper opened
+his eyes dreamily.
+
+"It is only the old ram, brother," said Illugi. "He is butting, because
+he wants to come in."
+
+"He butts hard! he butts hard!" muttered Grettir, and at that moment the
+door burst open.  They saw faces looking in.
+
+Illugi was on his feet in a moment.  He seized his sword, flew to the
+doorway and defended it bravely, so that no one could pass through.
+
+Thorbiorn called to some of the men to get upon the roof, and he was
+obeyed.  The hovel was low, and in a moment four or five were on top of
+it tearing off the turf that covered it.  Grettir tried to rise to his
+feet, but could only stagger to his knees. He seized his spear and drove
+it through the roof, so that it struck Karr in the breast, and the wound
+was his death.
+
+Thorbiorn Hook called to the men to act more warily--they were
+twenty-five in all against two men, and one dying.
+
+So the men pulled at the gable ends of the house and got the ridge-piece
+out, that it broke and fell, and with it a shower of turfs, into the
+hut.
+
+Grettir drew his short-sword--the sword he had taken from the barrow of
+Karr the Old--and smote at the men as they leaped upon him from the
+wall. With one blow he struck Vikarr over the left shoulder, as he was
+on the point of springing down. The sword cut off his arm.  But the blow
+was so violent, that Grettir, having dealt it, fell forward, and before
+he could raise himself Thorbiorn Hook struck him between the shoulders,
+and made a fearful wound.
+
+Then cried Grettir, "Bare is the back without brother behind it!" and
+instantly Illugi threw his shield over him, planted one foot on each
+side of him as he lay on the floor, and defended him with desperate
+courage.
+
+[Illustration: ILLUGI DEFENDS THE DYING GRETTIR.]
+
+The mist of death was in Grettir's eyes; he attempted in vain to raise
+himself, but sank again on the sheep-skins, which were now drenched in
+blood.
+
+No one could touch him, for the brave boy warded off every blow that was
+aimed at his brother.
+
+Then Thorbiorn Hook ordered his men to form a ring round and close in on
+them with their shields and with beams.  They did so, and Illugi was
+taken and bound; but not till he had wounded most of his opponents, and
+had killed three of Thorbiorn's men.
+
+"Never have I seen one braver of your age," said The Hook.  "I will say
+that you have fought well."
+
+Then they went to Grettir, who lay where he had fallen, unable to resist
+further, for he had lost consciousness.  They dealt him many a blow, but
+hardly any blood flowed from his wounds.  When all supposed he was dead,
+then Thorbiorn tried to disengage the sword from his cold fingers,
+saying that he considered Grettir had wielded it long enough.  But the
+strong man's hand was clenched around the handle so firmly that his
+enemy could not free the sword from his grasp.
+
+Several of the men came up, and tried to unweave the fingers, but were
+unable to do so.  Then the Hook said, "Why should we spare this wretched
+outlaw?  Off with his hand!"  And his men held down the arm whilst
+Thorbiorn hewed off the hand at the wrist with his axe.
+
+After that, standing over the body, and grasping the hilt of the sword
+in both hands, he smote at Grettir's head; the edge of the blade was
+notched by the blow.
+
+"Look!" laughed Thorbiorn.  "This notch will be famous in story for many
+generations; for men will point to it and say, 'This was made by
+Grettir's skull.'"  He struck twice and thrice at the outlaw's neck,
+till the head came off in his hands.
+
+"Now have I slain a notable man!" exclaimed Thorbiorn.  "I will take
+this head with me to land, and claim the price that was set on it; and
+none shall deny that it was my hand that slew that Grettir whom all else
+feared."
+
+The men present said he might say what he liked, but that they believed
+Grettir was already dead when he smote him.
+
+Thorbiorn now turned to Illugi, and said, "It is a pity that a brave lad
+like you should die, because you are associated with outlaws and
+evil-doers."
+
+"I tell you this," said Illugi, "that I will appear before you at the
+great assize, and there will charge you with having practised witchcraft
+to effect my brother's death."
+
+"You hearken to me, boy," said Thorbiorn.  "Put your hand to mine, and
+swear that you will not seek to avenge the death of your brother, and I
+will let you go; but if you will not take this oath, you shall die."
+
+"And hearken to me, Thorbiorn," said lllugi. "If I live, but one thought
+shall occupy my heart night and day, and that will be how I may best
+avenge my brother.  Now that you know what to expect of me--take what
+course you will."
+
+Thorbiorn drew his companions aside to ask their advice; but they
+shrugged their shoulders, and replied that, as he had planned the
+expedition, he must carry it out as he thought best.
+
+"Well," said The Hook, "I have no fancy for having the young viper lying
+in wait to sting me wherever I tread.  He shall die."
+
+Now, when Illugi knew that they had determined on slaying him, he smiled
+and said, "You have chosen that course which is best to my mind.  I do
+not desire to be parted from my brother."
+
+The day was breaking.  They led Illugi to the east side of the island,
+and there they slew him.
+
+It is told that they neither bound his eyes nor his hands, and that he
+looked fearlessly at them when they smote him, and neither changed
+colour nor even blinked.
+
+Then they buried the brothers beneath a cairn in the island, but they
+took the head of Grettir and bore it to land.  On the way they also slew
+the thrall Glaum.
+
+
+
+
+                            *CHAPTER XLII.*
+
+                     *HOW ASDIS RECEIVED THE NEWS.*
+
+
+    _A Charge of Witchcraft--A Heroic Mother--Thorbiorn's
+    Sentence--Burial of the Brothers_
+
+
+Had the old hag, Thorbiorn's foster-mother, any hand in the death of
+Grettir?  Certainly none. It was true that Grettir was wounded in the
+way described, by his own axe, but the condition of the wound was due to
+the scorbutic condition of his blood, through lack of green food.  This
+the Icelanders did not understand; they could not comprehend how a wound
+could seem to be healing well and then break out and mortify afterwards,
+and they supposed that this was due to witchcraft. Then, again,
+Grettir's kin could not take the case of Grettir's murder into court,
+because Thorbiorn had acted within the law when killing him; but by
+charging him with the practice of witchcraft they made him amenable to
+the law.  So, partly, no doubt, in good faith, they trumped up against
+Thorbiorn the accusation of having effected Grettir's death by
+witchcraft.
+
+Now, it must be told how that, one day after the slaying of Grettir,
+Thorbiorn Hook at the head of twenty armed men rode to Biarg, in the
+Midfirth-dale, with Grettir's head slung from his saddlebow. On reaching
+the house he dismounted and strode into the hall, where Grettir's mother
+was seated with a servant.  Thorbiorn threw her son's head at her feet,
+and said: "See!  I have been to the island and have prevailed."
+
+The lady sat proudly in her seat, and did not shed a tear; but lifting
+her voice in reply, she sang:
+
+    "Milk-sop--as timid sheep
+    Before a fox all cow'ring keep;
+    So did you--nor could prevail
+    So long as Grettir's strength was hale.
+    Woe is on the Northland side,
+    Nor can I my loathing hide!"
+
+
+After this The Hook returned home, and folk wondered at Asdis, saying
+that only a heroic mother could have had sons so heroic.  When Yule was
+over The Hook rode east away to Garth, and told Thorir what he had done,
+and claimed the money set on Grettir's head.
+
+But Thorir was crafty, and just as the Biarg folk sought a charge
+against Thorbiorn for his deed, so did Thorir, that he might escape
+having to pay the silver.  He answered, "I do not deny that I offered
+the money on Grettir's head, promising it to whomsoever should slay
+Grettir, but I will pay nothing to him who compassed his death by
+witchcraft; and if what the men who went with you say be true, you did
+not slay him with a sword, but hacked off his head after he was dead."
+
+This made Thorbiorn Hook very angry, and when summer came he brought his
+suit against Thorir for the money.  But simultaneously Grettir's kin
+brought a charge against Thorbiorn for having practised witchcraft.
+Also they had a summons against him for the slaying of Illugi.  Now, the
+case was tried, and hotly discussed, and it ended this way:--It was
+judged that Thorbiorn had struck off the head of a man who was already
+dead, and that he had brought about the death of that man by witchcraft;
+thereupon it was judged that he should receive nothing of the money, and
+that he should be outlawed from Iceland.
+
+So he went away and never returned.
+
+Now, Grettir and Illugi were brought to land, and their bones lie at
+Reykir, where was the friendly farmer who had helped them when they were
+at Drangey.  But Grettir's head was buried at Biarg. There is now no
+church or churchyard there, but there is a mound in the _t�n_ where his
+head is said to lie.  I obtained leave to dig there, and I examined the
+spot, but found only a great stone under the turf, and this we had not
+the appliances to move. And perhaps it was as well; for if Grettir's
+head be there, it were better that there it should rest undisturbed.
+
+
+
+
+                            *CHAPTER XLIII.*
+
+                      *HOW DROMUND KEPT HIS WORD.*
+
+
+    _Thorbiorn Hook in Norway--Dromund on Thorbiorn's Track--The
+    Varangians--Grettir's Sword--Grettir is Avenged_
+
+
+Now, after that Thorbiorn Hook had been outlawed, he found that he had
+gotten to himself no advantage, but great harm by what he had done upon
+Drangey.  He was forced to leave Iceland; and he saw, withal, that never
+again might he set foot therein again with safety, for all the relatives
+of the Biarg family would seek his life.  Accordingly he made over his
+farm at Woodwick to his brother Hialti, and also all his rights over the
+island of Drangey, such as they were.  Then he collected together what
+moveable goods he had, and went on board ship and sailed for Norway.
+
+On reaching Norway he bragged much of what he had done in having slain
+Grettir, of whom tales were told in Norway; and, as may well be
+understood, he told the tale of the slaying of Grettir in his own way,
+magnifying his heroism, and saying nothing about such matters as
+lessened the greatness of his deed.
+
+During the early winter tidings reached Thorstein Dromund at Tunsberg
+that his brother Grettir was dead, and also that the man who slew him
+was in the north of the country.  When Dromund heard the tidings he was
+very sorrowful, and he called to mind the words he had said to Grettir
+when they showed each other what sort of arms they had. Dromund
+considered that he was bound to avenge his brother's death on his
+murderer.
+
+Thorbiorn Hook also was aware that there was a half-brother of Grettir
+in Norway, and when he knew that he was wary, for he suspected that
+Dromund would seek his life.  And, indeed, Thorstein Dromund sent spies
+to watch Thorbiorn Hook; but the latter was so careful of himself that
+Dromund was not able to attempt anything against him all that winter.
+No sooner did the soft, warm, spring breezes begin to blow, than The
+Hook got away out of Norway by the earliest opportunity.  He had heard
+much talk how that the Emperors of the East, at Constantinople, kept a
+guard of Norsemen about them, and paid them well, and how that this
+guard was held in high esteem.  So Thorbiorn Hook considered he could
+not do better than go to Constantinople, and try his fortune there.  But
+before he left Norway he talked of his intention, and this was reported
+to Dromund at Tunsberg.  So Dromund put his lands and affairs into the
+hands of his kinsmen, and got ready for journeying in search of Hook,
+whom he had never seen.
+
+He sailed away after him, and wherever he came he made inquiries after
+the ship in which Thorbiorn Hook had been, and he was always just too
+late. He never could catch the ship up.  And then finally Thorbiorn left
+the vessel and journeyed overland, and Thorstein lost his traces.
+
+However, Dromund knew that Thorbiorn Hook was going to Constantinople,
+so he travelled thither also, and reached the imperial city.  Now there
+were a great many Norsemen and Icelanders there in the company called
+the Varangians, who acted as a bodyguard to the Emperor, and among these
+men were some twenty or more called Thorbiorn, and which among them was
+the murderer of Grettir, Thorstein Dromund did not know.  The Hook, as
+may well be imagined, did not tell anyone what his nickname was; not
+that he imagined he was pursued, but because it was not a pretty and
+flattering name. Thorstein also offered himself as a soldier in the
+guard, and was enrolled.  He also merely gave his name as Thorstein, and
+told no one of his nickname of Dromund, lest the man he pursued should
+take alarm and leave.
+
+So time passed, and Thorstein Dromund could not find out his man; and he
+lay awake in bed many nights musing on what he had undertaken, on the
+sad lot of Grettir, and on his ill-success in finding the murderer of
+his half-brother.  Now, it fell out that on a certain day the order came
+to the Varangian guard that they were to be ready, as they were about to
+be sent on an expedition of importance.
+
+It was usual, before any such an expedition, that all the men of the
+guard should burnish up their weapons and armour, and show them, that
+they were in condition.
+
+So was it on this occasion also.  They were assembled in the guard-room,
+and each produced his weapon.  Then Thorbiorn held forth his
+short-sword--the very weapon that Grettir had taken from the tomb of
+Karr the Old, the sword with which he The Hook had hewed off Grettir's
+head.
+
+Now, when Thorbiorn held forth the sword all the other guardsmen praised
+it, and said it was an excellent weapon; but it had one grievous
+blemish, for that there was a notch in the edge.
+
+"Oh!" laughed Thorbiorn, "that notch is no blemish at all.  It is a
+memorial of one of my greatest achievements."
+
+"What was that?" asked one of the Varangians.
+
+"With this sword," answered Thorbiorn, "I slew the man who was esteemed
+the greatest and most powerful champion of his time; a man who was in
+outlawry for twenty years, who had in his time fought and beaten off as
+many as thirty or forty who attacked him.  But I was too much for him.
+When I went against him, then he had to give way. We fought for an hour
+without flagging, and finally I smote him down.  Then I took from him
+his own sword, and with it I smote off his neck; and thus got the sword
+its notch."
+
+"And his name?" asked Thorstein Dromund.
+
+"His name was Grettir the Strong."
+
+There was a pause; and in that pause the sword was handed to Dromund for
+him to look at.
+
+"Thus is Grettir avenged!" suddenly exclaimed Dromund.  He struck across
+the table at Thorbiorn with Grettir's own sword; and so great was the
+stroke that it smote through his skull to the jaw-teeth, and The Hook
+fell without a word, dead.
+
+It was said, in after times, that Grettir was wonderful in his life, and
+wonderful in his death--for in life no man had been his equal in
+strength, and had had a sadder span of life; and in death he was
+wonderful--for of all Icelanders he was the only one who was avenged far
+away from home by the shores of the Bosphorus, in the City of the
+Emperors.
+
+
+
+
+                              *EPILOGUE.*
+
+
+    _Date of Grettir's Death--Mention of Grettir in other
+    Sagas--Historical Basis of the Grettir Story_
+
+
+In the Icelandic annals the death of Grettir is set down as having
+occurred in 1033, but the dates are not quite correct, and the real date
+should be 1031.
+
+Grettir is mentioned in other Icelandic sagas. He is spoken of and his
+pedigree given in the Landnama Book, the Icelandic Domesday, the most
+reliable book for history they have.  The persons spoken of in the saga
+of Grettir are heard of in several other quite independent sagas, and in
+no case is there any serious anachronism.
+
+Grettir, it will be recalled, was taken by the farmers in the Ice-firth.
+This incident is also related in the saga of the Foster-brothers; so is
+another incident about a contest concerning a dead whale I have not
+related, as likely to break the continuity of the history.  In the saga
+of Thord, the hero is said to have blessed the Middle-firth in these
+words: "Let the man who grows up in this vale never be hung."  And this
+blessing was thought to have had something to do with the saving of
+Grettir's neck in the Ice-firth.  The story of Gisli has been told whom
+Grettir whipped.  Now, in the Viga-styr saga, the most ancient of all
+Icelandic sagas, we hear of this same Gisli, and his character is
+painted in the same colours as in the saga of Grettir, but no mention is
+made of the whipping administered by Grettir.  The murder of Atli, the
+brother of our outlaw, and the consequent slaying of Thorbiorn Oxmain is
+spoken of in the saga of Bard.  The circumstance of Grettir having lived
+in a cave on the farm in Hit-dale is spoken of in the saga of Biorn. In
+the history of Grettir mention is made of the strife which took place
+between Biorn and Thord, but the full particulars of what is there
+alluded to casually are given in the saga of Biorn of Hit-dale. In our
+saga, Grettir is spoken of as meeting Bard wounded after a hard fight,
+in which he had avenged the death of his brother, but no particulars are
+given. In the saga of the Heath-fights we recover the whole story.  Thus
+one saga explains and supports another.
+
+It is therefore impossible to set down the story of Grettir as fabulous.
+It is historical; but the history has been somewhat embellished, partly
+by family vanity which led to the undue glorification of their hero, and
+partly by superstition which imagined the marvellous where all was
+really natural.
+
+
+
+                                THE END.
+
+
+
+
+                          Transcriber's note:
+
+    The source book's pages had variant headers.  These headers have
+    been collected into the introductory paragraph at the start of
+    each chapter.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GRETTIR THE OUTLAW ***
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+<title>GRETTIR THE OUTLAW</title>
+<link rel="coverpage" href="images/img-cover.jpg" />
+<meta name="DC.Creator" content="S. Baring-Gould" />
+<meta name="PG.Title" content="Grettir the Outlaw" />
+<meta name="DC.Language" content="en" />
+<meta name="PG.Producer" content="Al Haines" />
+<meta name="PG.Rights" content="Public Domain" />
+<meta name="MARCREL.ill" content="M. Zeno Diemer" />
+<meta name="DC.Created" content="1889" />
+<meta name="PG.Released" content="2015-03-31" />
+<meta name="PG.Id" content="48622" />
+<meta name="DC.Title" content="Grettir the Outlaw A Story of Iceland" />
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+<meta content="2015-04-01T04:32:48.197686+00:00" scheme="DCTERMS.W3CDTF" name="DCTERMS.modified" />
+<meta content="Project Gutenberg" name="DCTERMS.publisher" />
+<meta content="Public Domain in the USA." name="DCTERMS.rights" />
+<link href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/48622" rel="DCTERMS.isFormatOf" />
+<meta content="S. Baring-Gould" name="DCTERMS.creator" />
+<meta content="M. Zeno Diemer" name="MARCREL.ill" />
+<meta content="2015-03-31" scheme="DCTERMS.W3CDTF" name="DCTERMS.created" />
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+</head>
+<body>
+<div class="document" id="grettir-the-outlaw">
+<h1 class="center document-title level-1 pfirst title"><span class="x-large">GRETTIR THE OUTLAW</span></h1>
+
+<!-- this is the default PG-RST stylesheet -->
+<!-- figure and image styles for non-image formats -->
+<!-- default transition -->
+<!-- default attribution -->
+<!-- -*- encoding: utf-8 -*- -->
+<div class="clearpage">
+</div>
+<!-- -*- encoding: utf-8 -*- -->
+<div class="align-None container language-en pgheader" id="pg-header" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
+<p class="noindent pfirst"><span>This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States
+and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
+restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
+under the terms of the </span><a class="reference internal" href="#project-gutenberg-license">Project Gutenberg License</a><span> included with
+this ebook or online at </span><a class="reference external" href="http://www.gutenberg.org/license">http://www.gutenberg.org/license</a><span>. If you
+are not located in the United States, you'll have to check the laws
+of the country where you are located before using this ebook.</span></p>
+<p class="noindent pnext"></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<div class="align-None container" id="pg-machine-header">
+<p class="noindent pfirst"><span>Title: Grettir the Outlaw
+<br />       A Story of Iceland
+<br />
+<br />Author: S. Baring-Gould
+<br />
+<br />Release Date: March 31, 2015 [EBook #48622]
+<br />
+<br />Language: English
+<br />
+<br />Character set encoding: UTF-8</span></p>
+</div>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="noindent pfirst" id="pg-start-line"><span>*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK </span><span>GRETTIR THE OUTLAW</span><span> ***</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
+</div>
+<p class="noindent pfirst" id="pg-produced-by"><span>Produced by Al Haines.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em">
+</div>
+<p class="noindent pfirst"><span></span></p>
+</div>
+<div class="align-None container coverpage">
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 3em">
+</div>
+<div class="align-center auto-scaled figure margin" style="width: 65%" id="figure-81">
+<img class="align-center block" style="display: block; width: 100%" alt="Cover art" src="images/img-cover.jpg" />
+<div class="caption centerleft figure-caption margin">
+<span class="italics">Cover art</span></div>
+</div>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
+</div>
+</div>
+<div class="align-None container frontispiece">
+<div class="align-center auto-scaled figure margin" style="width: 61%" id="figure-82">
+<span id="thorkell-and-the-outlawed-grettir-leave-the-assize"></span><img class="align-center block" style="display: block; width: 100%" alt="THORKELL AND THE OUTLAWED GRETTIR LEAVE THE ASSIZE." src="images/img-front.jpg" />
+<div class="caption centerleft figure-caption margin">
+<span class="italics">THORKELL AND THE OUTLAWED GRETTIR LEAVE THE ASSIZE.</span></div>
+</div>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
+</div>
+</div>
+<div class="align-None container titlepage">
+<p class="center pfirst"><span class="bold xx-large">Grettir the Outlaw</span></p>
+<p class="center pnext"><span class="bold large">A Story of Iceland</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst"><span class="medium">by</span></p>
+<p class="center pnext"><span class="large">S. BARING-GOULD</span></p>
+<p class="center pnext"><span class="small">Author of "John Herring" "Mehalah" "Iceland: its Scenes and Sagas" &amp;c.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 3em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst"><em class="italics medium">WITH SIX PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS BY M. ZENO DIEMER</em></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 3em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst"><span class="medium">BLACKIE AND SON LIMITED
+<br />LONDON GLASGOW AND DUBLIN
+<br />1889</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
+</div>
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst"><span class="bold large">PREFACE.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst"><span>TO MY YOUNG READERS.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>It is now just thirty years since I first began to read the
+"Saga of Grettir the Strong" in Icelandic.  At that time I
+had only a Danish grammar of Icelandic and an Icelandic-Danish
+dictionary, and I did not know a word of Danish.  So
+I had to learn Danish in order to learn Icelandic.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>It was laborious work making out the Saga, and every line
+when I began took me some time to understand.  Moreover,
+I had not much time at my disposal, for then I was a master
+in a school.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now, after I had worked a little way into the Saga, I
+became intensely interested in it myself, and it struck me that
+my boys whom I taught might like to hear about Grettir.  So
+I tried every day to translate, after school hours, a chapter,
+hardly ever more at first, and sometimes not even as much
+as that.  Then, when on half-holidays I proposed a walk
+to some of my scholars, they were keen to hear the story
+of Grettir.  Well, Grettir went on for some months in this
+way, a fresh instalment of the tale coming every half-holiday,
+and it was really wonderful how interested and delighted the
+boys were with the story.  Nor was I less so; the labour of
+translation which was so great at first became rapidly lighter,
+and I was as much interested in the adventures of the hero as
+were the boys.  The other day I met an old pupil of mine,
+and almost the first thing he said to me was: "Oh! do you
+remember Grettir?  Thirty years ago!  Fancy!  I am a
+married man and have boys of my own, and I have often tried to
+tell them the story which made such an impression on me, but
+I cannot remember all the incidents nor their order.  I do
+wish you would write it as a story for boys.  I should like to
+read it myself again, and my boys would love it."  "Very
+well," I said, "I will do so."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now my boy readers must understand that I have told them
+the story in my own words and in my own way.  I went to
+Iceland in 1861, and went over nearly every bit of the ground
+made famous by the adventures of Grettir.  Consequently, I
+am able to help out and illustrate the tale by what I actually
+saw.  In the original book there is a great deal more than I
+have attempted to retell, but much has to do with the ancestors
+of Grettir, and there are other incidents introduced of no
+great importance and very confusing to the memory.  So I
+have taken the leading points in the story, and given them.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>S. BARING-GOULD.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst"><span class="bold large">CONTENTS.</span></p>
+<p class="noindent pnext"><span class="small">CHAP.</span></p>
+<ol class="upperroman simple">
+<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#winter-tales">Winter Tales</a></p>
+</li>
+<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#how-grettir-played-on-the-ice">How Grettir played on the Ice</a></p>
+</li>
+<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#of-the-ride-to-thingvalla">Of the Ride to Thingvalla</a></p>
+</li>
+<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#the-doom-day">The Doom-day</a></p>
+</li>
+<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#the-voyage">The Voyage</a></p>
+</li>
+<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#the-red-rovers">The Red Rovers</a></p>
+</li>
+<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#the-story-of-the-sword">The Story of the Sword</a></p>
+</li>
+<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#of-the-bear">Of the Bear</a></p>
+</li>
+<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#the-slaying-of-biorn">The Slaying of Biorn</a></p>
+</li>
+<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#of-grettir-s-return">Of Grettir's Return</a></p>
+</li>
+<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#the-horse-fight">The Horse-fight</a></p>
+</li>
+<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#of-the-fight-at-the-neck">Of the Fight at the Neck</a></p>
+</li>
+<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#how-grettir-and-audun-made-friends">How Grettir and Audun made Friends</a></p>
+</li>
+<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#the-vale-of-shadows">The Vale of Shadows</a></p>
+</li>
+<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#how-grettir-fought-with-glam">How Grettir fought with Glam</a></p>
+</li>
+<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#how-grettir-sailed-to-norway">How Grettir Sailed to Norway</a></p>
+</li>
+<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#the-hostel-burning">The Hostel-burning</a></p>
+</li>
+<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#the-ordeal-by-fire">The Ordeal by Fire</a></p>
+</li>
+<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#the-winter-in-norway">The Winter in Norway</a></p>
+</li>
+<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#of-what-befell-at-biarg">Of what Befell at Biarg</a></p>
+</li>
+<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#the-return-of-grettir">The Return of Grettir</a></p>
+</li>
+<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#the-slaying-of-oxmain">The Slaying of Oxmain</a></p>
+</li>
+<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#at-learwood">At Learwood</a></p>
+</li>
+<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#the-foster-brothers">The Foster-brothers</a></p>
+</li>
+<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#how-grettir-was-well-nigh-hung">How Grettir was well nigh Hung</a></p>
+</li>
+<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#in-the-desert">In the Desert</a></p>
+</li>
+<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#on-the-great-eagle-lake">On the Great Eagle Lake</a></p>
+</li>
+<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#on-the-fell">On the Fell</a></p>
+</li>
+<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#the-fight-on-the-river">The Fight on the River</a></p>
+</li>
+<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#a-mysterious-vale">A Mysterious Vale</a></p>
+</li>
+<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#the-death-of-hallmund">The Death of Hallmund</a></p>
+</li>
+<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#of-another-attempt-against-grettir">Of Another Attempt against Grettir</a></p>
+</li>
+<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#at-sandheaps">At Sandheaps</a></p>
+</li>
+<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#how-grettir-was-driven-about">How Grettir was Driven About</a></p>
+</li>
+<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#on-the-isle">On the Isle</a></p>
+</li>
+<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#of-grettir-on-heron-ness">Of Grettir on Heron-ness</a></p>
+</li>
+<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#of-hoering-s-leap">Of Hœring's Leap</a></p>
+</li>
+<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#of-the-attempt-made-by-grettir-s-friends">Of the Attempt made by Grettir's Friends</a></p>
+</li>
+<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#of-the-old-hag">Of the Old Hag</a></p>
+</li>
+<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#how-the-log-came-to-drangey">How the Log came to Drangey</a></p>
+</li>
+<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#the-end-of-the-outlaw">The End of the Outlaw</a></p>
+</li>
+<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#how-asdis-received-the-news">How Asdis received the News</a></p>
+</li>
+<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#how-dromund-kept-his-word">How Dromund kept his Word</a></p>
+</li>
+</ol>
+<p class="noindent pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#epilogue">Epilogue</a></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst"><span class="bold large">ILLUSTRATIONS.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#thorkell-and-the-outlawed-grettir-leave-the-assize">Thorkell and the outlawed Grettir leave the Assize</a><span>, </span><em class="italics">Frontis</em><span>.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#grettir-challenges-kormak-and-his-party">Grettir challenges Kormak and his Party</a></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#grettir-defends-himself-from-the-mob">Grettir defends Himself from the Mob</a></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#grettir-attacked-in-the-rift-by-thorir-s-party">Grettir attacked in the Rift by Thorir's Party</a></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#fording-the-quivering-flood">Fording the quivering flood</a></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#illugi-defends-the-dying-grettir">Illugi defends the dying Grettir</a></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
+</div>
+<div class="align-center auto-scaled figure margin" style="width: 100%" id="figure-83">
+<span id="pedigree-of-the-family-of-asmund-of-biarg"></span><img class="align-center block" style="display: block; width: 100%" alt="PEDIGREE OF THE FAMILY OF ASMUND OF BIARG" src="images/img-010.jpg" />
+<div class="caption centerleft figure-caption margin">
+<span class="italics">PEDIGREE OF THE FAMILY OF ASMUND OF BIARG</span></div>
+</div>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst" id="winter-tales"><span class="bold x-large">GRETTIR THE OUTLAW.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 3em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst"><span class="bold large">CHAPTER I.</span></p>
+<p class="center pnext"><span class="bold medium">WINTER TALES.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<!--  -->
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<p class="pfirst"><em class="italics">The Birthplace of Grettir—The Peopling of
+Iceland—A History of Quarrels—Stories Round
+the Hearth—Biarg—The Great Blue Bay—The
+Boy Grettir—The Saga of Onund Treefoot—The
+Northern Pirates—The Fight with King
+Harald—Onund's Wound—After the Battle</em></p>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>It was night—drawing on to midnight—in
+summer, that I who write this book
+arrived at the little lonely farm of Biarg,
+on the Middle River, in the north of Iceland.
+It was night, near on midnight, and yet I could
+hardly call it night, for the sky overhead was
+full of light of the clearest amethyst, and every
+stock and stone was distinctly visible.  Across the
+valley rose a rugged moor, and above its shoulder a
+snow-clad mountain, turned to rosy gold by the
+night sun.  As I stood there watching the mist form
+on the cold river in the vale below, all at once I
+heard a strange sound like horns blowing far away
+in the sky, and looking up, I saw a train of swans
+flying from west to east, bathed in sunlight, their
+wings of silver, and their feathers as gold.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>I had come all the way from England to see Biarg,
+for there was born, about the year A.D. 997, a man
+called Grettir, whose history I had read, and which
+interested me so much that I was resolved to see
+his native home, and the principal scenes where his
+stormy life was passed.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The landscape was the same as that on which
+Grettir's childish eyes had looked more than eight
+hundred and fifty years ago.  The same outline of
+dreary moor, the same snowy ridge of mountain
+standing above it, catching the midnight summer
+sun, the same mist forming over the river; but the
+house was altogether different.  Now there stood
+only a poor heap of farm-buildings, erected of turf
+and wood, where had once been a noble hall of
+wood, with carved gable-ends, surrounded by many
+out-houses.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Before we begin on the story of Grettir, it will be
+well to say a few words about its claim to be history.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Iceland never was, and it is not now, a much-peopled
+island.  The farmhouses are for the most part
+far apart, and the farms are of very considerable
+extent, because, owing to the severity of the climate,
+very little pasturage is obtained over a wide extent
+of country for the sheep and cattle.  The population
+lives round the coast, on the fiords or creeks of the
+sea, or on the rivers that flow into these fiords.
+The centre of the island is occupied by a vast waste
+of ice-covered mountain, and desert black as ink
+strewn with volcanic ash and sand, or else with a
+region of erupted lava that is impassable, because
+in cooling it has exploded, and forms a country of
+bristling spikes and gulfs and sharp edges, very
+much like the wreck of a huge ginger-beer bottle
+factory.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>What are now farmhouses were the halls and
+mansions of families of noble descent.  Indeed, the
+original settlers in Iceland were the nobles of
+Norway who left their native land to avoid the tyranny
+of Harold Fairhair, who tried to crush their power
+so as to make himself a despotic king in the land.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>These Norse nobles came in their boats to Iceland,
+bringing with them their wives, children, their
+thralls or slaves, and their cattle; and they settled
+all round the coast.  The present Icelanders are
+descended from these first colonists.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now, the history of Iceland for a few hundred
+years consists of nothing but the history of the
+quarrels of these great families.  Iceland was without
+any political organization, but it had an elected
+lawman or judge, and every year the heads of the
+families rode to Thingvalla, a plain in the south-west,
+where they brought their complaints, carried on
+their lawsuits, and had them settled by the judge.
+There was no army, no navy, no government in
+Iceland for a long time; also no foreign wars, and
+no internal revolutions.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>These noble families settled in the valleys and upon
+the fiords thought a good deal of themselves, and
+they carefully preserved, at first orally then in
+writing, the record of their pedigrees, and also the
+tradition of the famous deeds of their great men.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>In summer there is no night; in winter, no day.
+In winter there is little or nothing to be done but
+sit over the fire, sing songs, and tell yarns.  Now,
+in winter the Icelanders told the tales of the brave
+men of old in their families, and so the tradition
+was handed on from father to son, the same stories
+told every winter, till all the particulars became
+well known.  At the same time there can be no
+doubt that little embellishments were added, some
+exaggerations were indulged in, and here and there
+the grand deed of some other man was grafted into
+the story of the family hero.  About two hundred
+or two hundred and fifty years after the death of
+Grettir, his history was committed to writing, and
+then it became fixed—nothing further was added to
+it, and we have his story after having travelled
+down over two hundred years as a tradition.  That
+was plenty of time for additions and emendations,
+and the hobgoblin and ghost stories that come into
+his life are some of these embellishments.  But the
+main facts of his life are true history.  We are able
+to decide this by comparing his story with those of
+other families in the same part of the island, and to
+see whether they agree as to dates, and as to the
+circumstances narrated in them.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>In the north-west of Iceland is an immense bay
+called the Huna-floi, which branches off into several
+creeks, the largest of which is called the Ramsfirth,
+and the next to that is the Middlefiord.  Into this
+flows a river that has its rise in the central desert, in
+a perfect tangle of lakes.  Three rivers issuing from
+these lakes unite just above Biarg, and pour their
+waters a short morning's ride lower through sands
+into the Middlefirth.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The valley is not cheerful, running from north to
+south.  Biarg lies on the east side, and faces the
+western sun.  The moor which lies behind it, and
+forms the hill on the other side of the river, is not
+broken and picturesque, and if it were not for the
+peak of Burfell, covered with snow a good part of
+the year, the view from Biarg would be as
+uninteresting as any to be found in the land.  But then,
+when one rides down to the coast, or ascends the
+moor, what a splendid view bursts on the sight!
+The great Polar Sea is before one, intensely blue,
+not with the deep ultramarine of the Mediterranean,
+but with the blue of the nemophyla or forget-me-not,
+rolling in from the mysterious North; and
+across the mighty bay of the Huna-floi can be seen
+the snowy mountains of that extraordinary peninsula
+which runs out to the north-west of Iceland, and is
+only just not converted into an island because
+connected with Iceland by a narrow strip of land.  That
+great projection is like a hand with fiords between
+the fingers of land, and glacier-mountains where are
+the knuckles; but the wrist is very narrow indeed,
+only about one English mile across, and there lies a
+trough along this junction, with a little stream and a
+lake in it.  Now, at this wrist, as we may call it, lies
+the farm of Eyre, where, somewhat later, lived the
+sister of Grettir, who married a man that farmed
+there, named Glum.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Looking away across the great blue bay, the
+mountains of the hand may be seen rising out of the
+sea, and looking like icebergs.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir the Strong was the son of a well-to-do
+bonder, or yeoman, who lived at Biarg, and was
+descended from some of the great nobles of Norway.
+His father's name was Asmund with the Grey-head,
+and his mother's name was Asdis.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>He had a brother called Atli, a gentle, kindly
+young fellow, who never wittingly quarrelled with
+anyone, and was liked by all with whom he had to
+do.  He had also two sisters—one was called
+Thordis, and she was married to Glum of Eyre—but
+neither come into the story; and he had another
+sister called Rannveig, who was married to Gamli of
+Melar, at the head of Ramsfirth.  He had also a
+little brother called Illugi, of whom more hereafter.
+Grettir was not a good-looking boy; he had reddish
+hair, a pale face full of freckles, and light blue
+eyes.  He was broad-built, not tall as a boy, though
+in the end he grew to be a very big man.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>He was not considered a good-tempered or sociable
+boy.  He seemed lazy and sullen; he liked to
+sit by the fire without speaking to anyone, listening
+to what was said, and brooding over what he had
+heard.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>If his father set him a task, he did it so
+unwillingly, and so badly that Asmund Greyhead regretted
+having set him to do anything.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now, during the winter, as we have already seen,
+when there is but a very little daylight, and the
+nights are vastly long, when, moreover, the whole
+land is deep in snow, so that there is no farm-work
+that can be done, and no travelling about to visit
+neighbours, it was, and is still, usual in Iceland for
+those in the house to tell tales, or sagas, as they
+are called.  Some of these sagas relate to the old
+gods of the Norsemen, some are fabulous stories of
+old heroes who never existed, or, if they did exist,
+have had all sorts of fantastic legends tacked on to
+their histories; but other sagas are the tales of the
+doings of ancestors of the family.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now, among the sagas that Grettir used to hearken
+to with greatest delight was that of old Onund
+Treefoot, his great-grandfather, who first settled in
+Iceland.  And this was the tale:</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>Onund, the son of Ufeigh Clubfoot, son of Ivar
+the Smiter, was a mighty Viking in Norway; that is,
+he went about every summer harrying the coasts of
+England, Ireland, and Scotland.  He joined with
+three friends, and they had five ships together, and
+one summer they sailed to the Hebrides—which
+were then called the Sudereys, or southern isles.
+The Bishop of the Isle of Man is still called Bishop
+of Sodor and Man, because his diocese originally
+included the Sudereys.  Then out against them came
+Kiarval, king of the Hebrides, with five ships, and
+they gave him battle, and there was a hard fray.
+But the men of Onund were the mightiest warriors.
+On each side many fell, but the end of the battle
+was that the king fled with only one ship.  So
+Onund took the four vessels and great spoil, and he
+wrought great havoc on the coast, plundering and
+burning, and so in the fall of the year returned to
+Norway.  In the history of England, and in that of
+Scotland and of Ireland, we read of the terrible
+annoyance given to the natives of Great Britain and
+Ireland by the northern pirates; and, indeed, they
+conquered Dublin, and established a kingdom there,
+and also took to themselves Orkney.  Well, when
+Onund returned to Norway he did not find that
+matters were pleasant there; for King Harald the
+Unshorn had begun to establish himself sole king in
+Norway.  Hitherto there had been many small
+kings and earls; but Harald had taken an oath
+that he would not cut or trim his hair till he had
+subdued all under his power, and made himself
+supreme throughout the land.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>A great many bonders and all the little kings
+united against him, and there was a great battle
+fought at Hafrsfiord—the greatest battle that had
+as yet been fought in Norway.  Onund was in the
+battle along with his friend, King Thorir Longchin,
+and he set his ship alongside of that of King Longchin.
+King Harald ran his ship up alongside of that
+of Longchin, grappled it, and boarded it.  There was a
+furious fight, and Harald sent on board his Bearsarks,
+a set of half-mad ruffians, who wore not bear but
+wolf skins, and who were said to lead charmed lives,
+so that no weapon would wound them.  Thorir
+Longchin and all his men were killed; and then
+King Harald cut away the ship and ran up against
+that of Onund.  Onund was in the fore part, and
+he fought manfully.  As the grappling-irons of
+Harald caught his ship, Onund made a sweep with
+his longsword at the man who threw the irons, and
+in so doing he put his leg over the bulwark.  Then
+one on the king's ship threw a spear at Onund.
+He saw it flung, and leaned his head back to let it
+fly over him, and as he did so one on the king's
+ship smote at him with a battle-axe, and the axe
+fell on his leg below the knee and shore his leg off.
+Then Onund fell back on board his own vessel, and
+his men carried him across into that of a friend
+named Thrand, who lay alongside of him on the
+other board.  And Thrand had a great cauldron
+there of pitch boiled, and Onund set his knee in the
+boiling pitch, and never blinked nor uttered a cry.
+That staunched the blood.  If he had not done this
+he would have bled to death.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now, Thrand saw that King Harald was gaining
+the mastery everywhere, so he fled away with his
+ship and sailed west.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Onund was healed of his wound, but ever after
+he walked with a wooden leg, and that is why he
+got the name of Onund Treefoot.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>After the battle of Hafrsfiord, Onund could only
+return to Norway by stealth, and he could not
+recover his lands there, so he deemed it wisest for
+him to sail away and seek a home elsewhere.  That
+is how he left Norway and settled in Iceland.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>And when King Harald saw himself lord and
+master through all the land, then he had his hair
+trimmed and combed, and it was so long and so
+beautiful, that ever after he who had been called
+"The Unshorn" went by the name of "Fairhair,"
+and in history he is known as King Harald Fairhair.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst" id="how-grettir-played-on-the-ice"><span class="bold large">CHAPTER II.</span></p>
+<p class="center pnext"><span class="bold medium">HOW GRETTIR PLAYED ON THE ICE.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<!--  -->
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<p class="pfirst"><em class="italics">An Evil Boyhood—Golf on the Ice—Grettir Quarrels
+with Audun—A Threat of Vengeance</em></p>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>There are several tales told of Grettir when he
+was a boy, which show that he was a rough
+and unkindly lad.  He was set by his father to keep
+geese on the moors, and this made him angry, so he
+threw stones at the geese and killed or wounded
+them all.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The old man suffered from lumbago, and in winter
+when unwell asked his wife and the boys to rub his
+back by the fire; but when Grettir was required to
+do this, he lost his temper, and on one occasion he
+snatched up a wool-carding comb and dug it into
+his old father's back.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Many other things he did which made those at
+home not like him, and there was not much love
+lost between him and his father.  The fact was that
+Grettir was a headstrong, wilful fellow, and bitterly
+had he to pay in after life for this youthful
+wilfulness and obstinacy.  It was these qualities, untamed
+in him, that wrecked his whole life, and it may be
+said brought ruin and extinction on his family.
+There were great and good qualities in Grettir's
+nature, but they did not show when he was young;
+only much suffering and cruel privations brought
+out in the end the higher and nobler elements that
+were in him.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>It is so with all who have any good in them, if
+by early discipline it is not manifested, then it is
+brought out by the rough usage of misfortune in
+after life.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>And now I will give one incident of Grettir's
+boyhood.  It was a favourite amusement for young
+fellows at that time to play golf on the ice, and in
+winter, when the Middlefirth was frozen over, large
+parties assembled there for the sport.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>One winter a party was arranged for a match on
+the ice, and a good many lads came to Middlefirth
+from Willowdale, a valley only separated from the
+Middlefirth by a long shoulder of ugly moor.  The
+Willowdales-men had a much better sheet of water,
+a very large lake called Hop, into which their river
+flowed, before discharging itself into the sea; and
+the return match was to be played on Hop.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Among the young fellows who came from Willowdale
+was Audun, a fine, strapping fellow; frank,
+well-built, good-looking, and amiable.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>When the parties were assembled at the place,
+there they were paired off according to age and
+strength; and on this occasion I am speaking of,
+Grettir, who was fourteen, was set to play with
+Audun, who was two years older than he, and a
+head taller.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Audun struck the ball and it flew over Grettir's
+head, and he missed it, and it went skimming away
+over the ice to a great distance, and Grettir had to
+run after it.  Some of those who were looking on
+laughed.  Then Grettir's anger was roused.  He got
+the ball and came back carrying it, till he was
+within a few yards of Audun, and then, instead of
+dropping the ball, and striking it with his golfing-stick,
+he suddenly threw it with all his force against his
+adversary, and struck him between his eyes, so that
+it half-stunned him, and cut the skin.  Audun
+whirled his golfing-bat round, and struck at Grettir,
+who dodged under and escaped the blow.  Then
+Audun and Grettir grappled each other, and wrestled
+on the ice.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Every one thought that Audun would have the
+stumpy, thick-set boy down in a trice, but it was
+not so; Grettir held his ground;—they swung this
+way, that way; now one seemed about to be cast,
+and then the other, and although Audun was almost
+come to a man's strength, he could not for a long
+time throw Grettir.  At last Grettir slipped on a
+piece of ice where some had been sliding, and went
+down.  His blood was up, so was that of Audun; and
+the fight would have been continued with their sticks,
+had not Grettir's brother Atli thrown himself
+between the combatants and separated them.  Atli held
+his brother back, and tried to patch up the quarrel.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"You need not hold me like a mad dog," said
+Grettir.  "Thralls wreak their vengeance at once,
+cowards never."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Audun and Grettir were distant cousins.  They
+were not allowed to play against each other any
+more, and the rest went on with their game.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst" id="of-the-ride-to-thingvalla"><span class="bold large">CHAPTER III.</span></p>
+<p class="center pnext"><span class="bold medium">OF THE RIDE TO THINGVALLA.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<!--  -->
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<p class="pfirst"><em class="italics">Thorkel Mani's Find—Thorkel Krafla—The Halt
+at Biarg—A Bad Prospect—Among the Lakes—The
+Lost Meal-bags—Suspicion Confirmed—The Slaying
+of Skeggi—The Song of the Battle-ogress—Grettir
+Chooses to take his Trial</em></p>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>There lived in Waterdale, a day's journey from
+Biarg, an old bonder, named Thorkel Krafla.
+He was the first Icelander who became a Christian.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>In heathen times, among the Northmen as among
+the Romans, it was allowable for parents to expose
+their children to death, if they did not want to have
+the trouble of rearing them.  Now Thorkel had
+been so exposed, with a napkin over his face.  It so
+happened that a great chief called Thorkel Mani
+was riding along one day, thinking about the gods
+that he had been taught to believe in, who drank
+and got drunk, and fought each other, and, being a
+grave, meditative man, he could not make out what
+these rollicking, fighting gods could have had to do
+with the world,—with the creation of sun, moon,
+and stars, and the earth with its yield.  He thought
+to himself, "There must be some God above these
+tipsy, quarrelsome deities; and this higher God
+must love men, and be good and kind to men."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>As he thought this, he heard a little whimpering
+noise from behind a stone; he got off his horse, and
+went to see what produced this noise, and found
+there a poor little baby, that with its tiny hands
+had rumpled up the kerchief which had been spread
+over its nose and mouth.  Thorkel Mani took up
+the deserted babe in his arms, and looking up to
+heaven, to the sun, said, "If the good God, who is
+high over all, called this little being into life, gave
+it eyes and mouth and ears and hands and feet, He
+surely never intended His handiwork to be cast out
+as a thing of no value, to die.  For the love of Him
+I will take this child."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then Thorkel Mani rode home, carrying the baby
+in his arms; and he called it by his own name,
+Thorkel; but to distinguish it from himself, it was
+given the nickname Krafla, which means to rumple,
+because the babe had rumpled up the kerchief, so
+as to let its cries be heard.  So the child grew up,
+and kept the name through life of Thorkel Rumple.
+This Thorkel became a very great man, and
+Godi, or magistrate, of the Waterdale; and, as I
+have said, he was the first man to become a
+Christian, when missionaries of the gospel came to
+Iceland.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Very soon after Grettir's birth Christianity
+became general, and in the year 1000 was sanctioned by
+law; but there were few Christian priests in the land,
+so that the knowledge of the truth had not spread
+much, and taken hold and transformed men's lives.
+Thorkel Rumple was now very old.  He was the
+bosom friend of Asmund, and every year when in
+the spring he rode to the great assizes at Thingvalla,
+he always halted at least one night at Biarg.  Not
+only were Asmund and he men of like minds, and
+friends, but they were also connected.  In the spring
+of the year 1011, Thorkel arrived as usual at Biarg,
+attended by a great many men, and he was most
+warmly received by Asmund and his wife.  He
+remained with them three nights, and he and
+they fell a-talking about the prospects of the two
+young men, Atli and Grettir.  Asmund told his
+kinsman that Atli was a quiet, amiable fellow,
+now at man's estate, and likely to prove a good
+farmer; a man who would worthily succeed him at
+Biarg when he died, and keep the honour of the
+family untarnished, and would enlarge the estate.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Ah!  I see," said Thorkel.  "A useful man, good
+and respectable, like yourself.  But what about
+Grettir?"</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Asmund hesitated a moment before answering;
+but presently he said, "I hardly know what to say
+of him.  He is unruly, sullen, makes no friends, and
+he has been a constant cause of vexation to me."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Thorkel answered, "That is a bad prospect;
+however, let him come with me to Thingvalla, and I
+shall be able to see on the journey of what stuff he
+is made."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>To this Asmund agreed; and right glad was
+Grettir to think he was to go to the great law-gathering.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Thorkel had sixty men with him, and he rode in
+some state; for, as already said, he was a great man.
+The way led over the great desolate waste, called
+the Two-days-ride; but as on this expanse there were
+few halting-places, the grass most scanty, and not
+sufficient to allow of a stay, the party rode across it
+down to the settled lands nearer the coast as quickly
+as they could, and reached Fleet-tongue in time to
+sleep; so they took the bridles off their horses, and
+let them graze with their saddles on.  Their road
+had lain among the lakes, from which issued the
+rivers that united above Biarg.  In each lake floated
+a pair of swans.  Often they heard the loud hoarse
+cry of the great northern diver; but there was
+hardly any grass, for the moor lies high, is swept
+by the icy blasts from the glacier mountains to the
+south, and is made up of black sand.  Before them
+all day had stood towering into the sky the Eyreksjokull,
+a mountain with perfectly precipitous sides of
+black basalt, domed over with glittering ice.  It
+resembles an immense bridecake.  At one place this
+mountain in former times had gaped, and poured
+forth a fiery stream of lava that ran to the lakes,
+and for a while converted them to steam.  One can
+still see whence this great fiery river issued from
+the mountain.  Little did Grettir think then as he
+passed under it, a boy of fourteen, that, for the three
+most lonely, wretched years of his life, that great
+glacier-crowned mountain was to be the one object
+on which his eye would rest.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The men were all very tired after their long ride,
+and they slept till late next morning, lying about
+on the scant herbage, around a fire made of the roots
+of trailing willows that they had dug out of the
+sand.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>When they awoke many of the horses had strayed,
+and some had rolled in the sand, burst their girths
+and shaken off their saddles.  But they could not
+have gone any great distance, for they were all
+hobbled.  In Iceland thick woollen ropes are put
+round the legs of the horses, below the hocks, and
+twisted together into a knot with a knuckle-bone.
+This serves as a secure hobble, and the wool being
+soft does not gall the skin.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>It was customary in those days for every one to
+take his own provisions with him, and most of those
+who went to the great assize carried meal-bags
+athwart their saddles.  Grettir found his horse at
+last, but not his meal-bag, which had come off, and
+was lost; for the saddle was turned under the belly
+of his cob.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The horses could not have strayed far, not only
+because they were hobbled, but also because the
+Tongue where they had been turned loose was a
+narrow strip of land between two rivers; but then
+the slope was considerable in places, and the
+meal-bag might have rolled down into the water.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>As Grettir was running about hunting for his bag,
+he saw another man in the same predicament.  What
+is more, he saw that the rest of the party, impatient
+to get on their way, would tarry no longer for them,
+and were defiling down the hill to cross the river.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir was in great distress.  Just then he saw
+the man run very directly in one course, and at the
+same moment Grettir saw something white lying
+under a mass of lava.  It was towards this that the
+fellow was running.  Grettir ran towards it also.  It
+was a meal-sack.  The man reached it first, and
+threw it over his shoulder.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"What have you got there?" asked Grettir, coming up panting.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"My meal-sack," answered the fellow.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Let me look at it," said Grettir.  "It may be
+mine, not yours.  Let me look before you
+appropriate it."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>This the man refused to do.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir's suspicion was confirmed, and he made a
+catch at the sack, and tried to drag it away from
+the fellow.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Oh, yes!" sneered the man—who was a servant
+at a farm called The Ridge, in Waterdale, and his
+name Skeggi,—"Oh, yes! you Middlefirthers think
+you will have everything your own way."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"That is not it," answered Grettir.  "Let each
+man take his own.  If the sack be yours, keep it;
+if mine, I will have it."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"It is a pity Audun is not here," scoffed the
+serving-man, "or he would trip up your heels and
+throttle you, as he did on the ice when golfing."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"But as he is not here," retorted Grettir, "you
+are not like to get the better of me."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Skeggi suddenly took his axe by the haft and
+hewed at Grettir's head.  Grettir saw what he was
+at, and instantly put up his left hand and caught
+the handle below where Skeggi's hand held it;
+wrenched it out of his grasp, and struck him with
+it, so that his skull was cleft.  The thing was done
+in a moment, and Grettir had done it in self-preservation
+and without premeditation.  He was but a
+boy of fourteen, and this was a full-grown stout
+churl.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir at once seized the meal-bag, saw it was
+his own, and threw it across his saddle.  Then he
+rode after the company.  Thorkel Krafla rode at the
+head of his party, and he had no misgiving that
+anything untoward had taken place.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>But, when Grettir came riding up with his meal-bag,
+the men asked him if he had left Skeggi still
+in search of his.  Grettir answered in song:</span></p>
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<div class="line-block outermost">
+<div class="line"><span>"A rock Troll did her burden throw</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>Down on Skeggi's skull, I trow.</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>O'er the battle-ogress saw I flow</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>Ruby rivers all aglow.</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>She her iron mouth a-gape</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>Did the life of Skeggi take."</span></div>
+<div class="line"> </div>
+</div>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>This sounds like nonsense; to understand it one
+must have a notion of what constituted poetry in
+the minds of Icelanders and Northmen.  With them
+the charm of poetry consisted in never calling
+anything by its right name, but using instead of it some
+far-fetched similitude or periphrasis.  Thus—the
+burden of the rock Troll is iron.  The Troll is the
+spirit of the mountain, and the heaviest thing found
+in the mountain is iron.  The battle-ogress is the
+axe which bites in battle.  The verses that the Norse
+poets sang were a series of conundrums, and the
+hearers puzzled their brains to make out the sense.
+This time they soon understood what Grettir meant,
+and the men turned and went back to the Tongue,
+and there found Skeggi dead.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir went on to Thorkel, and in few words,
+and to the point, told how things had fallen out.
+He was not the aggressor.  He had merely defended
+himself.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Thorkel was much troubled, and he told Grettir
+that he might either come on to the assize or go
+home; that this act of man-slaughter would be
+investigated at the law-gathering, and judgment given
+upon it.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir agreed to go on, and see how matters
+would turn out for him.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst" id="the-doom-day"><span class="bold large">CHAPTER IV.</span></p>
+<p class="center pnext"><span class="bold medium">THE DOOM-DAY.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<!--  -->
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<p class="pfirst"><em class="italics">The Lava Plain—The Law of Man-slaughter—Grettir's
+Sentence—The Grettir Stone</em></p>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>That evening they arrived at Thingvalla.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The great plain of Thingvalla is entirely composed
+of lava.  At some remote period before Iceland
+was colonized a beautiful snowy cone of mountain,
+called "The Broad Shield," poured forth a deluge
+of molten rock, which ran in a fiery river down a
+valley for some miles, half-choking it up, and then
+spread out over a wide plain where anciently there
+had been a great lake.  Then all cooled, but after
+the cooling, or whilst it was in process, there came
+a great crack, crack.  The great mass of lava must
+have been poured over some subterranean caverns;
+at any rate the whole plain snapped and sank down
+a good many feet, the lava becoming cracked and
+starred like glass.  Nowadays, one cannot cross the
+plain because it is all traversed with these fearful
+cracks, chasms the bottom of which is filled with
+black water.  Where the plain sank deepest there
+water settled and formed the beautiful Thingvalla
+Lake.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>At the side of one of the cracks where the plain
+broke off and sank is a very curious pinnacle of
+black rock, and this was called the Hanging Rock,
+as criminals were hung from it over the chasm.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>In one place two of the cracks unite, and there is
+a high mound of blistered lava covered with turf
+and flowers between them.  That is called the Law
+Hill, because the judge and his assessors sat there,
+and no one could get to them, nor could the accused
+get away across the chasms.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now it was the law at this time in Iceland that
+when any man had been killed his nearest relatives
+came to the assize, and the slayer appeared by
+proxy and offered blood-money—that is to say, to
+pay a fine to the relations, and so patch up the
+quarrel.  But if they refused the money then they
+were at liberty to pursue and kill him.  There were
+no police then.  If the relations wanted to have
+the criminal punished they must punish him themselves.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Upon this occasion the case was discussed in
+the court on the finger of rock between the two
+chasms, the people standing on the further sides of
+these gulfs, listening, but unable to come a step
+nearer; and Thorkel appeared for Grettir and offered
+to pay the blood-money.  The relations of the dead
+Skeggi, after a little fuss, agreed to accept a certain
+sum, and Thorkel at once paid it.  But the court
+ordered that, as Grettir had acted with undue
+violence, and as there was no evidence except his word
+that Skeggi had made the first attack, he should be
+outlawed, and leave Iceland for three winters.  If
+he set his foot in Iceland till three winters had
+passed, his life was forfeit.  He was allowed a
+moderate and reasonable time for finding a ship that
+would take him out of the country.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>When the assize was over all rode home, and the
+way that Thorkel and Grettir went was up the
+valley that had been half-choked with the lava that
+rolled down from Broad Shield.  They came to a
+small grassy plain with a gently-sloping hill rising
+out of it, a place where games took place, the women
+sitting up the slope and watching the men below.
+Here Grettir is said to have heaved an enormous
+stone.  The stone is still shown, and I have seen it.
+I also know that Grettir never lifted it; for it has
+clearly been brought there by a glacier.  But this
+is an instance of the way in which stories get
+magnified in telling.  No doubt that Grettir did "put"
+there some big stone, and as it happened that at this
+spot there was a great rock standing by itself balanced
+on one point, in after days folks concluded that this
+must have been the stone thrown by Grettir.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst" id="the-voyage"><span class="bold large">CHAPTER V.</span></p>
+<p class="center pnext"><span class="bold medium">THE VOYAGE.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<!--  -->
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<p class="pfirst"><em class="italics">Preparations for a Voyage—His Grandfather's
+Sword—A Bitter Jester—Vain Reproaches—Haflid's
+Stratagem—The Tables Turned—Shipwrecked</em></p>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>Grettir, then, was doomed by the court to leave
+his native land whilst only a boy, and remain
+in banishment for three years—that is to say, till
+he was eighteen.  He was not over sorry for this,
+as he was tired of being at home, and he wanted to
+see the world.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>There was a man called Haflid who had a ship in
+which he intended to sail that autumn to Norway,
+and Asmund sent to him to ask him to take Grettir
+out with him.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Haflid answered that he had not heard a good
+account of the boy, and did not particularly wish
+to have him in his boat; but he would stretch a
+point, because of the regard he had for old Asmund,
+and he would take him.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir got ready to start; but Asmund would
+not give him much wherewith to trade when abroad,
+except some rolls of home-made wadmall, a coarse
+felty cloth, and a stock of victuals for his voyage.
+Grettir asked his father to give him some weapon;
+but the old man answered that he did not trust him
+with swords and axes, he might put them to a bad
+use, and it would be better he went without till he
+had learned to control his temper and keep a check
+on his hand.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>So Grettir parted from his father without much
+love on either side; and it was noticed when he
+left home that, though there were plenty of folks
+ready to bid him farewell, hardly anyone said that
+he hoped to see him come home again—a certain
+token that he was not liked by those who had seen
+most of him.  But indeed he had taken no pains to
+oblige anyone and obtain the regard and love of
+anyone.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>His mother was an exception.  She went along
+the road down the valley with him, wearing a long
+cloak; and when they were alone, at some distance
+from the house, she halted and drew out a sword
+from under her cloak, and handing it to Grettir,
+said: "This sword belonged to grandfather, and
+many a hard fight has it been in, and much good
+work has it done.  I give it to you, and hope it
+may stand you in good stead."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir was highly pleased, and told his mother
+that he would rather have the sword than anything
+else that could be given him.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Haflid received Grettir in a friendly manner, and
+he went at once on board; the ship's anchor was
+heaved, and forth they went to sea.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now, directly Grettir got on board he looked
+about for a place where he could be comfortable,
+and chose to make a berth for himself under a boat
+that was slung on deck; then he put up his wadmall,
+making a sort of felt lining or wall round against
+the wind and spray, leaving open only the side
+inwards, and inside he piled his provisions and
+whatever he had; then he lay down there and did not
+stir from his snuggery.  Now, it was the custom in
+those days for every man who went in a ship to
+help in the navigation; but Grettir would not only
+do nothing, but from his den he shouted or sang
+lampoons—that is, spiteful songs, making fun of
+every man on board.  They were not good-natured
+jokes, but bitter, stinging ones.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Naturally enough the other men were annoyed, and
+they were not slow to tell Grettir what they thought
+of him.  He made no other reply than a lampoon.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>After the ship had lost sight of land a heavy sea
+was encountered, and unfortunately the vessel was
+rather leaky and hardly seaworthy in dirty weather.
+The weather was squally and very cold, so that the
+men suffered much.  Moreover, they had to bale
+out the water from the hold, and this was laborious
+work.  They had not pumps in those days.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The gale increased, and the crew and passengers
+had been engaged for several days and nights in
+baling without intermission, but Grettir would not
+help.  He lay coiled up in his wadmall under the
+boat, peering out at the men and throwing irritating
+snatches of song at them.  This exasperated them
+to such an extent that they determined to take him
+and throw him overboard.  Haflid heard what they
+said, and he went to Grettir and reproached him,
+and told him what was menaced.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Let them try to use force if they will," said
+Grettir.  "All I can say is that I sha'n't go
+overboard alone as long as my sword will bite."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"How can you behave as you do?" said Haflid.
+"Keep silence at least, and do not madden the men
+with your mockery and sneers."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"I cannot hold my tongue from stabbing," said Grettir.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Very well, then, stab on, but stab me."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"No; you have not hurt me."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"I say, stab me.  Then, if the fellows hear you
+sing or say something spiteful of me, and I disregard
+it, they will not mind so much the ill-natured things
+you say of them."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir considered a moment, and then, remembering
+that he had heard of something ridiculous
+that had once occurred to Haflid, he composed a
+verse about it and shouted it derisively at Haflid
+as he walked away.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Just listen to him," said Haflid to the men.
+"Now he is slandering and insulting me.  He is
+an ill-conditioned cur, so ill-conditioned that I will
+not stoop to take notice of his insolence.  And if
+you take my advice you will disregard him as I do."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Well," said the men, "if you shrug your shoulders
+and pay no regard to his bark, why should we?"</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>So Haflid, by his tact, smoothed over this
+difficulty, and averted a danger from Grettir's head.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The weather slowly began to mend, and the sun
+shone out between the clouds; but the wind was
+still strong, and the leak gained on the ship, for her
+bottom was rotten.  Now that the sun shone, the
+poor women who had been aboard and under cover
+during the gale, crawled forth and came to the side
+where the boat was, and where was a little shelter, and
+there sat sewing; whilst Grettir still lay, like a dog
+in his hutch, within.  Then the men began to laugh,
+and say that Grettir had found suitable company at
+last—he was not a man among men, but a milksop
+among women.  This was turning the tables on him,
+and this roused him.  Out he came crawling from
+his den, and ran aft to where the men were baling,
+and asked to be given the buckets.  The way in
+which it was done was for one to go down into the
+hold into the water, and fill a tub or cask and hoist
+it over his head to another man, who carried it up
+on deck and poured it over the bulwarks.  Grettir
+swung himself down into the hold, and filled and
+heaved so fast that there had to be two men set to
+carry up the baling casks, and then two more, four
+in all attending to him.  At one time he even kept
+eight going, so vigorously did he work;—but then
+he was fresh, and they exhausted.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>When the men saw what a strong, active fellow
+Grettir was, they praised him greatly, and Grettir,
+unaccustomed to praise, was delighted and worked
+on vigorously, and thenceforth was of the utmost
+assistance in the ship.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>They still had bad weather, thick mist, in which
+they drifted and lost their bearings, and one night
+unawares they ran suddenly on a rock, and the
+rotten bottom of the ship was crushed in.  They
+had the utmost difficulty in rescuing their goods
+and getting the boat ready; but fortunately they
+were able to put all the women and the loose goods
+into the boat, man her, and row off before the ship
+went to pieces.  They came to a sandy island, ran
+the boat ashore, and disembarked in the cold and
+wet and darkness.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst" id="the-red-rovers"><span class="bold large">CHAPTER VI.</span></p>
+<p class="center pnext"><span class="bold medium">THE RED ROVERS.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<!--  -->
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<p class="pfirst"><em class="italics">Rescued from the Holm—The Sullen Guest—The
+Outlawed Rovers—Yule-tide Gatherings—The
+Suspicious Craft—Grettir Guides the Rovers—The
+Worst Ruffians in Norway—Grettir Entertains
+the Band—A Crew of Revellers—When the Wine
+is in—Thorfin's Treasures—Prisoners and
+Unarmed—Mad with Drink and Fury—One Against
+Twelve—In Hot Pursuit—The Slaughter in the
+Boat-shed—The Last of the Band—Wearied with
+Slaying—Thorfin's Return—A Moment of
+Perplexity—Better than a Dozen Men—The Gift
+of the Sword</em></p>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>One morning, after a night of storm on the coast
+of Norway, the servants ran into the hall of
+a wealthy bonder, named Thorfin, to tell him that
+during the night a ship had been wrecked off the
+coast, and that the crew and passengers were crowded
+on a little sandy holm, and were signalling for help.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The bonder sprang up and ran down to the shore.
+He ordered out a great punt from his boat-house,
+and jumping in with his thralls, rowed to the holm
+to rescue those who were there.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>These were, I need not tell you, the crew and
+passengers of Haflid's merchant vessel.  Thorfin took
+the half-frozen wretches on board his boat and rowed
+them to his farm, after which he returned to the
+islet and brought away the wares.  In the meantime
+his good housewife had been lighting fires, preparing
+beds, brewing hot ale with honey to sweeten it, and
+making every preparation she could think of for the
+sufferers.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Haflid and the rest of the merchants or chapmen
+who had sailed with him remained at the farm a
+week, whilst the women were recovering from the
+cold and exposure and their goods were being dried
+and sorted.  Then they departed, with many thanks
+for the hospitality shown them, on their way to
+Drontheim.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir, however, remained.  Thorfin, the master
+of the house, did not much like him.  He did not
+ask him to stay; but then he had not the lack of
+hospitality to bid him depart.  In the farm Grettir
+never offered to lend a hand in any of the work;
+he never joined in conversation, he sat over the fire
+warming himself, and ate and drank heartily.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Thorfin was much abroad, hunting or seeing after
+the wood-cutting, and he often asked Grettir to come
+with him.  But he was granted no other answer
+than a shake of the head and a growl.  Now the
+bonder was a merry, kindly-hearted fellow, and he
+liked to have all about him cheerful.  It is no
+wonder, then, that Grettir, morose and indolent, found
+no favour with him.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Yule drew near, and Thorfin busked him to depart,
+with a number of his attendants, to keep the festival
+at one of his farms distant a good day's journey.
+His wife was unable to accompany him, as his eldest
+daughter was ill and needed careful nursing.  Grettir
+he did not invite, as his sullenness would have acted
+as a damper on the joviality of the banquet.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The farmer started for his house where he was
+going to spend Yule some days before.  A large
+company of guests were invited to meet him, so he
+took thirty serving-men to attend on him and them.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Norway was at this time being brought into order
+by Earl Erik, who was putting down with a high
+hand the bands of rovers who had been the terror
+of the country.  He had outlawed all these men,
+and that meant that whoever killed them could not
+be fined or punished in any way for the slaying.
+Now Thorfin, the farmer with whom Grettir was
+staying, had been very active against these rovers,
+and they bore him a grudge.  Among the worst of
+them were two brothers, Thorir wi' the Paunch and
+Bad Ogmund.  They had not yet been caught, and
+they defied the power of the Earl.  They robbed
+wherever they went, burned farms over the heads
+of the sleeping inmates, and with the points of their
+spears drove the shrieking victims back into the
+flames when they attempted to escape.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Christmas Eve was bright and sunny, and the
+sick girl was sufficiently recovered to be brought
+out to take the air on the sunny side of the great
+hall, leaning on her mother's arm.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir spent the whole day out of doors, not in
+the most amiable mood at being shut out from the
+merry-makings, and left to keep house with the
+women and eight dunderheaded churls.  He fed his
+discontent by sitting on a headland watching the
+boats glide by, as parties went to convivial
+gatherings at the houses of their friends.  The deep blue
+sea was speckled with sails, as though gulls were
+plunging in the waters.  Now a stately dragon-ship
+rolled past, her fearful carved head glittering with
+golden scales, her sails spread like wings before the
+breeze, and her banks of oars dipping into the sea
+and flashing as they rose.  Now a wherry was rowed
+by laden with cakes and ale, and the boatmen's song
+rang merrily through the crisp air.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The day began to decline, and Grettir was on the
+point of returning to the farm, when the strange
+proceedings of a craft at no great distance attracted
+his attention.  He noticed that she stole along in
+the shadows of the islets, keeping out of sight as
+much as possible.  Grettir could make out of her
+just this much, that she was floating low in the
+water, and was built for speed.  As she stranded
+the rowers jumped on the beach.  Grettir counted
+them, and found they were twelve, all armed men.
+They burst into Thorfin's boat-house, thrust out his
+punt, and in its place drew in their own vessel, and
+pulled her up on the rollers.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Mischief was a-brewing—that was clear.  So
+Grettir went down the hill, and sauntered up to the
+strangers, with his hands in his pockets, kicking the
+pebbles before him.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Who is your leader?" he asked curtly.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"I am.  What do you want with me?" answered
+a stout coarse man—"Thorir, whom they nickname
+'wi' the Paunch.'  Here is my brother Ogmund.
+I reckon that Thorfin knows our names well enough.
+Don't you think so, brother?  We have come here
+to settle a little outstanding reckoning.  Is he at home?"</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"You are lucky fellows," laughed Grettir, "coming
+here in the very nick of time.  The bonder is away
+with all his able-bodied and fighting men, and won't
+be back for a couple of days.  His wife and daughter
+are, however, at the farm.  Now is your time if
+you have old scores to wipe off; for he has left all
+his things that he values unprotected, silver, clothing,
+ale, and food in abundance."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Thorir listened, then turning to Ogmund he said,
+"This is as I had expected.  But what a chatterbox
+this fellow is, he lets out everything without being
+asked questions."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Every man knows the use of his tongue," said
+Grettir.  "Now, follow me, and I will do what I can
+for you."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The rovers at once followed.  Then Grettir took
+fat Thorir by the hand and led him to the farm,
+talking all the way as hard as his tongue could wag.
+Now the housewife happened at the time to be in
+the hall, and hearing Grettir thus talking, she was
+filled with surprise, and called out to know whom he
+had with him.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"I have brought you guests for Yule," said Grettir.
+"We shall not keep it in as dull a fashion as we
+feared.  Here come visitors uninvited, but merry,
+uncommon merry."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Who are they?" asked the housewife.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Thorir wi' the Paunch and Ogmund the Bad,
+and ten of their comrades."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then she cried out: "What have you done?  These
+are the worst ruffians in all Norway.  Is this the
+way you repay the kindness Thorfin has shown you
+in housing and keeping you here, without it's
+costing you anything?"</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Stay your woman's tongue!" growled Grettir.
+"Now bestir yourself and bring out dry clothes for
+the guests."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then the housewife ran away crying, and her sick
+daughter, who saw the house invaded by ill-looking
+men all armed, hid herself.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Well," said Grettir, "as the women are too
+scared to attend on you, I will do what is necessary;
+so give me your wet clothes, and let me wipe your
+weapons and set them by the fire lest they get rusted."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"You are a different fellow from all the rest in
+the house."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"I do not belong to the house.  I am a stranger,
+an Icelander."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Then I don't mind taking you along with us
+when we go away."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"As you will," answered the young fellow; "only
+mind, I don't behave like this to every one."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then the freebooters gave him their weapons, and he
+wiped the salt water from them, and laid them aside
+in a warm spot.  Next he removed their wet garments,
+and brought them dry suits which he routed out of
+the clothes-chests belonging to Thorfin and his men.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>By this time it was night.  Grettir brought in
+logs and faggots of fir branches, and made a roaring
+fire that filled the great hall with ruddy light and
+warmth.  In those days the halls were long buildings
+with a set of hearths running down the middle,
+and benches beside the fires.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Now, then, my men," said Grettir, "come to the
+table and drink, for I doubt not you are thirsty with
+long rowing."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"We are ready," said they.  "But where are the cellars?"</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Oh, if you please, I will bring you ale."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Certainly, you shall attend on us," said Thorir.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then Grettir went and fetched the best and
+strongest ale in Thorfin's cellars, and poured it out
+for the men.  They were very tired and thirsty,
+and they drank eagerly.  Grettir did not stint them
+in meat or drink, and at last he took his place by
+them, and recited many tales that made them laugh,
+he also sang them songs; but they were becoming
+fast too tipsy to rack their brains to find out the
+meaning in the poetry.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Not one of the house-churls showed his face in
+the hall that evening; they slunk about the farm,
+in the stables and sheds, frightened and trembling.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then said Thorir: "I'll tell you what, my men.
+I like this young chap, and I doubt our finding
+another so handy and willing.  What say you all to
+our taking him into our band?"</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The pirates banged their drinking-horns on the
+table in token of approval.  Then Grettir stood up
+and said:</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"I thank you for the offer, and if you are in the
+same mind to-morrow morning when the ale is no
+longer in your heads, I will strike hands and go
+with you."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Let us drink brotherhood at once," shouted the
+rovers.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Not so," said Grettir calmly.  "I will not
+have it said that I took advantage of you when
+you were not sober.  It is said that when the wine
+is in the wit is out."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>They all protested that they would be of the same
+mind next morning, but Grettir stuck to his decision.
+They were now becoming so tipsy that he proposed
+they should go to bed.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"But first of all," said he, "I think you will like
+to run your eyes over Thorfin's storehouse where he
+keeps all his treasures."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"That we shall!" roared Thorir, staggering to his
+feet.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then Grettir took a blazing firebrand from the
+hearth, and led the way out of the hall into the
+night.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The storehouse was detached from the main
+buildings.  It was very strongly built of massive
+logs, firmly mortised together.  The door also was
+very solid, and the whole stood on a strong stone
+basement, and a flight of stone steps led up to the
+door.  Adjoining the storehouse was a lean-to
+building divided off from it by a partition of planks.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The sharp frosty air of night striking on the faces
+of the revellers increased their intoxication, and
+they became very riotous, staggering against each
+other, uttering howls and attempting to sing.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Drawing back the bolt Grettir flung the door
+open, and showed the twelve rovers into the
+treasury; and he held the flaming torch above his head
+and showed the silver-mounted drinking-horns, the
+embroidered garments, the rich fur mantles, gold
+bracelets, and bags filled with silver coins obtained
+from England.  The drunken men dashed upon the
+spoil, knocking each other over and quarrelling for
+the goods they wanted.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>In the midst of this noise and tumult Grettir
+quietly extinguished the torch, stepped outside and
+ran the bolt into its place; he had shut them all—all
+twelve, into the strong-room, and not one of
+them had his weapons about him.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then Grettir ran to the farm door and shouted
+for the housewife.  But she would not answer, as she
+mistrusted him; and no wonder, for he had seemed
+to be hand and glove with the pirates.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Come, come!" shouted Grettir, "I have caught
+all twelve, and all I need now are weapons.  Call up
+the thralls and arm them.  Quick! not a moment
+must be lost."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"There are plenty of weapons here," answered the
+poor woman, emerging from her place of concealment.
+"But, Grettir, I mistrust you."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Trust or no trust," said Grettir, "I must have
+weapons.  Where are the serving-men?  Here,
+Kolbein!  Swein!  Gamli!  Rolf!  Confound the rascals,
+where are they skulking?"</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Over Thorfin's bed hangs a great barbed spear,"
+said the housewife.  "You will also find a sword
+and helmet and cuirass.  No lack of weapons, only
+pluck to wield them is needed."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir seized the casque and spear, girded on the
+sword and dashed into the yard, begging the woman
+to send the churls after him.  She called the eight
+men, and they came up timidly—that is to say, four
+appeared and took the weapons, but the other four,
+after showing their faces, ran and hid themselves
+again, they were afraid to measure swords with the
+terrible rovers.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>In the meantime the pirates had been trying the
+door, but it was too massive for them to break
+through, so they tore down the partitions of boards
+between the store and the lean-to room at the side.
+They were mad with drink and fury.  They broke
+down the door of the side-room easily enough, and
+came out on the platform at the head of the stone
+steps just as Grettir reached the bottom.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Thorir and Ogmund were together.  In the fitful
+gleams of the moon they seemed like demons as
+they scrambled out, armed with splinters of deal
+they had broken from the planks and turned into
+weapons.  The brothers plunged down the narrow
+stairs with a howl that rang through the snow-clad
+forest for miles.  Grettir planted the boar-spear in the
+ground and caught Thorir on its point.  The sharp
+double-edged blade, three feet in length, sliced into
+him and came out between his shoulders, then tore
+into Ogmund's breast a span deep.  The yew shaft
+bent like a bow, and flipped from the ground the
+stone against which the butt-end had been planted.
+The wretched men crashed over the stair, tried to
+rise, staggered, and fell again.  Grettir trod on
+Thorir, wrenched the spear out of him, and then
+running up the steps cut down another rover as he
+came through the door.  Then the rest came out
+stumbling over each other, some armed with bits of
+broken stick, others unarmed, and as they came
+forth Grettir hewed at them with the sword, or
+thrust at them with the spear.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>In the meantime the churls had come up, armed
+indeed, but not knowing how to use the weapons,
+and in a condition of too great terror to use them
+to any purpose.  The pirates saw that they were
+being worsted, and their danger sobered them.  They
+went back into the room and ripped the planks till
+they had obtained serviceable pieces, and then came
+two together down the stair, warding off Grettir's
+blows with their sticks, and not attempting to strike.
+Then they forced him back and allowed space and
+time for those behind to leap down to the ground.
+If then they had combined they might have
+recovered the mastery, but they did not believe that
+they were assailed by a single enemy, they thought
+that there must have been many; consequently
+those who had leaped from the platform, instead
+of attacking Grettir from behind, ran away across
+the farmyard, and those who were warding off his
+blows, finding themselves unsupported, lost heart,
+and leaped down as well and attempted to escape.
+The yard was full of flying frightened wretches, too
+blinded by their fear to find the gate, and in the
+wildness of their terror they climbed or leaped over
+the yard wall and ran towards the boat-house.
+Grettir went after them.  They plunged into the
+dark boat-shed, and possessed themselves of the
+oars, whilst some tried to run their boat down into
+the water.  Grettir followed them in the gloom,
+smiting to right and left.  The bewildered wretches
+in the darkness hit each other, stumbled and fell in
+the boat, and some wounded went into the water.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The thralls, content that the pirates had cleared
+out of the yard, did not trouble themselves to
+pursue them, but went into the farmhouse.  The good
+woman in vain urged them to go after and
+succour Grettir.  They thought they had done quite
+enough.  It is true, they had neither killed nor
+wounded anyone, but they had seen some men
+killed.  So Grettir got no help from them.  He was
+still in the boat-house, and he had this advantage:
+the boat-house was open to the air on the side that
+faced the sea, whilst the further side was closed with
+a door, consequently Grettir was himself in shadow.
+But the moon shone on the water, and he could see
+the black figures of the rovers cut sharply against
+this silver background.  So he could see where to
+strike, whilst he himself was unseen.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>One stroke from an oar reached him on the
+shoulder, and for the moment numbed his arm; but
+he speedily recovered sensation, and killed two more
+of the ruffians; then the remaining four made a dash
+together, past him, through the door, and separating
+into pairs, fled in opposite directions.  Grettir went
+after one of the couples and tracked them to a
+neighbouring farm, where they dashed into a granary
+and hid among the straw.  Unfortunately for them
+most of the wheat had been thrashed out, so that
+only a few bundles remained.  Grettir shut and
+bolted the door behind him, then chased the poor
+wretches like rats from corner to corner, till he had
+cut them both down.  Then he opened the door,
+and cast the corpses outside.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>In the meanwhile the weather was changing, the
+sky had become overcast with a thick snow fog that
+rolled up from the sea, so that Grettir, on coming
+out, saw that he must abandon the pursuit of the
+remaining two.  Moreover, his arm pained him, his
+strength was failing him, and a sense of overpowering
+fatigue stole over him.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The housewife had placed a lamp in a window of
+a loft as a guide to Grettir in the fog; the stupid
+house-thralls could not be induced by her to go out
+in search of him, and she was becoming uneasy at
+his protracted absence.  The fog turned into small
+snow, thick and blinding, and Grettir struggled
+through it with difficulty, as the weariness he felt
+became almost overpowering.  At last he reached
+the farm and staggered in through the door.  He
+could hardly speak.  He went to the table, took a
+horn of mead, drank some, and then threw himself
+down among the rushes on the floor by the fire, full
+armed grasping the sword, and in a moment was
+asleep.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>He did not wake for twelve hours; but the
+cautious and prudent housewife had sent out the
+carles in search of the pirates.  The dead bodies
+were found, some in the yard, some in the
+boat-house; then Grettir woke and came to them and
+pointed out in what direction the only remaining
+two had run.  The snow had fallen so thick that
+their traces could not be followed, but before
+nightfall they were discovered, dead, under a rock where
+they had taken refuge; they had died of cold and
+loss of blood.  All the bodies were collected and a
+great cairn of stones was piled over them.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>When they had been buried, then the housewife
+made Grettir take the high seat in the hall, and
+she treated him with the utmost respect, as he deserved.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Time passed, and Thorfin prepared to return home;
+he dismissed his guests, and he and his men got into
+their boat to return home.  No tidings had reached
+him of the events that had happened whilst he had
+been away.  The first thing he saw as he came
+rowing to his harbour was his punt lying stranded.
+This surprised and alarmed him, and he bade his
+men row harder.  They ran to the boat-house, and
+then saw it occupied by a vessel, on the rollers,
+which there was no mistaking; he knew it well,
+it belonged to those redoubted pirates Thorir and
+Ogmund.  For a moment he was silent with the
+terror and grief that came on him.  "The Red
+Rovers!" he said, when he recovered the stunning
+sense of alarm.  "The Red Rovers are here—they
+are on my farm.  God grant they have not hurt my
+wife and daughter!"</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then he considered what was to be done, whether
+it was best to go at once to the farm, or to make a
+secret approach to it from different quarters, and
+surprise the enemy.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir was to blame.  He ought not to have
+allowed Thorfin to be thus thrown into uncertainty
+and distress.  He had seen the master's boat round
+the headland and enter the bay, but he would neither
+go himself to meet him on the strand, nor suffer
+anyone else to go.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"I do not care even if the bonder be a bit
+disturbed at what he sees," said the young man.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Then let me go," urged the wife.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"You are mistress, do as you like," said Grettir
+bluntly.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>So the housewife and her daughter went down
+towards the boat-house, and when Thorfin saw them
+he ran to meet them, greatly relieved but much
+perplexed, and he clasped his wife to his heart and
+said, "God be praised that you and my child are
+safe!  But tell me how matters have stood whilst I
+have been away, for I cannot understand the boat
+being where I found it."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"We have been in grievous peril," answered his
+wife.  "But the shipwrecked boy whom you sheltered
+has been our protector, better than a dozen men."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then he said, "Sit down on this rock by me and
+tell me all."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>They took each other by the hand and sat on a
+stone; and the attendants gathered round, and the
+housewife told them the whole story from beginning
+to end.  When she spoke of the way in which the
+young Icelander had led the tipsy rovers into the
+storehouse and fastened them in, without their
+swords, the men burst into a shout of joy; and
+when her tale was concluded, their exultant cries
+rang so loud that Grettir heard them in the farmhouse.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Thorfin said nothing to interrupt the thread of
+his wife's story; and after she had done he remained
+silent, rapt in thought.  No one ventured to disturb
+him.  Presently he looked up, and said quietly,
+"That is a good proverb which says, 'Never despair
+of anyone.'  Now I must speak a word with
+Grettir."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Thorfin walked with his wife to the farm, and
+when he saw Grettir he held out both his hands to
+him, and thanked him.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"This I say to you," said Thorfin, "which few
+would say to their best of friends—that I hope some
+day you may need my help, and then I will prove
+to you how thankful I am for what you have done.
+I can say no more."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir thanked him, and spent the rest of the
+winter at his house.  The story of what he had done
+spread through all the country, and was much
+praised, especially by such as had suffered from the
+violence of the Ked Rovers.  But Thorfin made to
+Grettir a present, in acknowledgment of what he
+had done; and that present was the sword that had
+hung above his bed, with which Grettir had killed
+so many of the rovers.  Now, concerning this sword
+a tale has to be told.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst" id="the-story-of-the-sword"><span class="bold large">CHAPTER VII.</span></p>
+<p class="center pnext"><span class="bold medium">THE STORY OF THE SWORD.</span></p>
+<!--  -->
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<p class="pfirst"><em class="italics">The Light on the Cliff—The Grave of Karr the
+Old—The Visit to the Ness—The Chamber of the
+Dead—The Shape on the Throne—In the Dead Man's
+Arms—A Fearful Wrestle—The Dead Vanquished—The
+Dragon's Treasure—The Tale of the Sword—The
+Two Swords of Grettir</em></p>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>Some little while before the slaying of the Red
+Rovers, a strange event had taken place.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir had made the acquaintance of a man called
+Audun, who lived at a little farm at some distance
+from the house of Thorfin, and he walked over
+there occasionally to sit and talk with his friend.  As
+he returned late at night he noticed that a strange
+light used to dance at the end of a cliff that
+overhung the sea, at the end of a headland; a lonely
+desolate headland it was, without house or stall near
+it.  Grettir had never been there, and as it was so
+bare, he knew that no one lived on that headland,
+so he could not account for the light.  One day he
+said to Audun that he had seen this strange light,
+which was not steady but flickered; and he asked
+him what it meant.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Audun at once became very grave, and after a
+moment's hesitation said, "You are right.  No one
+lives on that ness, but there is a great mound there,
+under which is buried Karr the Old, the forefather of
+your host Thorfin; and it is said that much treasure
+was buried with him.  That is why the ghostly light
+burns above the mound, for—you must know that
+flames dance over hidden treasure."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"If treasure be hidden there, I will dig it up,"
+said Grettir.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Attempt nothing of the kind," said Audun, "or
+Thorfin will be angry.  Besides, Karr the Old is a
+dangerous fellow to have to deal with.  He walks
+at night, and haunts all that headland and has scared
+away the dwellers in the nearest farms.  No one dare
+live there because of him.  That is why the Ness is
+all desolate without houses."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"I will stay the night here," said Grettir, "and
+to-morrow we will go together to the Ness, and take
+spade and pick and a rope, and I will see what can
+be found."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Audun did not relish the proposal, but he did
+not like to seem behindhand with Grettir, and he
+reluctantly agreed to go with him.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>So next day the two went out on the Ness together.
+They passed two ruined farmhouses, the buildings
+rotting, the roofs fallen in.  Those who had lived in
+them had been driven away by the dweller in the
+old burial mound, or barrow.  The Norse name for
+these sepulchral mounds is </span><em class="italics">Haug</em><span>, pronounced almost
+like How; and where in England we have places
+with the names ending in </span><em class="italics">hoe</em><span>, there undoubtedly in
+former times were such mounds.  Thus, in Essex are
+Langenhoe and Fingringhoe, that is to say the Long
+Barrow and Fingar's How.  Also, the Hoe, the great
+walk at Plymouth above the sea, derives its name
+from some old burial mound now long ago destroyed.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The Ness was a finger of land running out into
+the sea, and on it grew no trees, only a little coarse
+grass; at the end rose a great circular bell-shaped
+mound, with a ring of stones set round it, to mark
+its circumference.  Grettir began to dig at the
+summit, and he worked hard.  The day was short,
+and the sun was touching the sea as his pickaxe
+went through an oak plank, into a hollow space
+beneath, and he knew at once that he had struck
+into the chamber of the dead.  He worked with
+redoubled energy, and tore away the planks, leaving
+a black hole beneath of unknown depth, but which
+to his thinking could not be more than seven feet
+beneath him.  Then he called to Audun for the
+rope.  The end he fastened round his waist, and
+bade his friend secure the other end to a pole thrown
+across the pit mouth.  When this was done, Audun
+cautiously let Grettir down into the chamber of the
+dead.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now, you must know that in heathen times what
+was often done with old warriors was to draw up a
+boat on the shore, and to seat the dead man in the
+cabin, with his horse slain beside him, sometimes
+some of his slaves or thralls were also killed and put
+in with him, and his choicest treasures were heaped
+about him.  This men did because they thought
+that the dead man would want his weapons, his
+raiment, his ornaments, his horse and his servants
+in the spirit world.  Of late years such a mound
+has been opened in Norway, and a great ship found
+in it, well preserved, with the old dead chief's bones
+in it.  When a ship was not buried, then a chamber
+of strong planks was built, and he was put in that,
+and the earth heaped over him.  Into such a chamber
+had Grettir now dug.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>He soon reached the bottom, and was in darkness,
+only a little light came in from above, through the
+hole he had broken in the roof of the cabin or
+chamber.  His feet were among bones, and these he
+was quite sure were horse bones.  Then he groped
+about.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>As his eyes became more accustomed to the darkness,
+he discerned a figure seated in a throne.  It
+was the long-dead Karr the Old.  He was in full
+harness, with a helmet on his head with bull's horns
+sticking out, one on each side; his hands were on
+his knees, and his feet on a great chest.  Round his
+neck was a gold torque or necklet, made of bars of
+twisted gold, hooked together behind the head.
+Grettir in the dark could only just make out the
+glimmer of the gold, but it seemed to him that a
+phosphorescent light played about the face of the
+dead chief.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>So little light was left, that Grettir hasted to
+collect what he could.  There stood a brazen vessel
+near the chair, in which were various articles, probably
+of worth, but it was too dark for Grettir to see what
+they were.  He brought the vessel to the rope and
+fastened the end of the cord to its handle.  Then he
+went back to the old dead man and drew away a
+short sword that lay on his lap, and this he placed
+in the brass vessel.  Next he began to unhook the
+gold torque from his neck, and as he did this the
+phosphorescent flame glared strangely about the dead
+man's face.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then, all at once, as both his hands were engaged
+undoing the hook behind Karr's neck, he was clipped.
+The dead man's arms had clutched him, and with a
+roar like a bull Karr the Old stood up, holding him
+fast, and now all the light that had played over
+his features gathered into and glared out of his eyes.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>When Audun heard the roar, he was so frightened
+that he ran from the barrow, and did not stay his
+feet till he reached home, feeling convinced that the
+ghost or whatever it was that lived in the tomb had
+torn Grettir to pieces.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then began in the chamber of the dead a fearful
+wrestle.  Grettir was at times nigh on smothered
+by the gray beard of the dead chief, that had been
+growing, growing, in the vault, ever since he had
+been buried.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>How long that terrible struggle continued no one
+can tell.  Grettir had to use his utmost force to
+stand against Karr the Old.  The two wrestled up
+and down in the chamber, kicking the horse bones
+about from side to side, stumbling over the coffer,
+and the brass vessel, and the horse's skull, striking
+against the sides, and when they did this then
+masses of earth and portions of broken plank fell in
+from above.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>At last Karr's feet gave way under him and he
+fell, and Grettir fell over him.  Then instantly he
+laid hold of his sword, and smote off Old Karr's head
+and laid it beside his thigh.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>This, according to Norse belief, was the only way
+in which to prevent a dead man from walking, who
+had haunted the neighbourhood of his tomb, and in
+the Icelandic sagas we hear of other cases where the
+same proceeding was gone through.  The Norsemen
+held to something more dreadful than ghosts walking;
+they thought that some evil spirit entered into
+the bodies of the dead, that when this happened the
+dead no longer decayed, but walked, and ate, and
+drank, and fought, very much like living ruffians,
+but with redoubled strength.  Then, when this
+happened, nothing was of any avail save the digging
+up of the dead man, cutting off his head and laying
+it at his thigh.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>When Grettir had done this, he despoiled Karr
+the Old of his helm, his breast-plate, his torque,
+and he took the box on which the feet had rested.
+He fastened all together to the rope, and called to
+Audun to haul up.  He received no answer, so he
+swarmed up himself, and finding that his friend had
+run away he pulled up what he had tied together,
+and carried the whole lot in his arms to the house of
+Thorfin.  Thorfin and his party were at supper; and
+when Grettir came in, the bonder looked up, and
+asked why he did not keep regular hours, and be at
+the table when the meal began.  Grettir made no
+other answer than to throw all he carried down on
+the supper-table before the master.  Thorfin raised
+his eyebrows when he saw so much treasure.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Where did you get all this?" he asked.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then Grettir answered in one of his enigmatical songs:</span></p>
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<div class="line-block outermost">
+<div class="line"><span>"Thou who dost the wave-shine shorten,</span></div>
+<div class="inner line-block">
+<div class="line"><span>My attempt has been to find</span></div>
+</div>
+<div class="line"><span>In the barrow what was hidden,</span></div>
+<div class="inner line-block">
+<div class="line"><span>Deep in darkness black and blind.</span></div>
+</div>
+<div class="line"><span>Nothing of the dragon's treasure</span></div>
+<div class="inner line-block">
+<div class="line"><span>With the dead is left behind."</span></div>
+<div class="line"> </div>
+</div>
+</div>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>By the wave-shine shortener he meant Thorfin;
+the dragon's treasure meant gold, because dragons
+were thought to line their lairs with that metal.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Thorfin saw that Grettir's eye looked longingly at
+the short sword that had lain on the knees of Karr.
+He said: "It was a heathen custom in old times to
+bury very much that was precious along with the
+dead.  I do not blame you for what you have done;
+but this I will say, that there is no one else about
+this place who would have ventured to attempt
+what you have done.  As for that sword on which
+you cast your eyes so longingly, it has ever been in
+our family, and I cannot part with it till you have
+shown that you are worthy to wear it."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then that sword was hung up over Thorfin's bed.
+You have heard how Grettir did show that he was
+worthy to wear it, and also how Thorfin gave it him.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now, this tale about the sword will very well
+illustrate what was said at the beginning, that the
+history of Grettir contains, in the main, truth; but
+that this substance of truth has been embroidered
+over by fancy.  What is true is, that during the
+winter in which he was with Thorfin he did dig into
+the mound in which Karr was buried, and did take
+thence his treasures and his sword.  But all the
+story of his fight with the dead man was added.
+The same story occurs in a good many other sagas,
+as in that of Hromund Greip's son, who also got a
+sword by digging into a barrow for it.  When the
+history of Grettir was told, and this adventure of his
+was related, those who told the story imported into
+it the legend of the fight of Hromund in the grave
+with the dead man, so as to make the history of
+Grettir more amusing.  As you will see by the tale,
+no one else was present when it happened, for
+Audun had run away, and it was not like Grettir to
+boast of what he had done.  This was an embellishment
+added by the story-teller, and from the storyteller
+the incident passed into the volume of the
+story-writer.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir had now two good swords; one long,
+which he called Jokull's Gift, that he had received
+from his mother, and this short one that he wore at
+his girdle, which he had taken out of the grave of
+Karr the Old, and which he had won fairly by his
+bravery in the defence of the house and family of
+Thorfin.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst" id="of-the-bear"><span class="bold large">CHAPTER VIII.</span></p>
+<p class="center pnext"><span class="bold medium">OF THE BEAR.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<!--  -->
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<p class="pfirst"><em class="italics">Grettir goes North—Biorn the Braggart—The
+Bear's Den—Biorn's Feat—A Hunting Party—The
+Lost Cloak—Grettir Seeks the Bear Alone—Grettir's
+Hardest Tussle—The Fall Over the Cliff—Thorgils
+Acts as Peacemaker—Grettir Restrains Himself</em></p>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>When spring came, then Grettir left his friend
+Thorfin, and went north along the Norwegian
+coast, and was everywhere well received, because
+the story of how he had killed twelve rovers, he
+being as yet but a boy, was noised through all the
+country, and every one who had anything to lose
+felt safer because that wicked gang was broken up.
+Nothing of consequence is told about him during
+that summer.  For the winter he did not return to
+Thorfin as asked, but accepted the invitation of
+another bonder, named Thorgils.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Thorgils was a merry, pleasant man, and he had
+a great company in his house that winter.  Among
+his visitors was a certain Biorn, a distant cousin, a
+man whom Thorgils did not like, as he was a
+slanderous-tongued fellow, and moreover he was a
+braggart.  He was one of those persons we meet with
+not infrequently who cannot endure to hear another
+praised; who, the moment a good word is spoken
+of someone, immediately puts in a nasty, spiteful
+word, and tells an unkind story, so as to drag that
+person down in the general opinion.  At the same
+time, concerning himself he had only praiseworthy
+and wonderful feats to relate about his wit, his
+wisdom, his craft, his knowledge of the world, about
+his strength and courage.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Thorgils knew how much, or rather how little,
+to believe of what Biorn said, and he did not pay
+much regard to his talk.  But now Grettir had an
+opportunity of seeing and of feeling how mistaken
+had been his conduct on board the ship upon which
+he had come to Norway, when he made lampoons on
+the sailors and chapmen, and stung them with sharp
+words.  He saw how disagreeable a fellow Biorn
+was, how much he was disliked, and by some
+despised; and he kept very greatly to himself and
+out of Biorn's way.  He did not wish to quarrel
+with him, because he was the relative of his host,
+and he was afraid that his anger would get the better
+of him if he did come to words with the braggart.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir had grown a great deal since he left
+Iceland, and he was now a strapping fellow, broad
+built but not short.  He was not handsome, but his
+face was intelligent.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>It fell out that a bear gave much trouble that
+winter to Thorgils and the neighbouring farmers.
+It was so strong and so daring that no folds were
+secure against it, and Thorgils and the other farmers
+endured severe losses through the depredations of
+Bruin.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Before Yule, a party was formed to go in search
+of and kill the bear, but all that was done was to
+find the lair.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The bear had taken up his abode in the face of a
+tremendous cliff that overhung the sea.  There was
+but one path up to the cave, and that was so narrow
+that only one man could creep along it at a time.
+Moreover, if his foot slipped he would be flung over
+the edge upon the rocks or skerries below against
+which the waves dashed.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"When the den of the bear had been discovered,"
+Biorn said, "That is the main thing.  Now I know
+where the rogue lies, I'll settle with him, trust me.
+I've been the death of scores of bears.  My only
+dread is lest he be afraid of me, and will not
+come on."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>And, actually, Biorn went out on several moonlit
+nights to watch for the bear.  He saw that the only
+way to deal with him would be to stop the track
+from the den, and fight him as he attempted to
+come away.  He took his short sword and great
+shield with him covered with ox-hide, and one night
+he laid himself down on the path of the bear, and
+put his shield over him.  He thought that Bruin
+would come smelling at the great hide-covered
+shield, and then all at once he (Biorn) would spring
+up and drive his sword into the heart of the bear.
+That was his plan—and not a bad plan—only,
+unfortunately for Biorn, the bear did not come out for
+a long time.  He had got an inkling that a man was
+watching for him, so he was shy, and whilst he
+waited before venturing forth, Biorn, who had
+been drinking pretty freely that evening, went to sleep.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Presently the bear came out, crept cautiously down
+the narrow track, snuffing about, and when he came
+to Biorn, he plucked with his claws at the shield,
+and with one wrench had it off and tumbled it
+down the cliff.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Biorn woke with a start, rose to his knees, saw
+the huge bear before him, and in a moment turned
+tail, and ran as hard as he could run to Thorgils'
+house, and was too scared to be able to boast that
+he had killed or wounded the bear.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Next morning his shield was found where the
+bear had thrown it, and much fun did this adventure
+of the braggart occasion.  This made him very
+irritable and more spiteful than ever.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Thorgils now said that really something must be
+done to rid the neighbourhood of the bear, so a
+party of eight set out well armed with spears; of
+this party were Biorn and Grettir.  They reached the
+point where the track to the den ran up the cliff to
+the lair, and one man after another tried it.  But
+there was no getting at the bear; for as soon as a
+man came near the beast put his great forepaws
+forth and caught and snapped the spear-heads or
+beat them down.  As already said, only one could
+crawl up at a time.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir had gone out that day in a fur coat that
+his friend Thorfin had given him, and which he
+greatly valued.  When the onslaught against the
+bear began, he took off his fur coat, and folded it,
+and put it on a stone.  Biorn saw this, and, when
+none observed, he took the fur coat and threw it
+into the cave of the bear.  Grettir did not see what
+had been done till the party, disappointed with
+their want of success, made ready to depart, when
+he missed it, and then some suspicion entered his
+head as to what had been done with it, and by
+whom, but he said nothing.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>As they walked home, Biorn began to taunt
+Grettir with having done nothing all day.  He
+could kill robbers who were unarmed and were
+drunk, perhaps asleep, but a bear was too serious an
+adversary for him.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir said nothing, but as his gaiter thong
+became broken, he stopped and stooped to mend it.
+Thorgils asked if they should wait for him.  Grettir
+declined.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Oh," said Biorn, "it is all nonsense.  It is a
+pretence.  He means to have all the glory of
+fighting the bear alone when we have gone on."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>He said the truth, but he had no idea when he
+spoke that it was the truth.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir tarried till the party had crossed a hill
+and was out of sight, then he turned and went back
+to the bear's den.  He slipped his hand through the
+loop at the end of the handle of his short sword
+that he had taken from the grave of Karr the Old,
+and let it hang on his wrist, but he held the long
+sword, Jokull's gift, by the pommel.  His plan was
+to use the long sword if needed, but if the bear
+came to close quarters he would throw it down and
+grasp the short one without having to put his hand
+to his girdle for it.  Very cautiously he crept along
+the path.  Bruin saw him, and was now angry and
+hungry, and came down to meet him.  The bear
+was somewhat above him; Grettir halted, and the
+bear stood up growling on his hind-legs.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>At once the long sword was whirled and fell on
+the right wrist above the paw, and cut it off.  The
+bear immediately fell down on all-fours; but the
+amputated paw was on the side away from the wall of
+rock, and when he went down on the stump he was
+overbalanced, and came down with his whole weight
+on Grettir.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir let fall his long sword at once, and with
+both hands grasped the brute's ears, and held his
+head off lest he should get a bite at him.  Grettir,
+in after years, was wont to say that this was the
+hardest tussle he had in his life—it was even worse
+than anything he had to do with the rovers.  For if
+the beast had but been able to nip him on the
+breast, or shoulder, or face with his great fangs, all
+would have been up with him.  Moreover, the ears
+were so smooth that he had to do his utmost not to
+let them slip.  Grettir had the wit to drag back the
+brute's head to the rock, and by so doing the bear
+could not use his only uninjured fore-leg, armed
+with terrible claws, which would have ripped
+Grettir's clothes and flesh.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>In the struggle the two went over the edge, and
+for a moment Grettir thought, as they spun in the
+air, that he was lost.  But the bear was heavier than
+the lad, consequently he fell crash on the rocks at the
+bottom first, and Grettir on him, breaking Grettir's
+fall by his great body.  The bear's back was broken.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then Grettir got up, shook himself, left the bear,
+went up the path and found his fur coat torn to
+tatters, and he put it about him, recovered also his
+long sword, and took the cut-off paw of the bear.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>He now went back to Thorgils' house, and when
+he came into the hall where the fires were blazing,
+every one laughed to see him in his tattered coat;
+but when he gave the paw of the bear to Thorgils
+the general merriment exchanged to surprise.  Biorn,
+however, could not contain himself for vexation,
+and launched forth some coarse jest that made
+Grettir's blood tingle in his veins.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Do not listen to him," said Thorgils.  "You are
+a brave fellow, and there are not many your like."  Then
+turning to Biorn, he said, "Kinsman, I advise
+and warn you to keep a civil tongue in your head,
+or you will come to rue it, and have to be taught
+better manners."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Oh, if I am to learn manners from Grettir, that
+is sending me to a cub indeed!"</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"I want to know," said Grettir, "whether you
+threw my fur coat into the den?"</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"I am not afraid of saying that I did."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Will you give me another in its place?"</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"I have not the smallest intention of doing charity
+to beggars."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The braggart knew that Grettir was restraining
+himself because he did not wish to quarrel with his
+host's kinsman, and he took advantage of his
+knowledge.  But Thorgils was greatly distressed and
+ashamed, and he said to Grettir:</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Pay no attention to his words.  He has insulted
+you, and I will pay you a fine in compensation
+for his insult, that it may be buried and forgotten."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>That was customary then.  When one had hurt
+another in body or in honour by blow or foul word,
+he was bound to pay a sum of money; if he did not
+then the man injured was required by the laws of
+honour to revenge the injury.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>But when Biorn heard this proposal, he shouted
+out that he would not suffer the matter to be so
+compromised; he was not ashamed of his words.
+Thorgils drew Grettir aside, and said to him that
+his kinsman was a badly-behaved, brutal fellow,
+but that he hoped Grettir would not take up the
+quarrel in his house; and Grettir promised him
+solemnly that he would not attempt to take revenge
+for the rudeness of Biorn so long as they were both
+inmates of his house.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"As for what may happen between you later,"
+said Thorgils, "I wash my hands of responsibility.
+If Biorn is offensive to those who have never hurt
+him, he must take the consequences."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>So matters remained; only that Biorn, presuming
+on his position, became daily more arrogant, intolerable,
+and abusive, so that Grettir had to exercise
+daily self-restraint to keep his hands off him.  And
+glad he was when spring came, that he might get
+away to another part of Norway.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>As for Biorn, he went in the summer to England
+in a ship that belonged to Thorgils, trading there
+for Thorgils and for himself.  Consequently, all that
+summer he and Grettir did not meet.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst" id="the-slaying-of-biorn"><span class="bold large">CHAPTER IX.</span></p>
+<p class="center pnext"><span class="bold medium">THE SLAYING OF BIORN.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<!--  -->
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<p class="pfirst"><em class="italics">The Meeting on the Island—Biorn's Death—Thorfin
+Comes to Grettir's Aid—Grettir's Life in
+Danger—Hiarandi's Revenge—A Doomed Man</em></p>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>Grettir left Thorgils very good friends, and he
+went with some merchants to the north, but
+when the summer was over he came back south, and
+arrived at a little island in the entrance of the
+Drontheim firth.  His intention was to see Earl Sweyn,
+and perhaps take service under him; but if so,
+things fell out other than he had reckoned.  For, as
+he was in this island, there came in a large merchant
+vessel from England, and Grettir and those with him
+at once went to see the shipmen, and among them
+was Biorn.  The ship was, in fact, that of Thorgils,
+and it was laden with commodities bought in England,
+or obtained by exchange for the wool, and furs,
+and women's embroidery sent out in the spring by
+Thorgils.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Directly Biorn saw Grettir he turned red, and
+pretended not to recognize him; but Grettir went
+to him at once and said:</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Now has come the time when we two can settle
+our differences."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Oh," said Biorn, "that is soon done.  I don't
+object to paying a trifle."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"The time for paying is over," said Grettir.
+"Thorgils offered an indemnity for your insolence,
+and you refused to consent to it."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then Biorn saw that there was no help for him
+but that he must fight.  So he girded him for the
+conflict, and he and Grettir went down on the sand,
+and they fought.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The fight did not last long.  Grettir's sword cut
+him that he fell and died.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>When the news reached Thorgils, he got ready,
+and came by boat as fast as he could to see the earl
+at Drontheim.  He found the earl very angry, but
+he said to him:</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"I am a kinsman of the fallen man, and I know
+that he treated Grettir with intolerable insolence,
+and that he refused every compromise.  Then
+remember what a benefit has been done to the
+country by Grettir, who ridded it of the Red Rovers,
+Thorir wi' the Paunch and Ogmund the Bad."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Thorfin also came to Drontheim when he heard
+of the straits into which Grettir had come through
+killing Biorn.  The earl called a council on the
+matter, and said he would not come to a decision
+till he had heard what Biorn's brother Hiarandi had
+to say on the matter.  Hiarandi was a violent man,
+and he was very wroth.  He would hear of no
+patching up of the matter, and he vowed he would
+not, as he expressed it, "bring his brother into his
+purse."  As already said, it was customary when a
+man had been killed to offer a sum of money to the
+next of kin, and if he accepted the money the
+quarrel was at an end.  When we now speak of
+"pocketing an injury," reference is made to this
+same ancient usage, by which every offence was
+estimated at so much money, and if the wronged
+man took money for the offence committed against
+him, he was said </span><em class="italics">to pocket it</em><span>.  When the earl went
+into the matter, and heard how Grettir had been
+wronged and outraged by Biorn, he gave his
+decision that Grettir had not acted contrary to law,
+and that Biorn had justly forfeited his life.  Thorfin
+offered the sum of money which the earl considered
+was sufficient to atone to the relations for the death
+of Biorn, but Hiarandi refused absolutely to touch it.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then Thorfin knew that Grettir's life was in
+danger, for Hiarandi would certainly try to take it;
+so he begged his kinsman Arinbiorn to go about
+with Grettir, and keep on the look-out against the
+mischief that threatened.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now it fell out one day that Grettir and
+Arinbiorn were walking down a street in Drontheim
+when their way led before a narrow lane opening
+into it.  They did not see any danger in the way,
+and were unaware of this lane.  But just as they
+had passed it a man jumped out from behind, in the
+shadow, swinging an axe, and he struck at Grettir
+between the shoulder-blades.  Fortunately,
+Arinbiorn had looked round at the lane, and he saw the
+man leap out, so he suddenly dragged Grettir forward
+with such a jerk that Grettir fell on his knee.
+This saved his life, for the axe came on his shoulder-blade,
+made a gash that cut to his armpit, and then
+the axe buried itself in the roadway.  Instantly
+Grettir started to his feet, turned round, and with
+his short sword smote in the very nick of time as
+the man, who was Hiarandi, was pulling up his axe
+to cut at Grettir again.  Grettir's sword fell on his
+upper arm near the shoulder, and cut it off.  Then
+out rushed some servants of Hiarandi on Arinbiorn
+and Grettir, who set their backs against a house-wall
+and defended themselves with such valour that
+they killed or put to flight all who had assailed
+them.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now, this had been a base and cowardly attempt
+on the life of Grettir, and Hiarandi richly deserved
+his fate.  But the earl was exceedingly angry when
+he heard the news, and he called a council together.
+Thorfin and Grettir attended, and the earl angrily
+charged Grettir with having committed great
+violence, and being the cause of the death of Hiarandi
+and some of his servants.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir acknowledged this; but showed his wound,
+and stated how he had been attacked from behind;
+how his life had been saved by the promptitude of
+Arinbiorn, and how he had but defended himself
+against enemies who sought his life.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"I wish you had been killed," said the earl, "and
+then there would have been an end to these disorders."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"You would not have a man not raise his hands
+to save his head?" said Grettir.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"I see one thing," exclaimed the earl.  "Ill luck
+attends you, and you are doomed to commit
+violences wherever you are."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The end of it was that Earl Sweyn said he would
+not have Grettir to live in Norway any longer, lest
+he should be the cause of fresh troubles.  But he
+remained over the third winter, and next spring
+sailed for Iceland, the time of his outlawing being
+ended.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst" id="of-grettir-s-return"><span class="bold large">CHAPTER X.</span></p>
+<p class="center pnext"><span class="bold medium">OF GRETTIR'S RETURN.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<!--  -->
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<p class="pfirst"><em class="italics">Iceland Once More—Life's Bitter Lessons—Grettir
+Pays Audun a Visit—Some Icelandic Terms—Byres
+and Sels—A Chief's Hall—The Return of
+Audun—Grettir's Second Wrestle with Audun—Bard
+Interposes—The Cousins Reconciled</em></p>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>When Grettir came back to Biarg, he found his
+father so old and infirm as to be no more
+able to stir abroad, and Atli managed the farm for
+him along with Illugi, Grettir's youngest brother,
+now grown up to be a big boy.  Grettir was now
+aged eighteen, but he looked and was a man.  Illugi
+was about fifteen, a gentle, pleasant boy.  He and
+the kindly, careful Atli were as unlike Grettir as
+well could be; they avoided quarrels, they had a
+civil word for every one, and took pains to make
+themselves agreeable, whether to guests in their
+house, or when staying anywhere, to their hosts.
+Grettir never troubled himself to be courteous or
+to be obliging to anyone.  Now that he was back
+from Norway he was rather disposed to think much
+of himself as a man more brave and audacious than
+his fellows, for, had he not killed twelve rovers,
+broken into a barrow, slain a bear, and been the
+death of one man in a duel, and another who had
+attempted to assassinate him?  Atli did not much
+like his manner, and cautioned him not to be
+overbearing whilst at home, lest he should involve
+himself in fresh troubles.  But words were wasted on
+Grettir.  He was not the fellow to listen to advice,
+but one of those men who must learn the bitter
+lessons of life by personal experience.  It is so with
+men always.  Some, who are thoughtful, see what
+God's law is which is impressed on all society, and
+listen to what others have found out as the lessons
+taught them by their lives, so they are able to go
+out equipped against the trials and difficulties of
+life.  But others will neither look nor listen, and
+such have to go through every sort of adversity, till
+they have learned the great truths of social life, and
+perhaps they only acquire them when it is too late
+to put them in practice.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>It is with laws and courtesies of life as with the
+three R's.  A man will fare badly who cannot read,
+write, and cipher.  If he learns these accomplishments
+as a child, he does well; he is furnished for
+the struggle of life, and starts on the same footing
+as other men; but if as a child he is morose and
+indifferent, and refuses to learn, then all through
+his life he is met with difficulties, owing to his
+ignorance, and he finds that he must learn to read,
+write, and do sums; and he has to acquire these in
+after years with much less ease than he might have
+learnt as a child, and after he has lost many chances
+of getting on which might have been seized, had he
+known these things before.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir's temper on his return may be judged by
+one incident that happened almost directly.  He
+had not forgotten his struggle on the ice with his
+cousin Audun, and he was resolved to have another
+trial of strength with him.  So he had not been
+home many days before he rode over the hill to
+Audunstead in his best harness, and with a beautiful
+saddle on his horse that had been given him by
+Thorfin.  The time was that of hay, and he saw the
+field round Audun's farm full of rich grass, ready to
+be cut.  He took the bridle off his horse and turned
+it into Audun's meadow.  This was not out of
+thoughtlessness, but out of insolence, and was
+intended to exasperate Audun.  In Iceland grass grows
+very little, and only fit to be cut for hay round the
+farms in what is called the </span><em class="italics">tun</em><span>, where it is richly
+dressed with stable-dung.  Consequently hay is very
+scarce and very precious.  The grass never grows
+much longer than one's fingers, and so even in the
+tun it is not plentiful.  He knocked at the door of
+the farm and asked for his cousin, and was told that
+Audun had gone to the highland </span><em class="italics">sel</em><span> to fetch curds,
+and would be back later.  The </span><em class="italics">sel</em><span> was a farm on
+the highland, only occupied in summer, when the
+cattle were driven to the moors and hills to feed on
+the grass there, and to save that in the lowlands
+against winter.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Here a word or two must be said about Icelandic
+names of places and people.  When Iceland was
+colonized, those who first settled in the land and
+built farms, called the places after their own names
+in a great many cases; they called them so-and-so's
+</span><em class="italics">stead</em><span>, or so-and-so's </span><em class="italics">by</em><span> or farm.  A </span><em class="italics">by</em><span> is the Scotch
+byre, and in Icelandic is </span><em class="italics">bœr</em><span>, pronounced exactly
+like the Scotch word.  Wherever, in the north and
+east of England, Norse settlers came, there we find
+names of places ending in the same way, and we
+know that these were farms and dwellings of old
+Norse settlers.  Thus in Northumberland, Yorkshire,
+and Lincolnshire, are plenty of Norse place-names.
+Near Thirsk is Thirkelby or Thorkel's-byre, near
+Ripon is Enderby or Andrew's-byre.  Not only so,
+but where there are high hills there we find also
+</span><em class="italics">sels</em><span>, that is summer-farms, like the Alps to which
+the cattle are driven in Switzerland.  Next as to
+the names of people.  What is a little puzzling to
+remember is the number of persons whose names begin
+with Thor.  Thor, the god of thunder, was regarded
+with the highest reverence by the Icelanders; they
+thought of him even more than they did of Odin,
+the chief god of all, who had one eye, and his one
+fiery eye was the sun.  Thor was called the Redbeard,
+and the aurora borealis was thought to be his
+waving red-beard in the sky.  The thunderbolt they
+regarded as his hammer.  To show their respect for
+him, children were named after him: Thor-grim
+means Thor's wrath; Thor-kel, Thor's kettle, in
+which the sacrificial meat was cooked in offering to
+Thor; Thor-gil was Thor's boy or servant; Thor-hall
+was Thor's flint spear-head, and so on.  The
+Northumbrian king, St. Osmund, takes his name
+from the Hand of God, and the name is the same
+as Asmund, the father of Grettir.  Oswald means the
+elect of the god; in Icelandic the name would be
+Aswald.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>When Grettir found that Audun was from home,
+he went into the hall and lay down on the bench
+nearest the door.  The hall was dark.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The halls of the Icelandic chiefs were like bodies
+of churches, and were divided into a nave with side
+aisles; and were lighted by windows in a clere-story
+that were covered with the skin of the lining of a
+sheep's stomach, to let in light and keep out cold,
+because they had no glass.  In the side aisles were
+the beds of those who lived in the house, some with
+doors and shutters, which could be fastened from
+within; and a man in danger of his life would so
+sleep.  He would go to bed, and then close himself
+in and lock the shutters, that no one could get at
+him when he was asleep.  The fires and benches
+and tables were in the nave, or middle of the great
+hall.  Over the partitions for the beds were hung
+shields and swords and spears, and on grand
+occasions hangings were put up all along the sides,
+hiding the beds and berths in the side aisles.  The
+arrangement in an Icelandic house at the present
+day is much the same, only on a very much reduced
+scale.  The people live and eat and sleep in the
+same room, like the saloon-cabin of a ship, with the
+berths round the walls.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Audun arrived in the afternoon with a horse that
+carried curds in skins on its back; that is to say,
+skins were made into bottles, as is still common in
+Palestine.  When he saw that a horse with a saddle
+on it was wandering about in his meadow, trampling
+down the grass and eating it, he was very vexed;
+and throwing one bottle of curd over his back, and
+hanging another in front on his breast to counterbalance
+it, he ran into the house to ask who had
+done this.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The hall was dusky, and Audun's eyes were
+accustomed to the bright summer-light.  As he entered
+Grettir put out his foot; Audun did not see it, and
+stumbled over it, fell on the skin of curds and burst
+it.  Then he jumped up, very angry, and asked who
+had played him this scurvy trick.  Grettir named
+himself, and said he had come over about that
+matter of the wrestle on the ice.  Audun, still very
+irate, all at once stooped, picked up the burst skin,
+and dashed it in Grettir's face, smothering him with
+curds.  Then he threw down the other curd-bottle,
+and began to wrestle with Grettir.  They swung up
+and down the hall, kicking over the benches, now
+upon the floor, then on the stone-paved fire-hearth
+in the midst; then they crashed against the walls
+and pillars of the bed-chambers, and as they did so
+the shields and weapons hung over them clashed
+like bells.  Some frightened servant-maids came in,
+and ran out again in alarm, calling for aid.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Audun felt now that Grettir had outgrown him
+in strength, but he would not give in; then they
+slipped on the curd and both fell, parted for a
+moment, rose, and flew at each other once more.
+Again, up and down, banging, stumbling, writhing
+in each other's arms, twisting legs round each other,
+to try to trip each other up, and ever Grettir
+bearing Audun backwards, but never wholly mastering
+him.  Audun could not trust his cousin, for though
+they were akin, and though he had not really done
+him an injury, there was no telling to what a pitch
+Grettir's blood might mount and blind him; so as
+they wrestled, Audun took care to twist the short
+sword out of Grettir's belt and throw it away.  As,
+to do this, he had to disengage his hand from
+Grettir's shoulder, he lost an advantage.  Grettir
+managed to trip him, and throw him flat on his back.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>At that moment, fortunately, a man, big, wearing
+a red kirtle, and in full harness, entered the hall and
+asked what was the meaning of the noise and fight?
+As he did not receive an immediate answer, he came
+to the rescue of Audun, and drew Grettir from him.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"We are only in play with each other," said Grettir.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Rather rough play," said the man, "and likely
+to end in tears rather than laughter."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Who are you that interfere?" asked Grettir.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"My name is Bard."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then Audun scrambled to his feet.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"What is the reason of this rough play?" asked Bard.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then Grettir answered, by singing:</span></p>
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<div class="line-block outermost">
+<div class="line"><span>"Prithee, Audun, will you say</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>How, upon the ice one day,</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>You to throttle did essay?</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>Now, for that I this have done,</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>On Audun honour I have won;</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>Curds and wrestle make good fun."</span></div>
+<div class="line"> </div>
+</div>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>"Oh, I see," said Bard; "fighting out an old
+grudge.  I have nothing to say against that.  Now,
+shake hands, and be loving cousins again."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Audun held out his hand, and Grettir agreed to
+let the matter end thus.  But he was dissatisfied,
+and ever after bore Bard a grudge.  However, he
+never again wrestled with Audun, and remained on
+good terms with him.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst" id="the-horse-fight"><span class="bold large">CHAPTER XI.</span></p>
+<p class="center pnext"><span class="bold medium">THE HORSE-FIGHT.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<!--  -->
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<p class="pfirst"><em class="italics">Atli's Roan—The Coming Fight—Unfair
+Play—Grettir Retaliation—Smouldering Fire</em></p>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>One of the rude and cruel sports that amused the
+Icelanders in summer time was horse-fighting.
+A smooth piece of turf was chosen, and was staked
+round.  Into this inclosure two or sometimes more
+horses were introduced, and a man attended each,
+who urged on his own horse, armed with a goad.
+By means of these goads the horses were stung to
+madness, and attacked each other, biting each other
+savagely.  Now, Atli had a beautiful roan, with a
+black mane, which he and his old father were very
+proud of.  Lower down the valley, near the sea,
+was a farm called Mais, in which lived a bonder
+named Kormak, and his brother; they had in their
+house a man called Odd the Foundling, a sly,
+captious fellow, who, like Grettir, made verses; but his
+verses were not generally thought to be so good as
+those of Grettir.  On the opposite side of the river
+is a hot-spring; it is still hot, but not so hot as it
+was in those days, when it boiled up and poured
+forth a cloud of steam, and ran in a scalding rill
+down to the river.  There was a convenient level
+place near the river for a horse-fight, and it stood
+above the water on one side rather steeply, so that
+it needed only fencing on three sides.  Kormak had
+a brown horse that fought well, and it was resolved
+that autumn to have a fight between the horse of
+Kormak and the roan of Atli.  Odd was to goad on
+Kormak's brown, and Grettir offered himself to his
+brother to run with the roan.  Atli did not much
+like the proposal, as he feared Grettir's temper; but
+he could not well decline his offer, so he said, "I
+will consent, brother; only I pray you, be peaceable,
+for we have to do with overbearing men, and it will
+be very unfortunate if a broil should come of this."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"If they begin, I shall not run away," said Grettir.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Not if they begin; but be very careful not to
+provoke a quarrel."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Quarrels come and are not made," said Grettir.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"That I do not hold," answered Atli.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The day of the horse-fight arrived, and the horses
+were led to the place of contest.  They had been
+fed up and groomed for the occasion, and each had
+a band round his middle of colour, by which he who
+went with the horse could hold, and the goad of each
+was tied with a tuft of feathers at the head, stained
+the same colour as the belt about the horse.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The two horses were introduced within the inclosure,
+and were soon goaded into anger, and began
+to plunge, and snort, and snap at each other.  The
+by-standers outside the railing cheered and shouted,
+and the horses seemed to understand that they were
+to do their best; so they pranced about each other,
+struck at each other, and tried to get round each
+other so as to bite the flank.  At one moment the
+roan bit the side of the brown, and held.  Odd ran
+his goad into the horse of Grettir to make it let
+go;—this was against the rules; he did it to save his
+own horse from a terrible wound.  Grettir saw what
+he did, but he said nothing.  Now the horses bore
+towards the river, and were rearing and plunging close
+to the edge, and the two men had much ado to hold
+on.  Then Odd took the opportunity when Grettir's
+back was turned to drive at him with his goad
+between the shoulders, where was the great scar still
+red, and only just fully healed, that he had received
+from the axe of Hiarandi.  It was a cruel blow, and
+this also was against all rule of fair play.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>At that moment the roan reared, and instantly
+Grettir ran under him, and struck Odd with such a
+blow that he reeled back towards the water edge,
+and in so doing dragged the brown horse he was
+holding over the edge, and both went down into the
+water together.  The river was very full with the
+melted snows, and Odd was brought ashore with
+difficulty.  It was found that three of his ribs were
+broken; but whether with the blow dealt by Grettir,
+or by his fall on the rock, or by the hoof of the horse
+as it fell and struggled in the river, cannot be said;
+but the party of Kormak, of course, charged Grettir
+with having broken Odd's ribs with his stick, and
+they flew to arms, and threatened the party from
+Biarg.  However, the people of the nearest vales
+and firths interfered, and no bloodshed ensued.  But
+the men of Mais and of Biarg separated bearing
+each other much ill-will, each charging the other
+with having broken the laws of the sport.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Atli did not say what he felt, he was greatly
+annoyed; but Grettir was less careful of his words, he
+said that the matter was by no means ended, and
+that he hoped there would be a meeting between
+the men of Mais and the men of Biarg, and then—it
+would not be a fight of horses, but of men; not a
+biting of horses, but of sharp blades.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst" id="of-the-fight-at-the-neck"><span class="bold large">CHAPTER XII.</span></p>
+<p class="center pnext"><span class="bold medium">OF THE FIGHT AT THE NECK.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<!--  -->
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<p class="pfirst"><em class="italics">The Desolate Moor—Grettir challenges Kormak—Oxmain
+comes on the Scene—Slow-coach taunts Grettir—Grettir's
+Vexation</em></p>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>The next fiord on the west of that into which the
+river that flowed past Biarg poured was called
+the Ramsfirth, and at the head of it lived Grettir's
+married sister.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>In the following summer, that is in 1014, Grettir
+paid his sister a visit; he had with him two servant-men
+from Biarg, and he spent three days and nights
+at his sister's.  Whilst there, news reached him that
+Kormak, who had been away from Mais for a week
+or two, was on his road home, and who was now
+staying at a house called Tongue.  Grettir at once
+made ready to depart, and his brother-in-law sent
+two men with him, for it was not safe that Grettir
+should have only two churls with him, as there was
+ill blood between him and Kormak about that affair
+of the horse-fight.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>A high, long shoulder of desolate moor lies
+between the Ramsfirth and the Westriver-dale, in
+which is a confluent of the river that flows past
+Biarg.  This shoulder rises to the north into a great
+hump, called Burfell, and on the saddle is a little
+lake.  A very fine view is obtained from this shoulder
+of moor over the northern immense bay of Hunafloi,
+towards the glaciers and mountains of that curious
+excrescence of land that lies on the north-west of
+Iceland.  I know exactly the road taken by Grettir on
+this occasion, for I have ridden over it.  Along the top
+of this shoulder the rocks are scraped by glaciers,
+that must at one time have occupied the whole
+centre of the island, and have slowly slidden down
+into the firths on all sides.  Here, what is curious
+is, that the rocks are furrowed, just as if carved with
+a graving tool, in lines from south to north, showing
+the direction from which the glaciers slipped down.
+Now, on the slope of this bit of upland is a great
+stone poised on a point, which I have seen.  Grettir
+came to this stone, and spent a long time in trying
+to upset it.  It is called Grettir's-heave to this day.
+The men who were with him rather wondered at
+him why he wasted time over this, instead of pushing
+on.  But his sharp eye had noticed the party of
+Kormak leaving Tongue, and he was bent on an
+encounter.  He thought that if Odd had seen him
+going over the hill he would make a lampoon about
+him running away from his sister's house the moment
+he heard that danger was threatening.  So he
+determined to tarry till Kormak came up and fight
+him.  He had not long to wait, for presently over
+the top of the hill came Kormak with Odd and some
+others.  Grettir at once rode to meet them, and
+said, "Now we have our weapons on both sides, let
+us fight like men of good birth, and not with sticks
+as churls."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then Kormak turned to his men and bade them
+accept the challenge and fight.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Accordingly they ran at one another and fought.
+Grettir bade his two serving-men stand behind his
+back and defend that, and he, sweeping his
+longsword from left to right, went forward against
+Kormak.  Thus they fought for a while, and some
+were wounded on both sides.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now it so happened that at a rich farm in the
+Ramsfirth-dale lived a well-to-do, and very strong
+man, called Thorbiorn—that is, Thor's Bear—nicknamed
+Oxmain.  He had ridden that day over
+Burfell-heath, with a party, and was now returning.
+As he came along he heard shouts and the clashing
+of arms, so he quickened his pace, and presently
+came in sight of the fighters.  He at once ordered
+his men to dash in between the combatants.  But
+by this time the passions of those engaged were so
+furious that they would not be separated.  Grettir
+sweeping his long-sword about him strode
+forward, and the men of Kormak fell back before him.
+Down went two of those who were with Kormak,
+and one servant of Atli, Grettir's brother, was killed.</span></p>
+<div class="align-center auto-scaled figure margin" style="width: 61%" id="figure-84">
+<span id="grettir-challenges-kormak-and-his-party"></span><img class="align-center block" style="display: block; width: 100%" alt="GRETTIR CHALLENGES KORMAK AND HIS PARTY." src="images/img-116.jpg" />
+<div class="caption centerleft figure-caption margin">
+<span class="italics">GRETTIR CHALLENGES KORMAK AND HIS PARTY.</span></div>
+</div>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then Thorbiorn Oxmain raised his great voice
+and roared out, that he and his party would take
+sides against the first man who dealt another blow.
+Grettir saw that it would hardly do if Thorbiorn
+Oxmain brought all his force against him, so he gave
+up the battle; but they did not part till every one
+of those engaged was wounded, and two were killed
+on one side, and one on the other.  Grettir was ill
+pleased that the affray had ended in this manner,
+and he felt resentment against Oxmain for his
+interference.  Unfortunately, Oxmain's brother, who went
+by the name of the Slow-coach, made fun of the
+matter, and laughed about Grettir sneaking away
+from the fight directly he saw that he was getting
+the worst of it.  Whatever he said was reported at
+Biarg, and, as may well be imagined, did not
+improve Grettir's temper, or liking for Oxmain and
+Slow-coach.  Nothing further occurred between him
+and Kormak, probably he and Kormak were content
+with the trial of strength that had taken place, and
+were disinclined to renew a profitless contest.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Atli took no notice of the loss of his house-churl;
+he desired peace, and not a stirring afresh of the
+fires of discord.  To his peaceable behaviour it was
+doubtless due that the quarrel with Kormak came
+to an end.  But the vexation felt by Grettir against
+Oxmain for his meddlesomeness, and against Slow-coach
+for his gibes, rankled in his breast.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst" id="how-grettir-and-audun-made-friends"><span class="bold large">CHAPTER XIII.</span></p>
+<p class="center pnext"><span class="bold medium">HOW GRETTIR AND AUDUN MADE FRIENDS.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<!--  -->
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<p class="pfirst"><em class="italics">Audun's Pedigree—His relation to
+Grettir—Grettir's-heaves—In Willowdale—The
+Place called Tongue—A very strange Tale</em></p>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>Grettir remained through the autumn at Biarg,
+after the skirmish at the Neck, till September,
+and then he thought he would ride away east and
+see Audun again, with whom he had had that little
+ruffle that was almost a quarrel, and which was
+fortunately interrupted by the entrance of Bard.
+Audun was a cousin, though not a near one, and
+Grettir had no desire that any bad blood should
+exist between kinsfolk.  Audun belonged to what
+was called the Madpate family; for it had had in it
+at least two who had been so odd in their ways that
+folk said they were not quite right in their minds.
+The relationship will easily be understood by a look
+at the pedigree.  It will be remembered that old
+Onund Treefoot, who had settled in Iceland, had to
+wife secondly Thordis, an Icelandic woman, and his
+son by her was Thorgrim Grizzlepate, and this
+Thorgrim bought the estate and house of Biarg about the
+year 935.  Onund Treefoot died in or about 920, and
+then his widow Thordis married again a man called
+Audun Skokull, and they had a son who was called
+Asgeir, who settled in Willowdale, and either went
+off his head or proved so queer in his ways that
+folks called him Madpate.  This Madpate married
+and had a son Audun, and a daughter Thurid who
+married away west into a very good family; and
+she had a son called Thorstein Kuggson, of whom
+we shall hear more presently.  Audun of Willowdale's
+son was Madpate the Second, and the lad
+Audun who wrestled with Grettir and burst the
+bottle of curds was the son of this Madpate the
+Second.  Consequently the relationship to Grettir
+was through Grettir's great-grandmother, and Audun
+belonged to a generation younger than that of Grettir,
+because Grettir was the son of Asmund's old age.
+Moreover, Asmund's father Thorgrim had married
+somewhat late in life, whereas all the Madpate
+family had dashed into marriage at a very early
+age.  Thus it came about that Grettir's great-grandmother
+was Audun's great-great-grandmother, and
+that, nevertheless, Audun was somewhat older than
+Grettir.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir rode straight up over the hill behind his
+house.  Now this hill like the Neck, already
+described, is rather curious, for on it are a number
+of rocks that have been deposited by glaciers, and
+not only so, but they have been dragged along by ice,
+scratching the rocks over which they were driven
+forward, and so these beds of rock are rubbed and
+scored with lines made by the stones forced over
+them by ice.  Above Biarg there is one large stone
+that has scratched a deep furrow in the bed of rock
+and then has stopped at the end of the furrow it had
+itself scored.  This remarkable phenomenon tells us
+of a time when the whole of the centre of Iceland
+was covered with glaciers, like the centre of Greenland
+now.  These glaciers slided down the slopes of
+the hills, and were thrust along to the sea, where
+they broke off and floated away as icebergs.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Nowadays folk in Iceland do not understand these
+odd stones perched in queer places, which were
+deposited by the ancient glaciers, and they call them
+Grettir-taks or Grettir's-heaves.  So the farmer at
+Biarg told me that the curious stone at the end of
+the furrow in the bed of rock on top of the hill was a
+Grettir-tak; it had been rubbed along the rock and
+left where it stands by Grettir.  But I knew better.
+I knew that it was put there by an ancient glacier
+ages before Grettir was born, and before Iceland was
+discovered by the Norsemen.  I have no doubt that
+in Grettir's time this stone was said to have been
+put there by some troll.  Afterwards, when people
+ceased to believe in trolls, they said it was put there
+by Grettir.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir's ride led him by a pretty little blue lake
+that lies folded in between high hills and has a
+stream flowing from it into a very large lake near
+Hop.  But he did not follow the stream down; he
+crossed another hill, not very steep and high, and
+reached his cousin's house at Audun stead in
+Willowdale.  Now this valley took its name from the woods
+of willows that grew in it when first settled, but
+at the present day none remain; all have in course
+of time been burnt for fuel, and except for scanty
+grass the Willowdale is very dreary-looking.  We
+may be sure that Iceland presented a much more
+smiling and green appearance eight hundred or a
+thousand years ago than it does at present.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>When Grettir came to Willowdale, Audun received
+him in a friendly manner, and Grettir made
+him a present of a handsome axe he had.  He
+remained with him some little while, and they talked
+over old tales of Onund Treefoot and his doings, and
+every shadow of rivalry and anger disappeared, so
+that they parted at length in the best of tempers
+and as true and affectionate cousins.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Audun would have desired to keep Grettir there
+longer, but Grettir would not stay.  He desired to
+get on to the head of Waterdale, where lived an
+uncle of his called Jokull, his mother's brother, at
+a place called Tongue.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>So he rode away over the moor, and reached
+Tongue.  Here a stream comes rushing through a
+gorge in a series of waterfalls, and meets another
+stream that comes down a valley called the Valley
+of Shadows further east.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Tongue is so called because it lies on a grassy
+slope exactly in the tongue of land between these
+two streams.  There is now a good farm there and
+a church, and there I stayed a few days.  At the
+back of Tongue the hill rises rapidly to a fell called
+Tongue-heath.  This hill was covered with snow
+when Grettir arrived.  This uncle Jokull was glad
+to see him.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>He was a rough and violent man, very big and
+strong; and it was clear to everyone that his
+nephew took after his mother's family more than
+his father's, for there was a strong likeness both in
+build and face and in character between Jokull and
+Grettir.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>He received Grettir heartily in his rough, blunt
+way, and bade him stay there as long as he liked.
+Jokull had been a seafaring man, and had made
+much by his merchant trips.  He would probably
+have been a richer and more respected man had he
+not been so violent and overbearing and ready to
+pick quarrels.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now Grettir had not been at Tongue three days
+before he heard a very strange tale.  Jokull's mouth
+was full of it, and with good reason, for the events
+had taken place not an hour's ride distant.  It was
+a tale about the nearest farm in the Valley of
+Shadows, a farm called Thorhall's-stead, which was
+reported to be haunted; and so serious had affairs
+become there that no servants would remain, and
+the farmer and his family had been driven from
+house and home by the hauntings last winter, and
+had come and lodged with Jokull at Tongue, and
+he had entertained them for some two or three
+months.  Now this was not a case of mere fancy
+and fantastic fear.  It was something very real and
+very marvellous.  But it is a long story, and must
+be consigned to another chapter.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst" id="the-vale-of-shadows"><span class="bold large">CHAPTER XIV.</span></p>
+<p class="center pnext"><span class="bold medium">THE VALE OF SHADOWS.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<!--  -->
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<p class="pfirst"><em class="italics">A Turning-point in Grettir's Life—The Farm in
+the Valley—The haunted Sheep-walks—A
+strange-looking Fellow—"Here is my Hand"—Glam
+keeps Faith—Glam is missing—Following the Red
+Track—The Ghost of Glam—Glam's Successor—Thorgaut
+is Missing—From Bad to Worse—Fate of the old
+Serving-man—Thorhall's Perplexity—Grettir offers Aid</em></p>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>We have come now to an incident which formed
+a turning-point in Grettir's life.  It is a very
+mysterious and inexplicable story, not one that can
+be put aside as we have that of his fight in the tomb
+with Karr the Old.  This is a story even more gruesome.
+It relates to an event that so shook Grettir's
+nerves that he never after could endure to be alone
+in the dark, and would risk all kinds of dangers to
+escape solitude.  How much of truth lies under this
+strange narrative we cannot now say, but that something
+really did take place is certain from the effect
+it had on Grettir ever after.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The richest valley for grass in all this quarter of
+Iceland, and the most peopled, is the Waterdale.
+On the east rises a mountain ridge of precipitous
+basaltic cliffs, down which leap waterfalls from the
+snows above.  The river that flows through this
+valley is fed by two main streams that unite at the
+farm called Tongue.  The stream on the east rises
+a long way inland in a mass of lava, and flows
+through a valley so narrow and so gloomy that it
+goes by the name of the Valley of Shadows.  The high
+ranges of moor and waste to the south shut off the
+southern sun, and the lofty banks of mountain to
+east and west so close it in that it gets no sun
+morning or evening.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>A little way up this valley—not far, and not where
+it is most gloomy—are now the scanty ruins of a
+farm called Thorhall's-stead.  Above this the valley
+so contracts and the hills are so steep that it is only
+with great difficulty that a horse can be led along.
+This I know very well; for in crossing an avalanche
+slide my horse and I were almost precipitated into
+the torrent below.  Further up the valley stands a
+tongue of high land with a waterfall on one side and
+the ravine on the other, and here at one time some
+robbers had their fortress who were the terror of the
+neighbourhood.  No trace of their fortress remains
+at present, but it was to find this place that I
+explored the valley.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>In the farm that is now but a heap of ruins lived
+a bonder named Thorhall and his wife.  He was not
+a man of much consideration in the district, for
+he was planted on cold, poor land, and his wealth
+was but small.  Moreover, he had no servants;
+and the reason was that his sheep-walks were
+haunted.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Not a herdsman would remain with him.  He
+offered high wages, he threatened, he entreated, all
+in vain.  One shepherd after another left his service,
+and things came to such a pass that he determined
+to have the advice of the law-man or chief judge at
+the next annual assize.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>He saddled his horses and rode to Thingvalla.
+Skapti was the name of the judge then, a man with
+a long head, and deemed the best of men for giving
+counsel.  Thorhall told him his trouble.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"I can help you," said Skapti.  "There is a
+shepherd who has been with me, a rude, strange man,
+but afraid of neither man nor hobgoblin, and strong
+as a bull; but he is not very clear in his intellect."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"That does not matter," said Thorhall, "so long
+as he can mind sheep."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"You may trust him for that," said Skapti.  "He
+is a Swede, and his name is Glam."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Towards the end of the assize two gray horses
+belonging to Thorhall slipped their hobbles and
+strayed; so, as he had no serving-man, he went
+after them himself, and on his way met a strange-looking
+fellow, driving before him an ass laden with
+faggots.  The man was tall and stalwart; his face
+attracted Torhall's attention, for the eyes were ashen
+gray and staring.  The powerful jaw was furnished
+with white protruding teeth, and about his low brow
+hung bunches of coarse wolf-gray hair.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Pray, what are you called?" asked Thorhall, for
+he suspected that this was the man Skapti had
+spoken about.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Glam, at your service."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Do you like your present duties—wood-cutting?"
+asked the farmer.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"No, I do not.  I am properly a shepherd."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Then, will you come with me?  Skapti has
+spoken of you and offered you to me."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"What are the drawbacks to your service?" asked
+Glam cautiously.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"None, save that my sheep-walks are haunted."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Oh! is that all?  Ghosts won't scare me.  Here
+is my hand.  I will come to you before winter."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>They separated, and soon after the farmer found
+his horses; they had got into a little wood, and were
+nibbling the willow tops.  He went home, having
+thanked Skapti.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Summer passed, then autumn, and nothing further
+was heard of Glam.  The winter storms began to
+bluster up the valley from the cold Polar Sea, driving
+the flying snowflakes and heaping them in drifts at
+every turn of the vale.  Ice formed in the shallows
+of the river, and the streams which in summer
+trickled down the sides were now turned to icicles.
+I was there the very end of June, and then the
+whole of the mountain flank to the west was covered
+with frozen streams spread like a net of icicle over
+the black and red striped bare rock.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>One gusty night a violent blow at the door startled
+all in the farm.  In another moment Glam, tall and
+wild, stood in the hall glowering out of his gray
+staring eyes, his hair matted with frost, his teeth
+rattling and snapping with cold, his face blood-red
+in the glare of the fire that glowed in the centre of
+the hall.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>He was well received by Thorhall, but the housewife
+did not like the man's looks, and did not welcome
+him with much heartiness.  Time passed, and
+the shepherd was on the moors every day with the
+flock; his loud and deep-toned voice was often borne
+down on the wind as he shouted to the sheep,
+driving them to fold.  His presence always produced
+a chill in the house, and when he spoke it sent
+a thrill through the women, who did not like him.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Christmas-eve was raw and windy; masses of
+gray vapour rolled up from the Arctic Ocean, and
+hung in piles about the mountain tops.  Now and
+then a scud of frozen fog, covering bar and beam
+with feathery hoar-frost, swept up the glen.  As the
+day declined snow began to fall in large flakes.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>When the wind lulled there could be heard the
+shout of Glam high up on the hillside.  Darkness
+closed in, and with the darkness the snow fell thicker.
+There was a church then at Thorhall's farm; there
+is none there now, since the valley has been
+abandoned from its cold and ill name.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The lights were kindled in the church, and every
+snowflake as it sailed down past the open door burned
+like a golden feather in the light.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>When the service was over, and the farmer and
+his party returned to the house, Glam had not come
+home.  This was strange; as he could not live
+abroad in the cold, and the sheep would also require
+shelter.  Thorhall was uneasy and proposed a search,
+but no one would go with him; and no wonder, it
+was not a night for a dog to be out in, and the
+tracks would all be buried in snow.  So the family
+sat up all night listening, trembling and anxious.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Day broke at last faintly in the south over the
+great white masses of mountains.  Now a party
+was formed to search for the missing man.  A sharp
+climb brought them to the top of the moor above
+Tongue.  Here and there a sheep was found shivering
+under a rock or half buried in a snowdrift, but
+of Glam—not a sign.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Presently the whole party was called together
+about a spot on the hilltop where the snow was
+trampled and kicked about, and it was clear that
+some desperate struggle had taken place there.
+There the snow was also dabbled with frozen blood.
+A red track led further up the mountain side, and
+the searchers were following it when a boy uttered
+a shriek of fear.  In looking behind a rock he
+had come on the corpse of the shepherd lying on
+its back with the arms extended.  The body was
+taken up and carried to the edge of the gorge, and
+was there buried under a pile of stones, heaped over
+it to the height of about six feet.  </span><em class="italics">How</em><span> Glam had
+died, </span><em class="italics">by whom</em><span> killed, no one knew, nor could they
+make a guess.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Two nights after this one of the thralls who had
+gone for the cows burst into the hall with a face
+blank from terror; he staggered to a seat and
+fainted.  On recovering his senses, in a broken voice
+he assured those who were round him that he had
+seen Glam walking past him, with huge strides, as
+he left the stable door.  The shepherd had turned
+his head and looked at him fixedly from his great
+gray staring eyes.  On the following day a stable
+lad was found in a fit under a wall, and he never
+after recovered his senses.  It was thought he must
+have seen something that had scared him.  Next,
+some of the women, declared that they had seen
+Glam looking in on them through a window of
+the dairy.  In the dusk Thorhall himself met the
+dead man, who stood and glowered at him, but
+made no attempt to injure his master, and uttered
+not a word.  The haunting did not end thus.
+Nightly a heavy tread was heard round the house,
+and a hand groping along the walls, and sometimes
+a hand came in at the windows, a great coarse hand,
+that in the red light from the fire seemed as though
+steeped in blood.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>When the spring came round the disturbances
+lessened, and as the sun obtained full power, ceased
+altogether.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>During the course of the summer a Norwegian
+vessel came into the fiord; Thorhall went on board
+and found there a man named Thorgaut, who had
+come out in search of work.  Thorhall engaged him
+as a shepherd, but not without honestly telling him
+his trouble, and what there was uncanny about his
+sheep-walks, and how Glam had fared.  The man
+did not regard this, he laughed, and promised to be
+with Thorhall at the appointed season.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Accordingly he arrived in autumn, and he soon
+established himself as a favourite in the house; he
+romped with the children, helped his fellow-servants,
+and was as much liked as his predecessor had been
+detested.  He was such a merry careless fellow that
+he did not think anything of the risks that lay
+before him, and joked about them.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>When winter set in strange sights and sounds
+began to alarm the folk at the farm, but Thorgaut
+was not troubled; he slept too soundly at night
+to be disturbed by the heavy tread round the house.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>On the day before Yule, as was his wont, Thorgaut
+drove out the sheep to pasture.  Thorhall was
+uneasy.  He said to him: "I pray you be careful,
+and do not go near the barrow under which Glam
+was laid."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Don't fear for me," laughed Thorgaut, "I shall
+be back in time for supper, and shall attend you to
+church."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Night settled in, but no Thorgaut arrived.  There
+was little mirth at table when the supper was
+brought in.  All were anxious and fearful.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The wind was cold and wetting.  Blocks of ice
+were driving about in the bay, grinding against
+each other, and the sound could be heard far up the
+valley.  Aloft, the aurora flames were lighting up
+the heavens with an arch of fire.  Again this
+Christmas night the dwellers in the farm sat up
+and did not go to bed, waiting for the return of
+Thorgaut, but he did not arrive.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Next morning he was sought, and was found
+lying dead across the barrow of Glam, with his
+spine and one leg and one arm broken.  He was
+brought home and laid in the churchyard.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Matters now rapidly became worse.  Outbuildings
+were broken into of a night, and their woodwork
+was rent and shattered; the house door was violently
+shaken, and great pieces of it were torn away; the
+gables of the house were also pulled furiously to
+and fro.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now it fell out that one morning the only man
+who remained in the service of the family went out
+early.  Not another servant dared to remain in the
+place, and this man remained because he had been
+with Thorhall and with his father, and he could not
+make up his mind to desert his master in his need.
+About an hour after he had gone out Thorhall's
+wife took her milking cans and went to the cow-house
+that she might milk the cows, as she had now
+not a maid in the house, and had to do everything
+herself.  On reaching the door of the cow-house she
+heard a terrible sound from within, the bellowing of
+the cattle, and the deep bell-notes of an unearthly
+voice.  She was so frightened that she dropped her
+pails and ran back to the house and called her
+husband.  Thorhall was in bed, but he rose
+instantly, caught up a weapon, and hastened to the
+cow-house.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>On opening the door he found all the cattle loose
+and goring each other.  Slung across the stone that
+separated their stalls was the old serving-man,
+perfectly dead, with his back broken.  He had,
+apparently, been tossed by the cows, and had fallen on
+this stone backwards.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Neither Thorhall nor his wife explained his death
+in this way; they thought that Glam must have
+been there, have driven the cattle wild, and that
+just as he had broken the back of Thorgaut, so had
+he now broken that of the poor old serving-man.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>It was impossible for the bonder to remain longer
+in that place; he and his wife therefore removed
+down to Tongue, which lies at the junction of the
+two rivers, and there things were quiet.  There he
+was hospitably received by Jokull.  Thorhall was
+able to persuade some of his runaway servants to
+come back to him, but no man all that winter
+would go near the moor where was the barrow of
+the shepherd Glam.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Not till the summer returned, and the sun had
+dispelled the darkness, did Thorhall venture back to the
+Vale of Shadows.  In the meanwhile his daughter's
+health had given way under the repeated alarms of
+the winter; she became paler every day; with the
+autumn flowers she faded, and was laid in the
+churchyard before the first snowflakes fell.  What
+was Thorhall to do through the winter?  He knew
+that it was not possible for him to secure servants
+if he remained on his own farm; besides, he did not
+know what loss might come to his stock.  Then, he
+could not spend the whole winter at Tongue, for
+that was another bonder's house, and though the
+farmer there had kindly received him and
+entertained him for three months the winter before, he
+could not ask him to give him houseroom to
+himself, his cattle, and servants for a whole long
+winter.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>So he was in the greatest possible perplexity
+what to do.  Help came to him from an unexpected
+quarter.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir had heard the story of the hauntings,
+and he rode to Thorhall's farm and asked if he
+might be accommodated there for the night.  He
+said that it was his great desire to encounter Glam.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Thorhall was surprised, but not exactly pleased,
+for he thought that the family at Biarg would
+attribute the wrong to him were anything to happen
+to Grettir.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir put his horse into the stable, and retired
+for the night to one of the beds in the hall and
+slept soundly.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst" id="how-grettir-fought-with-glam"><span class="bold large">CHAPTER XV.</span></p>
+<p class="center pnext"><span class="bold medium">HOW GRETTIR FOUGHT WITH GLAM.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<!--  -->
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<p class="pfirst"><em class="italics">Grettir awaits Glam—The Sound of Feet—Glam breaks
+into the Hall—A Strange Figure—Grettir seizes
+Glam—Grettir's Last Chance—Glam's Curse—The End
+of Glam—Was it True?</em></p>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>Next morning Grettir went with Thorhall to
+the stable for his horse.  The strong wooden
+door was shivered and driven in.  They stepped
+across it; Grettir called to his horse, but there was
+no responsive whinny.  Grettir dashed into the
+stall and found his horse dead; its neck was
+broken.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Now," said Thorhall, "I will give you a horse in
+exchange for that you have lost.  You had better
+ride home to Biarg at once."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Not at all.  My horse has been killed, and I
+must avenge it."  So Grettir remained.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Night set in.  Grettir ate a hearty supper, and
+was right merry.  But not so Thorhall, who had
+his misgivings.  At bed-time the latter crept into a
+locked bedstead beside the hall; but Grettir said he
+would not go into a bed, he would lie by the fire in
+the hall.  So he wrapped himself up in a long fur
+cloak and flung himself on a bench, with his feet
+against the posts of the high seat.  The fur cloak
+was over his head, and he kept an opening through
+which he could look out.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>There was a fire burning on the hearth, a smouldering
+heap of glowing embers, and by the red light
+Grettir looked up at the rafters of the blackened
+roof.  The smoke escaped by a </span><em class="italics">louvre</em><span> in the middle.
+The wind whistled mournfully.  The windows high
+up were covered with parchment, and admitted
+now and then a sickly yellow glare from the full
+moon, which, however, shone in through the smoke
+hole, silvering the rising smoke.  A dog began to
+bark, then bay at the moon.  Then the cat, which
+had been sitting demurely watching the fire, stood
+up with raised back and bristling tail, and darted
+behind some chests.  The hall-door was in a sad
+plight.  It had been so torn by Glam that it had
+to be patched up with wattles.  Soothingly the river
+prattled over its shingly bed as it swept round the
+knoll on which stood the farm.  Grettir heard the
+breathing of the sleeping women in the adjoining
+chamber, and the sigh of the housewife as she turned
+in her bed.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then suddenly he heard something that shook all
+the sleep out of him, had any been stealing over his
+eyes.  He heard a heavy tread, beneath which the
+snow crackled.  Every footfall went straight to
+Grettir's heart.  A crash on the turf overhead.
+The strange visitant had scrambled on the roof, and
+was walking over that.  The roofs of the houses in
+Iceland are of turf.  For a moment the chimney
+gap was completely darkened—the monster was
+looking down it—the flash of the red fire illumined
+the horrible face with its lack-lustre eyes.  Then
+the moon shone in again, and the heavy tramp of
+Glam was heard as he walked to the other end of
+the hall.  A thud—he had leaped down.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then Grettir heard his steps passing to the back of
+the house, then the snapping of wood showed that
+Glam was destroying some of the outhouse doors.
+Presently the tread was heard again approaching
+the house, and this time the main entrance.  Grettir
+thought he could distinguish a pair of great hands
+thrust in over the broken door.  In another moment
+he heard a loud snap—a long plank had been torn
+out of place, and the light of the moon shone in
+where the gap had been made.  Then Glam began
+to unrip the wattles.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>There was a cross-beam to the door, acting as bolt.
+Against the gray light Grettir saw a huge black arm
+thrust in trying to remove the bar.  It was done,
+and then all the broken door was driven in and
+went down on the floor in shivers.  Now Grettir
+could see a tall dark figure, almost naked, with wild
+locks of hair about the head standing in the
+doorway.  That was but for a minute, and then Glam
+came in stealthily; he entered the hall and was
+illumined by the firelight.  The figure Grettir now
+saw was unlike anything he had seen before.  A few
+rags hung from the shoulders and waist, the long
+wolf-gray hair was matted.  The eyes were staring
+and strange.  Grettir could hear Thorhall within his
+locked bed trembling and breathing fast.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Presently Glam's eyes rested on the shaggy bundle
+by the high seat.  He stepped towards it, and Grettir
+felt him groping about him.  Then Glam laid hold
+of one end of the fur cloak and began to pull at it.
+The cloak did not come away.  Another jerk.  Grettir
+kept his feet firmly pressed against the posts, so that
+the fur was not pulled away.  Glam seemed puzzled;
+he went to the other end of the bundle and began
+to pull at that.  Grettir held to the bench, so that
+he was not moved himself, but the fur cloak was
+torn in half, and the strange visitant staggered back
+holding the portion in his hand wonderingly before
+his eyes.  Before he could recover from his surprise,
+Grettir started to his feet, bent his body, flung his
+arms round Glam, and driving his head into the
+breast of the visitor, tried to bend him backward and
+so snap his spine.  This was in vain, the cold hands
+grasped Grettir's arms and tore them from their hold.
+Grettir clasped them again about his body, and then
+Glam threw his also round Grettir, and they began
+to wrestle.  Grettir saw that Glam was trying to
+drag him to the door, and he was sure that if he
+were got outside he would be at a disadvantage, and
+Glam would break his back.  He therefore made a
+desperate effort not to be drawn forth.  He clung
+to benches and posts, but the posts gave way, and
+the benches were torn from their places.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>At each moment he was being dragged nearer
+to the door.  Sharply twisting himself loose, Grettir
+flung his arms round a beam of the roof, for the hall
+was low.  He was dragged off his feet at once.
+Glam clenched him about the waist, and tore at him
+to get him loose.  Every tendon in Grettir's breast
+was strained; still he held on.  The nails of Glam
+cut into his side like knives, then his hands gave
+way.  He could endure the strain no longer, and
+Glam drew him towards the doorway, in so doing
+trampling over the broken fragments of the door,
+and the wattles that lay about.  Grettir knew that
+the last chance was come for saving himself.  Here,
+in the hall, he could hold to posts and beams, and
+so make some resistance; but outside he would have
+nothing to cling to, and strong though he was, his
+strength did not equal that of his opponent.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now the door-posts were of stone, and the beam
+that had served as bolt went across the door, slid
+into a hollow on one side cut in the door-post, and
+was pulled across and fitted into another hollow in
+the other post.  As the wrestlers neared the opening,
+Grettir planted both his feet against the stone
+posts, one against each, and put his arms round
+Glam.  He had the enemy now at an advantage;
+but then, he merely held him, and could not hold him
+so for ever.  He called to Thorhall, but Thorhall was
+too greatly frightened to leave his place of refuge.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Now," thought Grettir, "if I can but break his
+back!" Then drawing Glam to him by the middle,
+he put his head beneath the chin of his opponent
+and forced back the head.  If he could only drive the
+head far enough back he would break his neck.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>At that moment one or both of the door-posts
+gave way; down crashed the gable-trees, ripping
+beams and rafters from their places, frozen clods of
+turf rattled from the roof and thumped into the snow.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Glam fell on his back outside the door, and Grettir
+on top of him.  The moon was, as I said before, at
+her full; large white clouds chased each other across
+the sky.  Grettir's strength was failing him, his hands
+quivered in the snow, and he knew that he could
+not support himself from dropping flat on the
+mysterious and dreadful visitant, eye to eye, lip
+to lip.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then Glam said: "You have done ill matching
+yourself with me; now know that never shall you be
+stronger than you are to-day, and that, to your
+dying day, whenever you are in the dark you will
+see my eyes staring at you, so that for very horror
+you will not dare to be alone."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>At this moment Grettir saw his short sword in
+the snow, it had slipped from his belt as he fell.
+He put out his hand at once, clutched the handle,
+and with a blow cut off Glam's head, and at once
+laid it beside his thigh.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Thorhall came out at this juncture, his face
+blanched; but when he saw how the fray had
+ended, he joyfully assisted Grettir to roll the dead
+man to the top of a pile of faggots that had been
+collected for winter fuel.  Fire was applied, and
+soon far down the Waterdale the flames of the pyre
+startled folks, and made them wonder what new
+horror was being enacted in the Vale of Shadows.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Next day the charred bones were conveyed a
+long way—some hours' ride—into the great desert
+in the interior, and in one of the most lonely spots
+there a cairn or pile of stones was heaped over them.
+I have seen this mound, which is still pointed out
+as that under which the redoubted Glam lies.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>And now we may well ask, what truth is there
+in the story?  That there is a basis of truth can
+hardly be denied.  The facts have been embellished,
+worked up, but not invented.  The only probable
+explanation of the story is this.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>As already said, further up the valley, in a spot
+difficult to be reached, stood the old fortress of some
+robbers, with many caves in the sandstone about it
+very convenient for shelter.  Now, it is not
+improbable that some madman may have taken refuge in
+this safe retreat, and may have come out at night
+in search of food, and carried off the sheep of
+Thorhall.  It may be that Glam caught him attempting
+to steal a sheep, and fought with him, and was
+killed, and that in like manner Thorgaut was killed.
+Then when people saw a great wild man wandering
+about they thought it was Glam, whereas it was
+the man who had haunted the region before Glam
+came there, and had killed Glam.  This is the
+simplest and easiest explanation of this wild and
+fearful tale.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst" id="how-grettir-sailed-to-norway"><span class="bold large">CHAPTER XVI.</span></p>
+<p class="center pnext"><span class="bold medium">HOW GRETTIR SAILED TO NORWAY.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<!--  -->
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<p class="pfirst"><em class="italics">Olaf the Saint—Slowcoach with the Nimble
+Tongue—Slowcoach insults Grettir—Ill Words—Death
+of Slowcoach—In Search of Luck</em></p>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>Early in the spring of the year 1015, news
+reached Iceland of a change of rulers in
+Norway.  Olaf Harald's son, commonly known as Olaf
+the Saint, had come to be King of Norway; Earl
+Sweyn had been defeated in battle and driven out of
+the country.  Now Grettir was remotely connected
+with the king, that is to say, his father's grandfather
+was brother to the grandfather of Asta, Olaf's
+mother.  The cousinship was somewhat distant; but
+in those days folk held to their kin more than they
+do now.  Grettir thought that a good chance had
+opened to him for doing well in Norway, so he
+resolved to leave Iceland, and enter the service of
+his relative, the king.  There was a ship bound for
+Norway lying in Eyjafiord, and Grettir engaged a
+berth in her, and made ready for the voyage.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now his father Asmund was very old and feeble,
+and was well nigh bedridden.  He had given over
+the entire management of the farm to his eldest son
+Atli, and to young Illugi, who was a few years
+younger than Grettir.  Atli was everywhere liked,
+he was such a prudent, peaceable, and kindly man.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir's ill-luck still followed him; for, as it
+chanced, Thorbiorn, the Slowcoach, the relation of
+Thorbiorn Oxmain, had resolved to go to Norway
+also, and in the same ship.  Now the Slowcoach
+may have been overslow in his movements, but
+he was overnimble with his tongue, and he was
+strongly advised either not to go in the same boat
+with Grettir, or, if he did, to mind his words.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Such advice was thrown away on the Slowcoach,
+who, instead of practising caution, in order to show
+himself off, began to brag of his strength, and to say
+scurvy things of Grettir, which were duly reported
+by tale-bearers to Grettir.  Consequently, when
+Grettir arrived in the Eyjafiord with his goods, he
+was not very amiably disposed towards the
+Slowcoach.  However Atli had impressed on him the
+necessity of controlling himself, and Grettir was
+resolved not to quarrel with the man unless he
+could not help it.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>At the side of the shore, those who were about to
+sail had run up booths and cabins for themselves
+and their stores.  Many of those going in the boat
+were chapmen, and they took with them goods with
+which to traffic in Norway.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Just as the vessel was ready, and about to sail
+next day, Slowcoach arrived, slow as usual, and after
+every one else was ready, and their goods on board.
+As it was the last evening on shore, all the
+merchants and seamen were sitting about their booths,
+when Thorbiorn Slowcoach arrived, and rode along
+the lane between the wooden cabins.  The men
+shouted to him to know if he had any news to
+tell them.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Thorbiorn's eye caught that of Grettir, who was
+sitting on a bench, and he answered, "I don't hear
+any news, except that the old idiot Asmund of
+Biarg is dead."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>This was not true; the old man was not dead, but
+very ill.  Some of those who heard him said, "That
+is sad news indeed, for he was a worthy and
+honourable old man, and he could ill be spared."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"I don't know that," said Thorbiorn with a
+scornful laugh.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"But how did he die?  What did he die of?"</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Die of?" repeated the Slowcoach loud enough to
+be heard by Grettir.  "Smothered like a dog in the
+poky little kennel they call their hall at Biarg.  As
+for any loss in him, it is news to me that the world
+is not well rid of dotards."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"These are ill words," said those who heard him.
+"No good man will speak slightingly of old and
+blameless chiefs.  Besides, such words as these
+Grettir will not endure."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Grettir!" scoffed Thorbiorn.  "Before I face him
+I must see him use his weapons better than he did
+last summer, when engaged with Kormak.  Then I
+put my elbow between them, and Grettir was but
+too ready to accept the interference.  I never saw a
+man before so shake in his shoes."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Thereat Grettir stood up, and controlling himself,
+said, "If I have any faculty of foresight, Slowcoach,
+I see that you will not be smothered with smoke
+like a dog.  You should have done other than speak
+foul words of very aged men.  Gray hairs deserve
+respect."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"I don't think more of your foresight than I do
+of the wisdom of your old fool of a father," said
+Thorbiorn.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The end was that they fought.  The insult was
+too gross to be endured, and Grettir felt it
+incumbent on him to strike for his father's honour.  The
+fight did not last long; the Slowcoach was slow in
+his fighting, slow of hand, only not slow of tongue,
+and Grettir's sharp sword wounded him to death.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Slowcoach was buried in the nearest churchyard;
+and the chapmen gave Grettir credit for having
+restrained himself as long as possible, and allowed
+that, according to the ideas of the time, he was
+justified in fighting and killing the Slowcoach for his
+spiteful and strife-provoking words.  But Grettir
+was not pleased, he regretted the contest, because
+he knew that it left occasion of strife behind, which
+might occasion Atli trouble.  Thorbiorn Oxmain
+would, lie feared, be sure to take up the quarrel, and
+then Atli would have to pay a heavy fine in silver
+to atone for the death.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The vessel set sail, and reached the south of
+Norway.  There Grettir took ship in a trading keel, to
+go north to Drontheim, because he heard that the
+king was there, and his heart beat high with hopes
+that Olaf would acknowledge him as a cousin, and
+would take him into his body-guard, and treat him
+with honour; and that so, though he had had
+ill-luck in Iceland, good luck might attend him in
+Norway.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst" id="the-hostel-burning"><span class="bold large">CHAPTER XVII.</span></p>
+<p class="center pnext"><span class="bold medium">THE HOSTEL BURNING.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<!--  -->
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<p class="pfirst"><em class="italics">Aground in the Fiord—The Light over the Water—Grettir
+Swims Across—The Fight for Fire—The Burned Hostel—At
+Drontheim</em></p>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>There lived a man named Thorir at Garth in
+Iceland who had spent the summer in Norway
+when Olaf returned from England, and he had stood
+in great favour with the king.  He had two sons,
+and at this time both were well-grown men.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Thorir left Norway for Iceland, where he broke up
+his ship, not intending again to go a seafaring.
+But when he heard the tidings that Olaf was king
+over the whole of Norway, then he deemed it would
+be well for his sons to go there and pay their respects
+to the king, and remind him of his old friendship
+for their father.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>On reaching Norway much about the same time
+as had Grettir, they took a long rowing-boat, and
+skirted the coast on their way north to Drontheim.
+They preceded Grettir by a few days.  On reaching
+a fine fiord, in which there was shelter from the gales
+that began to bluster violently with the approach of
+winter, the sons of Thorir ran in their boat, and as
+there was a large wooden hostelry there built for the
+shelter of weather-bound travellers, they took refuge
+in it, and spent their days in hunting and their
+nights in revelry.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now it so fell out that Grettir's merchant ship
+came into this same fiord one evening and ran
+aground on the opposite shore to that on which was
+the hostel.  The night was bitterly cold; storms of
+snow drove over the country, whitening the
+mountains.  The men from the ship were worn out
+and numbed with cold, and they had no means of
+kindling a fire.  Then, all at once, they saw a light
+spring up on the opposite side of the firth, twinkling
+cheerfully between the trees.  This was a sight
+to make them more eager for a fire, and they began
+to wish that some one of their number would swim
+across and bring over a light.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"In the good old times there must have been men
+who would have thought nothing of swimming across
+the streak of water at night," said Grettir.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"No comfort to us to know that," said one of the
+crew.  "It does not concern us what may have been
+in the past, we are shivering in the present.  Why
+do you not get us fire?"</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir hesitated.  The night was very like that
+on which he had fought with Glam: the same full
+moon, with snow-laden clouds rolling over its face
+for a while obscuring it, and then the full glare falling
+over the face of earth again; and, unaccountably, a
+sense of doubt and depression had come over him,
+as though that evil adversary were now about to
+revenge his downfall upon him.  He looked round
+suddenly, for he thought that the fearful eyes were
+staring at him from out of the black shadows of the
+fir-wood.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The rest of the crew united in urging him, and at
+length, reluctantly, Grettir yielded.  He flung his
+clothes off, and prepared himself to swim.  He had
+on him a fur cape, and a pair of wadmal breeches.
+He took up an iron pot, and jumped into the sea
+and swam safely across.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>On reaching the further shore, he shook the water
+off him, but before long his trousers froze like boards,
+and the water formed in icicles about the cape.
+Grettir ascended through the pine-wood towards the
+light, and on reaching the hostel from which it
+proceeded, walked in without speaking to anyone, and
+striding up to the fire, stooped and began to scrape
+the red-hot embers into his iron pot.  The hall was
+full of revellers, and these revellers were the sons of
+Thorir and their boat's crew.  They were already
+more than half intoxicated, and when they saw a
+wild-looking man enter the hall, half naked and
+hung with icicles, they thought he must be a troll
+or mountain-spirit.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>At once every one caught up the first weapon to
+hand, and rushed to the attack.  Grettir defended
+himself with a fire-brand plucked from the hearth;
+the sons of Thorir stumbled over the fire, and the
+embers were strewn about over the floor that was
+covered with fresh straw.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>In a few moments the hall was filled with flame
+and smoke, and Grettir took advantage of the
+confusion to effect his escape.  He ran down to the
+shore, plunged into the sea and swam across.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>He found his companions waiting for him behind
+a rock, with a pile of dry wood which they had
+collected during his absence.  The cinders were
+blown upon, and twigs applied, till a blaze was
+produced, and before long the whole party sat
+rubbing their almost frozen hands over a cheerful
+fire.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Next morning the merchants recognized the fiord,
+and, remembering that a hostel stood on the further
+side, they crossed the water to see it, when—what
+was their dismay to find of it only a heap of smoking
+embers!  From under some of the charred timber
+were thrust scorched human limbs.  The chapmen,
+in alarm and horror, turned upon Grettir and
+charged him with having maliciously burned the
+house with all its inmates.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"See, now," said Grettir, "I had a thought that
+this expedition would not bring luck.  I would I
+had not taken the trouble to get fire for such a set
+of thankless churls."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The ship's crew raked out the embers, pulled aside
+the smoking rafters, in their search for the bodies.
+Some of these were not so disfigured but that they
+could recognize them.  Moreover, they knew the ship
+that lay at anchor under the lee, hard by, and they
+saw that Grettir had brought the sons of Thorir to
+an untimely end.  The indignation of the merchants
+became so vehement, and their fear so great that they
+might be implicated in the matter, that they drove
+Grettir from their company, and refused to receive
+him into their vessel for the remainder of their
+voyage.  Grettir, in sullen wrath, would say no
+word of self-defence; he had to make his way on
+foot to Drontheim, where he resolved to lay the
+whole matter before the king.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The vessel reached Drontheim before him, and
+the news of the hostel burning roused universal
+indignation against Grettir.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst" id="the-ordeal-by-fire"><span class="bold large">CHAPTER XVIII.</span></p>
+<p class="center pnext"><span class="bold medium">THE ORDEAL BY FIRE.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<!--  -->
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<p class="pfirst"><em class="italics">Grettir tells his Story—Preparing for the Ordeal—The
+Procession—Attacked by the Mob—The King
+Intervenes—Wicked or Unlucky</em></p>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>One day, as King Olaf sat in audience in his great
+hall, Grettir strode in, and going before his
+seat, greeted the king.  Olaf looked at him and said:</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Are you Grettir the Strong?"</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>He answered: "That is my name, and I have
+come hither, kinsman, to get a fair hearing, and to
+clear myself of the charge of having burned men
+maliciously.  Of that I am guiltless."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>King Olaf replied: "I heartily trust that what
+you say is true, and that you will be able to rid
+yourself of a charge so bad."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir replied that he was ready to do whatsoever
+the king desired, in order to prove his innocence.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then said the king to him, "Tell me the whole
+story, that I may be able to judge."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir answered by relating the circumstances.
+He had simply taken fire from the hearth, when he
+was fallen upon by those who were drinking, and
+who were too tipsy to understand his explanation.
+He went away with the red-hot embers, and did not
+set fire to anything, but the drunken men kicked the
+glowing coals about amidst the straw.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The king remained silent some moments, and then
+he said: "There are no witnesses either on your behalf
+or against you.  No man was by who is not dead.
+God and his angels alone know whether you speak
+the truth or not, therefore I must refer you to the
+judgment of God."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"What must I do?" asked Grettir.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"You will have to go through the ordeal of fire,"
+said the king.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"What is that?" asked the young man.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"You must lift bars of red-hot iron, and walk
+with bare feet on ploughshares heated red in a
+furnace."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"And what if I am burnt?"</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Then will you be adjudged guilty."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir shrugged his shoulders: "If it must be
+so, let it be at once; but whether I be burnt or not,
+I declare that I am clear of all intent to hurt those
+men."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"You cannot undergo the ordeal now," said the
+king.  "You would be burned to a certainty.  You
+must go through preparation first."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"What preparation?"</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"A week of fasting and prayer," was the reply.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then Grettir was taken away and put in ward,
+and fed with bread and water for a week, and the
+bishop visited him and taught him to pray that if
+he were innocent, God would reveal his innocence
+by enabling him to pass unscathed through the
+ordeal.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The day came, and Drontheim was thronged with
+people from all the country round, to see the
+Icelander of whom such tales were told.  A procession
+was formed; first went the king's body-guard
+followed by the king himself, wearing his crown,
+then came the bishop, the choir, and the clergy, and
+last of all Grettir, his wild red hair flying loose in
+the breeze, his arms folded, and his eyes wandering
+over the sea of heads that filled the square before
+the cathedral doors.  The crowd pressed in closer
+and closer.  Opinions differed as to whether he
+were guilty or not.  Among the mob was a
+young man of dark complexion, who made a great
+noise, shouldering his way to the front, and shouting.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Look at the fellow!" he exclaimed.  "This is the
+man who, in cold blood, burnt down a house over
+helpless men, and now he is to be given u chance of
+escape."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"But he says he is guiltless," argued one in the
+crowd.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Guiltless!" exclaimed the youth.  "If one of us
+had done the deed, should we have been trifled
+with?  The king wants him for his body-guard,
+because he is so strong."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"He should be given a chance of clearing
+himself," said one who stood near.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Yes—of course—because he is a kinsman of the
+king.  So the irons have been painted red, to look
+as if hot.  I know how the trick is done.  But he
+shall not escape me."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Thereupon the young man sprang at Grettir and
+drove his nails into his face so that they drew blood;
+at the same time he poured forth against him a
+stream of insulting names.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>This was more than the Icelander could bear; he
+caught the young man, as a cat catches a mouse,
+held him aloft, shook him, and then threw him
+away, when he fell on the ground and was stunned.
+It was feared he might be killed.  This act gave
+occasion to a general uproar; the mob wanted to
+lay hands on Grettir; some threw stones, others
+assaulted him with sticks; but he, planting his
+back against the church wall, turned up his sleeves,
+guarded off the blows, shouting to his assailants to
+come on.  Not a man came within his reach but
+was sent reeling back or was felled to the ground.
+In the meantime the king and the bishop were in
+the choir waiting.  The red-hot ploughshares which
+had been laid on the pavement were gradually
+cooling, but no Grettir appeared.</span></p>
+<div class="align-center auto-scaled figure margin" style="width: 61%" id="figure-85">
+<span id="grettir-defends-himself-from-the-mob"></span><img class="align-center block" style="display: block; width: 100%" alt="GRETTIR DEFENDS HIMSELF FROM THE MOB." src="images/img-165.jpg" />
+<div class="caption centerleft figure-caption margin">
+<span class="italics">GRETTIR DEFENDS HIMSELF FROM THE MOB.</span></div>
+</div>
+<p class="pnext"><span>At last the sounds of the uproar reached the
+king's ear, and he sent out to know the occasion.
+His messenger returned a moment after to report
+that the Icelander was fighting the whole town and
+had knocked down and well nigh killed several
+persons.  The king thereupon sprang from his throne,
+hastened down the nave, and came out of the
+great western door when the conflict was at its
+height.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Oh, sire," exclaimed Grettir, "see how I can
+fight the rascals!" and at the word he knocked a
+man over at the king's feet.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>With difficulty the tumult was arrested, and
+Grettir separated from the combatants; and then
+he wanted to go with the king and try the ordeal
+of fire.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Not so," answered Olaf, "you have already
+incurred sin.  It is possible that some of those you
+have knocked down may never recover, so that their
+blood will lie at your door."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"What is to be done?" asked Grettir.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The king considered.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"I see you are a very wicked or at all events a
+very unlucky man.  When you were here before
+you were the occasion of several deaths.  I do not
+desire to keep you in Norway, but as winter has set
+in you may tarry here till next spring, and then
+you shall be outlawed and return to Iceland."</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst" id="the-winter-in-norway"><span class="bold large">CHAPTER XIX.</span></p>
+<p class="center pnext"><span class="bold medium">THE WINTER IN NORWAY.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<!--  -->
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<p class="pfirst"><em class="italics">At Einar's Farm—The Bearsarks—A Visit from
+Snœkoll—The Bearsark's Demand—Grettir
+Temporizes—The Bearsark has a Fit—Death
+of Snœkoll—Dromund's History—Grettir's
+Arms—A Pair of Tongs</em></p>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>King Olaf had decided that Grettir must
+leave Norway and return to Iceland.  If he
+was not a guilty man he was a most unfortunate
+one.  Now, the Norse race, whether in Denmark,
+Norway, Sweden, or Iceland, believed in luck.  They
+said that certain men were born to ill-luck, and
+such men they avoided, because they feared lest the
+ill-luck that clung to them might attach itself
+to, and involve those who came in contact with them.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>It was not possible for Grettir to return that year
+to Iceland, for all the ships bound for his native
+land had sailed before winter set in, so King Olaf
+agreed to allow him to remain in the kingdom
+through the winter, but bound him to depart on the
+first opportunity next year.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Somewhat sad at heart with disappointment, and
+with the impression that perhaps Olaf the king was
+right, and that ill-luck really did weigh on him,
+Grettir left the court, and went at Yule to the
+house of a bonder or yeoman called Einar, and
+remained with him awhile.  The farm was in a
+lonely place in a fiord opening back to the snowy
+mountains.  Einar was a kindly man, hospitable,
+and he did his best to make Grettir's stay with him
+pleasant.  He had a daughter, a fair, beautiful girl,
+with blue eyes, and hair like amber silk, and her
+name was Gyrid.  Perhaps the beautiful Gyrid was
+one attraction to Grettir, but if so he never spoke
+what was on his heart, because he knew it would
+be useless.  He was an unlucky man; he had made
+himself a name, indeed, as one of great daring, but
+he had won for himself neither home, nor riches,
+nor favour.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now it fell out that at this time there were some
+savage ruffians in the country who were called
+Bearsarks.  They were outlaws in most cases, and
+they lived in secret dens in the dense forests, whence
+they issued and swooped down on the farms, and
+there challenged the bonders to fight with them, or
+to give up to them whatever they needed.  These
+ruffians wore bear-skins drawn over their bodies,
+and they thrust their heads through the jaws of the
+beasts, so that they presented a hideous and
+frightening appearance.  Then they worked themselves
+into paroxysms of rage, when they were like madmen;
+they rolled their eyes, they roared and howled
+like wild beasts, and foam formed on their mouths
+and dropped on the ground.  They were wont also,
+when these fits came on them, to bite the edges of
+their shields, and with their fangs they were known
+to have dinted the metal quite deep.  Some folks
+even said they had bitten pieces out of solid shields.
+It was usually supposed that these Bearsarks were
+possessed by evil spirits, and it is probable that in
+many cases they were really mad—mad through
+having given way to their violent passions, till they
+knew no law, and thought to carry everything
+before them by their violence.  It was even at one
+time thought by the superstitious that they could
+change their shapes, and run about at will in the
+forms of bears or wolves; but this idea grew out of
+the fact of their clothing themselves in bear or wolf
+skins, and drawing the skull of the beast over their
+heads as a rude helmet, and looking out through
+the open jaws that thus formed a visor.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>One day, just after Yule, to the terror and dismay
+of Einar, one of the most redoubtable of these
+Bearsarks, a fellow called Snœkoll, came thundering up
+to his door on a huge black horse, followed by three
+or four others on foot, all clothed in skins; but
+Snœkoll, instead of wearing the bear's skin over
+his head, had on a helmet with great tusks of a
+boar protruding from it, and a boar's head drawn
+over the metal.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>It is worth remark that the crests worn later by
+knights, and which we have still on our plate and
+on harness, are derived from similar adornments
+to helmets.  Some warriors put wings of eagles on
+their head-pieces, others put the paws of bears or
+representations of lions.  These were badges of their
+prowess, or marks whereby they might be known.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Snœkoll struck the door of the farmhouse with
+his spear, and roared to the owner to come forth.
+At once Einar and Grettir issued from the hall, and
+Einar in great trepidation asked the Bearsark what
+he wanted.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"What do I want?" shouted Snœkoll.  "I want
+one of two things.  Either that you give me up your
+beautiful daughter to be my wife, and with her
+five-score bags of silver, or else that you fight me here.
+If you kill me, then luck is yours.  If I kill you,
+then I shall carry off your daughter and all that
+you possess."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Einar turned to Grettir and asked him in a
+whisper what he was to do.  He himself was an old
+man whose fighting days were over, and he had no
+chance against this savage.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir answered that he had better consult his
+honour and the happiness of Gyrid, and not give
+way to a bully.  The Bearsark sat on his horse
+rolling his eyes from one to another.  He had a
+great iron-rimmed shield before him.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then he bellowed forth: "Come!  I am not going
+to wait here whilst you consider matters.  Make
+your selection of the two alternatives at once.
+What is that great lout at your side whispering?
+Does he want to play a little game of who is master
+along with me?"</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"For my part," said Grettir, "the farmer and I
+are about in equal predicament; he is too old to
+fight, and I am unskilled in arms."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"I see!  I see!" roared Snœkoll.  "You are both
+trembling in your shoes.  Wait till my fit is on
+me, and then you will shake indeed."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Let us see how you look in your Bearsark fit,"
+said Grettir.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then Snœkoll waxed wroth, and worked himself
+up into one of the fits of madness.  There can be
+no doubt that in some cases this was all bluster and
+sham.  But in many cases these fellows really roused
+themselves into perfect frenzies of madness in which
+they did not know what they did.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now Snœkoll began to bellow like a bull, and to
+roll his eyes, and he put the edge of the great
+shield in his mouth and bit at it, and blew foam
+from his lips that rolled down the face of the shield.
+Grettir fixed his eyes steadily on him, and put his
+hands into his pockets.  Snœkoll rocked himself on
+his horse, and his companions began also to bellow,
+and stir themselves up into madness.  Grettir, with
+his eye fixed steadily on the ruffian, drew little by
+little nearer to him; but as he had no weapon, and
+held his hands confined, Snœkoll, if he did observe
+him, disregarded him.  When Grettir stood close
+beside him and looked up at the red glaring eyes,
+the foaming lips of Snœkoll, and heard his howls
+and the crunching of his great teeth against the
+strong oak and iron of the shield, he suddenly
+laughed, lifted his foot, caught the bottom of the
+shield a sudden kick upwards, and the shield with
+the violence of the upward shock broke Snœkoll's
+jaw.  Instantly the Bearsark stopped his bellows,
+let fall the shield, and before he could draw his
+sword Grettir caught his helmet by the great boar
+tusks, gave them a twist, and rolled Snœkoll down
+off his horse on the ground, knelt on him, and with
+the ruffian's own sword dealt him his death-blow.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>When the others saw the fall of their chief they
+ceased their antics, turned and ran away to hide in
+the woods.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The bonder, Einar, thanked Grettir for his
+assistance, and the lovely Gyrid gave him also her
+grateful acknowledgments and a sweet smile; but
+Grettir knew that a portionless unlucky man like
+himself could not aspire to her hand, and feeling
+that he was daily becoming more attached to her,
+he deemed it right at once to leave, and he went
+away to a place called Tunsberg, where lived his
+half-brother, Thorstein Dromund.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now, to understand the relationship of Dromund
+to Grettir, you must know that his father, Asmund,
+had been twice married.  He had been in Norway
+when a young man with a merchant ship, and he
+had also gone with his wares to England and
+France, and had gained great wealth; and as he
+had many relations in Norway he was well received
+there in winter, when he came back from his
+merchant trips.  On one of these occasions he had met
+a damsel called Ranveig, whose father and mother
+were dead.  She was of good birth, and was wealthy.
+Asmund asked for her hand and married her, and
+settled on the lands that belonged to her in Norway.
+They had a son called Thorstein, who, because he
+was rather slow of speech and manner, was
+nicknamed Dromund; but as we meet with other
+Thorsteins in this story, to prevent confusion we will
+speak of him as Dromund.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>After a while Asmund's wife Ranveig died, and
+then her relatives insisted on taking away all her
+lands and possessions and keeping them in trust for
+little Dromund.  Asmund did not care to quarrel
+with them, so he left Dromund with his late wife's
+relatives and went home to Iceland, where, after a
+few years, he married Asdis, and by her became the
+father of Atli, Grettir, and Illugi, and of two
+daughters, one of whom he named after his first wife.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Dromund grew up in Norway on his estates at
+Tunsberg, and became a man of wealth and renown,
+a quiet man, but one who held his own, and was
+generally respected.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now Grettir went to him, and his half-brother
+received him very affectionately, and insisted on
+his remaining with him all the rest of the winter
+till it was time for him to sail to Iceland.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>One little incident is mentioned concerning that
+time that deserves to be recorded.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir slept in the same apartment as did his
+brother.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>One morning Dromund awoke early, and he saw
+how that Grettir's arms were out of bed, and he
+wondered at their size.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Presently Grettir awoke, and then Dromund said
+to him: "Grettir, I have been amused with looking
+at your bare arms.  What muscles you have got!
+I never saw the like."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"I need strong muscles to do what I have to do."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"True enough, brother," said Dromund.  "But I
+could wish there were a little more luck as well as
+muscle attached to those bones."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Let me look at your arms," said Grettir.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then Dromund put his arms out of bed, and
+when he saw them Grettir burst out laughing, for
+they were so thin and scraggy.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Upon my word, brother, I never saw such a
+wretched pair of tongs in my life," he said.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"They may be a pair of tongs, old boy," answered
+Dromund, "but they are tongs that shall ever be
+extended to help you when in need.  And," added
+Dromund in a lower tone, "if it should ever befall
+you that your ill-luck should overmaster you, and
+you not die in your bed; then, Grettir, I promise
+you, if I am alive, that I shall not let this pair of
+tongs rest till, with them, I have avenged you."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>No more is related of their talk together.  The
+spring wore on, and in summer Grettir took ship.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The brothers parted with much affection, and
+they never again saw each other's face.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst" id="of-what-befell-at-biarg"><span class="bold large">CHAPTER XX.</span></p>
+<p class="center pnext"><span class="bold medium">OF WHAT BEFELL AT BIARG.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<!--  -->
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<p class="pfirst"><em class="italics">Thorbiorn's Servant—Ali at Biarg—Seeking a
+Quarrel—A Fair Answer—Atli's Dilemma—Thorbiorn's
+Revenge—The Slaying of Atli—Atli's Grave</em></p>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>Whilst Grettir was in Norway, that ill-luck
+which pursued him did not fail to touch and
+trouble his Icelandic home as well.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>It will be remembered that Grettir had been
+forced to fight the Slowcoach, and had killed him.
+Now the cousin of this man was Thorbiorn Oxmain,
+who lived in the Ramsfirth.  This Thorbiorn had
+got a serving-man named Ali, a somewhat lazy man,
+strong, but unruly.  As he did his work badly, and
+was slow about it, his master rebuked him, and when
+rebukes failed, he threatened him.  Threats also
+proved unavailing, so Thorbiorn one day took the stick
+to his back, and beat him till he danced.  After this
+Ali would remain no longer in his service; he ran
+away, crossed the ridge to the Midfiord, and came
+to Biarg, where he presented himself before Atli,
+who asked him what he wanted.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The fellow said that he was in quest of service.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"But," said Atli, "you are, I understand, one of
+Thorbiorn's workmen."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"I was so, but I have left his service because I
+was badly treated.  He beat me till I was black
+and blue; no one can remain with him, he is so
+rough with his men, and he exacts of them too much
+work.  I have come here because I hear that you
+treat your servants well."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Atli replied: "I have hands enough, you had
+better go back to Thorbiorn, for I do not want you."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"I will never go back to him, that I declare,"
+said the churl.  "If you turn me away, I have
+nowhere to which I can go."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>So he remained for a few nights at Biarg; and
+Atli did not like to turn him out of the house.  Then
+one day he went to work with Atli's men, and
+worked hard and well, for he was a powerful man.
+So time passed.  Atli did not agree to pay him any
+wage, and he did not send him away.  He did not
+feel best pleased at having the man there, but he
+was too kind-hearted to drive him away.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Not only did he remain there and work well, but
+he showed himself ready to turn his hand to anything,
+and was the most useful man about the place.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now Thorbiorn heard that his churl was at Biarg.
+The death of Slowcoach had rankled in his breast.
+He had felt that it was his duty to take up the case
+and demand recompense, yet he had not done so;
+now he was angered that Atli had opened his doors
+to his runaway servant.  He had covenanted with
+the man for a year, but the fellow was so disagreeable
+that he would have gladly dispensed with his
+service; but that Atli should have received him,
+and that the man should be making himself useful
+at Biarg,—that made him very angry indeed.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>So he mounted his horse and rode to Biarg, attended
+by two men, and called out Atli to talk with him.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Atli came forth and welcomed him.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then Thorbiorn said: "You are determined to
+pick up fresh occasion of quarrel, and stir ill-will
+between us.  Why have you enticed away my
+servant?  You had no right to behave thus to me."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Atli replied quietly: "You are mistaken.  I did
+not entice him away.  The fellow came to me.  I
+did not know for certain that he was your servant,
+nor did I know for how long he was engaged to you.
+Show me that I have done wrong and I will make
+reparation.  If he is yours, reclaim him, I will not
+keep him.  At the same time I do not like to shut
+him out of my house."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"I claim the man," said Thorbiorn; "I forbid him
+to do a stroke of work here.  I expect him returned
+to me."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Nay," said Atli, "take the man, you are welcome
+to him; but I cannot bind him hand and foot and
+convey him to your house.  If you can get him to
+go with you, well and good, I will not detain him."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Atli had answered fairly, but this did not satisfy
+Thorbiorn; he knew that he could not drag the man
+back to his farm, nor could he persuade him to
+follow, so he rode home in a mighty bad temper,
+his heart boiling with anger against Atli.  And now
+he thought that he would at one and the same time
+punish Atli for taking away his servant, and wipe
+out the wrong of the slaying of the Slowcoach.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>In the evening when the men came in from work,
+Atli said that Thorbiorn had been there and had
+reclaimed his churl, and Atli bade the fellow depart
+and go back to his master.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then the man said: "That's a true proverb, He
+who is most praised is found most faulty at the test.
+I came to you because I heard so much good of you,
+and now that I have toiled for you without wages
+all the early summer, as I have worked for none
+else, you want to kick me out of doors as winter
+draws on.  I will not go.  You will have to beat
+me as Thorbiorn beat me to make me leave this
+house, and then, even, I am not sure but that I
+shall remain in spite of being beaten."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Atli did not know exactly what to do.  He did
+not wish to ill-treat the fellow, and yet without
+ill-treatment there was no getting rid of him.  So he
+let him remain on.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>One day a warm wet rainy mist covered the land,
+the hills were enveloped in cloud; Atli sent out
+some of his men to mow at a distance where there
+was some grass, and others he sent out fishing.  He
+remained at home himself with only two or three men.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>That day Thorbiorn rode over the ridge that
+divided the dales, with a helmet on his head, a
+sword at his side, and a barbed spear in his hand.
+He came to Biarg, and no one noticed his approach.
+He went to the main door, and knocked at it.  Then
+he drew back behind the buildings, so that no one
+might see him from the door.  In Iceland the walls
+of a house between the gables are buttressed with
+turf—thick walls or buttresses that project several
+feet, and are about six or nine feet thick.  Such
+buttresses stood one on each side of the hall door
+at Biarg, and behind one of these Thorbiorn
+concealed himself.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>When he had knocked at the door, a woman came
+to it, unbarred and looked up and down the terrace
+or platform on which the house was built, but saw
+no one.  Thorbiorn peeped from behind the wall of
+turf and caught a glimpse of her, and then backed
+again into his hiding-place.  The woman then
+returned into the house, and told Atli that there
+was no one outside.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>She had hardly spoken before Thorbiorn knocked
+again.  Then Atli jumped up and said: "There must
+be someone there, and I will go and see myself who
+it is."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then he went forth and looked out of the door,
+but saw no one, as Thorbiorn had again retreated
+behind the bank of turf.  The water was streaming
+down, so Atli did not go from under cover, but laid
+a hand on each of the door-posts, and looked up and
+down the valley.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Just as he was looking away from where Thorbiorn
+was concealed, that man suddenly swung himself
+round the bank of turf, and with all his might
+drove the spear against Atli, using both his hands.
+The spear entered him below the ribs, and ran right
+through him.  Atli uttered no cry, and fell forward
+over the threshold.  At that the women rushed
+forth, and they took Atli up, but he was dead.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then Thorbiorn, who had run to his horse, which
+was tied up behind the house, rode out on the
+terrace, and halting before the door proclaimed that
+he had done this deed.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now this was a formality which, according to
+Icelandic law, made his act to be not regarded as a
+murder.  A murder by law was the slaying of a
+man by one who concealed his name.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then Thorbiorn rode home.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The goodwife, Asdis, sent for her men, and Atli's
+body was laid out, and he was buried beside his
+father, old Asmund, who had died during the winter.
+There was a church in those days at Biarg, but there
+is none there now.  When I was there I asked of the
+farmer now living in Biarg where was the old
+churchyard, but its site was lost; so I could not tell
+where were the graves of Atli the kind-hearted,
+honourable man, and the rest of the family.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Great was the lamentation through the district
+at the death of one so loved and respected, and hard
+things were said of Thorbiorn for what he had done.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst" id="the-return-of-grettir"><span class="bold large">CHAPTER XXI.</span></p>
+<p class="center pnext"><span class="bold medium">THE RETURN OF GRETTIR.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<!--  -->
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<p class="pfirst"><em class="italics">An Old Charge—Trial in Absence—Three Messengers
+of Ill—Grettir and his Mother—Grettir goes to
+Revenge Atli</em></p>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>That same summer news reached Iceland of the
+burning of the hostel by Grettir.  When Thorir
+of Garth heard of the death of his sons he was
+furious.  He rode to the great annual assize at
+Thingvalla, with a large retinue, and charged Grettir
+with having killed his boys maliciously; and he
+demanded that for this offence Grettir should be
+outlawed.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then Skapti the judge said: "If things are as
+reported, then surely Grettir has committed an evil
+deed; but we have only heard one side of the story,
+and we only know of what has happened at third
+hand, by report; there are two ways of telling every
+story.  Let us wait till Grettir returns to Iceland.
+There will be time enough for this action to be
+taken.  I will not give my word that Grettir is guilty
+till we have heard what he has to say for himself."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>But Thorir was such a powerful chieftain that he
+overbore all resistance.  It was said that he could
+not lawfully take action against a man in his
+absence; but this was overridden by Thorir, who by
+packing the court was able to carry out what he
+wanted.  Moreover, owing to the death of Atli there
+was no one to oppose him vigorously.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>He pushed on matters so hard that nought could
+avail to acquit Grettir, and he was proclaimed an
+outlaw throughout the whole of Iceland, and Thorir
+also put a price on his head of many ounces of silver,
+which he said he would pay to that man who would
+kill him in Norway or Iceland, or wherever he might
+find him.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Towards the close of the summer Grettir arrived
+in a vessel off the mouth of the White-river, an exile
+from Norway.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>It was a still summer night when the ship
+dropped anchor.  A boat came from the shore, and
+was rowed to the ship.  Grettir stood watching it
+from the bows, leaning on his sword.  As it touched
+the side of the ship, he called, "What news do you
+bring?"</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Are you Grettir, Asmund's son?" asked a man
+rising in the boat.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"I am," replied Grettir.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Then we bear you ill news: your father is dead."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Another man stood up in the boat, and said:
+"Grettir, he was an old man, and you can hardly
+have expected to hear that he was still alive.  But
+what I have to say concerns you as closely, and is
+unexpected.  Your brother Atli has been slain by
+Thorbiorn Oxmain."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then a third man rose and said: "But these tidings
+concern others first and you secondly.  What I
+have to say concerns you mainly.  You have been
+made an outlaw throughout the length and breadth
+of the land, and a price is set on your head."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>It is said that Grettir did not change colour, nor
+did a muscle in his whole body quiver; but he lifted
+up his voice and sang this strain—</span></p>
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<div class="line-block outermost">
+<div class="line"><span>"All at once are showered</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>Round me, the Rhymer,</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>Tidings sad—my exile,</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>Father's loss and brother's,</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>Branching boughs of battle!</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>Many a blue-blade-breaker</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>Shall suffer for my sorrow."</span></div>
+<div class="line"> </div>
+</div>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>The branching bough of battle is a periphrasis for
+a man, so also is a blue-blade-breaker; and it is the
+use of such periphrases that constituted poetry to
+Icelandic ideas.  One night Grettir swam ashore.
+He thought that his enemies would be awaiting him,
+and should he venture to land in a boat would fall
+on him in overwhelming numbers; so he took to
+the water and swam to a point at some distance.
+Then he took a horse that he found in a farm near
+where he came ashore, and he rode across country to
+the Middle-firth, and reached home in two days.  He
+reached Biarg during the night when all were asleep;
+so instead of disturbing the household, he opened a
+private door, stepped into the hall, stole up to his
+mother's bed, and threw his arms round her neck.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>She started up, and asked who was there.  When
+he told her, she clasped him to her heart, and laid
+her head, sobbing, on his breast, saying.  "Oh, my
+son!  I am bereaved of my children!  Atli, my
+eldest, has been foully murdered, and you are
+outlawed; only Illugi remains."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir remained at home a few days in close
+concealment.  Even the men of the farm were not
+suffered to know that he was there.  He heard the
+story of how Thorbiorn Oxmain had basely and in
+cowardly manner slain his brother, when Atli was
+unarmed; and Grettir considered that it was his duty
+to avenge his death.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst" id="the-slaying-of-oxmain"><span class="bold large">CHAPTER XXII</span></p>
+<p class="center pnext"><span class="bold medium">THE SLAYING OF OXMAIN.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<!--  -->
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<p class="pfirst"><em class="italics">By the Boiling Spring—Grettir
+knocks the Nail from his Spear—Oxmain places his
+Son in Ambush—The Fight with Oxmain—Grettir's
+Spear-head—The Law concerning Manslaying—A
+Rising Black Cloud</em></p>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>One fine day, soon after his return, Grettir
+mounted a horse, and without an attendant
+rode over the hill to the Ramsfirth, and came down
+to Thorod's-stead.  This is still a good farm, the
+best on the fiord, and it is by far the best built pile
+of buildings thereabouts.  It faces the south and is
+banked up with turf to the north, to shelter it
+against the cold and furious gales from the Polar
+Sea.  The soil is comparatively rich there, and there
+are tracts of good grass land on the slope of the
+hill by the side of the inlet of sea.  The farm
+buildings consists at present of a set of wooden
+gable ends painted red, and the roofs are all of turf,
+where the buttercups grow and shine luxuriantly.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir rode up to the farmhouse, about noon, and
+knocked at the door.  Some women came out and
+welcomed him; they did not know who he was,
+or they would have been more sparing in their
+welcome.  He asked after Thorbiorn, and was told
+that he was gone to the meadow, a little way further
+down the firth, where he had gone to bind hay, and
+that he had taken with him his son, called Arnor,
+who was a boy of sixteen.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>When Grettir heard this, he said farewell to the
+women, and turned his horse's head to ride down
+the fiord towards a boiling spring that bubbles up
+out of the rock, throwing up a cloud of steam, and
+running in a scalding rill into the sea.  Now the
+rock is perhaps warm there, or the warm water helps
+vegetation; certain it is that thereabouts the grass
+grows thickly, and there it was that Thorbiorn was
+making his bundles of hay.  As Grettir rode along
+near the water, below the field, Thorbiorn saw him.
+He had just made up one bundle of hay, and he was
+engaged on another.  He had set his shield and
+sword against the load, and his lad Arnor had a
+hand-axe beside him.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Thorbiorn looked hard at Grettir as he came along,
+and he said to the boy: "There is a fellow riding this
+way.  I wonder who he is, and whether he wants us.
+Leave tying up the hay, and let us find out what his
+errand is."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then Grettir leaped off his horse; he had a helmet
+on his head, and was girt with the short sword, and
+he bore a great spear in his hand that had a long
+sharp blade but no barbs.  The socket was inlaid
+with silver, and a nail went through the socket
+fastening it on to the staff of the spear.  He sat
+down on a stone, and knocked the nail out.  His
+reason was that he intended to throw the spear at
+Thorbiorn, and if he missed him, he thought the
+spear-head and the haft would come apart, and would
+be of no use to Thorbiorn to fling back at him.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Oxmain said to his son: "I verily believe that is
+Grettir, Asmund's son, he is so big; I know no one
+else so big.  He has got occasion enough against us,
+and if he is come here it is not with peaceable
+intentions.  Now we must manage cunningly.  I
+do not know that he has seen you; so you hide
+behind the bundle of hay, and lie hid till you see
+him engaged with me.  Then you steal up noiselessly
+behind with your axe, and strike him one blow with
+all your might between the shoulder-blades.  When
+I see you coming up, I will fight the more furiously
+so as to draw off his attention, that he may not be
+able to look round.  Have no fear, he cannot hurt
+you, as his back will be turned to you.  Get close
+enough to make sure, and you will kill him with one
+blow."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now Grettir came uphill into the field, and when
+he came within a spear-throw of them, he cast his
+spear at Thorbiorn; but the head was looser on the
+shaft than he had expected it would be, and it
+became detached in its flight, and fell off and
+dropped into a marshy place and sank, and the shaft
+flew on but a little way and then fell harmlessly to
+the ground.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then Thorbiorn took his shield, put it before him,
+drew his sword and ran against Grettir and engaged
+him.  Grettir had, as already said, the short sword
+that he had taken out of the barrow, and with that
+he warded off the blows of Thorbiorn and smote at
+him.  Oxmain was a very strong man, and his
+shield was covered with well-tanned hide stretched
+over oak, and the blade of Grettir fell on it, hacked
+into it, and sometimes caught so that he could not at
+once withdraw it.  Thorbiorn now began to deal more
+furious blows.  Now just as Grettir was wrenching his
+sword away from the shield, into which it had bitten
+deep, he saw someone close behind him with an axe
+raised.  Instantly he tore out his sword and smote
+back over his head to protect his back from his
+assailant behind, and the blow came on Arnor just
+as he was on the point of driving his axe in between
+the shoulders of Grettir, so that he staggered back,
+mortally wounded.  Thorbiorn, whose eye was on
+his son, retreated a step, lost his presence of mind for
+a moment, and thereupon down came Grettir's sword
+on his shield and split it in half.  Grettir pursued
+his advantage, pressed on him, and struck him down
+at his feet, dead at a blow.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then he went in search of his silver-inlaid
+spear-head, but could not find it.  So he mounted his
+horse again, rode on to the nearest farmhouse, and
+there told what he had done.  Many, many years
+after, about 1250, the spear-head was found in the
+marsh.  When I was in Iceland I also obtained a
+very similar spear-head, only not silver-inlaid, that
+was found in the volcanic sand; it had probably been
+lost in a very similar manner.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>It seems to us in these civilized times very horrible
+this continual slaying that took place in Iceland;
+but we must remember that, as already said, there
+were in those days not a single policeman, soldier,
+or officer of justice in the island.  When a trial took
+place, the prosecutor was the person aggrieved, or
+the nearest akin.  The court pronounced sentence,
+and then the prosecutor was required to carry out
+what the law had ordered.  He was to be constable
+and executioner.  Now the law, or custom which
+was the same as law, for there was no written code,
+was that when one man had been killed, the next of
+kin was bound to prosecute the slayer and obtain
+from him money compensation, or outlawry, or else
+he might kill the slayer himself, or one of his kin.
+This latter provision seems to us outrageous, that
+because A kills B, therefore that C, who is B's
+brother, may kill D, who is brother to A.  But so the
+law or custom stood and was recognized as binding,
+and not to carry out the law or custom was regarded
+as dishonourable.  It must be remembered that
+Iceland was colonized about A.D. 900, and that Grettir
+was born only about 97 years after, and that
+Christianity was adopted in 1000; that is to say, it
+was sanctioned by law, but no one was forced to
+become a Christian unless he liked.  Also, that there
+was no government in the island, no central authority,
+and that the colonists lived much as do the first
+settlers now in a new colony which is not under the
+crown, or like the diggers at the gold mines.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>When Grettir had slain Thorbiorn Oxmain, he went
+home to Biarg and told his mother, who said it was
+well that Atli's blood was wiped out by the death of
+the man who had so basely and in such cowardly
+fashion slain him; but she said she foresaw more
+trouble coming like a rising black cloud, and that
+this would make it more difficult for Grettir to get
+relief from his outlawry.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst" id="at-learwood"><span class="bold large">CHAPTER XXIII.</span></p>
+<p class="center pnext"><span class="bold medium">AT LEARWOOD.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<!--  -->
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<p class="pfirst"><em class="italics">At Hvamsfiord—Iceland Scenery—An Iceland
+Paradise—One Lucky Chance—Kuggson's Story—Onund's
+Voyage—In Search of Uninhabited Land—The
+Landing—Eric's Gift—A Cold Back!—Better than
+Nothing—An Oversight—Death of Onund—Planning
+a Murder—Killing the Curd Bottle—The Churl's
+Axe—The Red Stream—Hard Times—The "Wooden-tub"—The
+Stranded Whale—The Fight over the Whale—Retreat
+of the Coldbackers—Before the Assize—The Judgment—An
+Evil Act—Ill-luck follows Ill</em></p>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>After the slaying of Thorbiorn Oxmain, Grettir
+would not remain at home, lest trouble should
+come on his mother; so he rode across the Neck first
+of all to his brother-in-law, at Melar, at the head of
+the Ramsfirth, to ask his advice.  His brother-in-law
+there was called Gamli; he was not very rich or
+powerful, and he represented to Grettir that it would
+never do for him to remain in such near proximity
+to Thorod's-stead, in the same valley, at the head of
+the same firth.  This Grettir acknowledged, so he
+stayed there but a few days, and then rode over the
+high table-land to the Lax, or Salmon-dale, where
+was the watershed, and the river of the salmon
+ran west into Hvamsfiord.  One of the most interesting
+and best written of the Icelandic sagas relates
+to the history of this valley.  The Hvamsfiord is by
+nature wonderfully protected against western storms,
+for the entrance is almost blocked to the west by a
+countless multitude of islands, of which only one is
+moderately large, and to the north-west is not only
+a grassy promontory, but also a natural breakwater
+of three long narrow islands.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Outside the cluster of islands are eddies and
+whirlpools, and the passage between them is not
+always safe; but when a vessel has passed through
+between the islets it enters as into a wide beautiful
+inland lake, the shape of which is that of a boot,
+with the sole to the east and the toe turned up
+north.  Moreover, along the north side of this
+sheltered firth are high and steep hills that
+screen from the water all gales sweeping from the
+Pole; and in the glens and under the crags of these
+hills exposed to the south are beautiful woods of
+birch.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Formerly in Iceland the woods were much more
+extensive than they are now; for the old settlers
+found in them plenty of fuel, and the birch-trees
+grew to a fair size.  Now, alas, with fatal want of
+consideration, the trees have been so cut down that
+the woods are rare and the trees are small.  There
+is hardly a birch-tree whose top one cannot touch
+when riding through a wood on a little pony no
+bigger than a Shetlander.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Exactly at the toe of the boot is a rich grassy
+basin, where two streams flow into the fiord, and
+here is a beautiful view from the water.  One sees
+in front the green basin, and above it rise the
+mountains to Skeggoxl, a cone covered with eternal snows
+and with glaciers streaming down its flanks.  Here, in
+a sweet sheltered nook, basking in the sun, in spring
+with the river-side and the marshes blazing with
+immense marigolds, and with the short grass slopes
+speckled with blue tiny gentianella, is the farm, and
+near it the wooden church of Hvam.  In another
+part of the basin is a settlement called Asgard, the
+"Home of the gods;" for those who settled there first
+thought the spot so delightful, so warm, that they
+named it after the sunny land of fable, where it
+was said that their ancestors, the hero-gods of the
+northern race, had lived in the east before ever they
+crossed Russia and settled in Norway.  Asgard to
+their minds was Paradise.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Paradise in Iceland is not a paradise elsewhere;
+nevertheless, to one who has travelled over barren
+hills and between glaciers, this warm nook with its
+green grass and woods of glistening birch was a place
+of inexpressible charm.  Now, just to the east, where
+would come the ball of the toe, looking across the
+end of this still blue lake-like fiord, up the valleys
+to the snows of Skeggoxl, is the farm of Learwood,
+in a grassy flat by the water, backed by birchwood
+and hills, and screened from the east as well as from
+the north winds.  Here lived Thorstein Kuggson.
+Kuggson's mother was the daughter of Asgeir, the
+father of Audun of Willowdale, with whom Grettir
+had a tussle on the ice, and whom he afterwards
+upset with his foot when he was carrying curds.
+Kuggson through his father was related to the
+influential and wealthy family in the Laxdale, whose
+history is well known through the noble saga that
+relates the story of that valley.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir spent the autumn with his relative
+Kuggson.  Now, whilst he was there he fell to talking
+one day with Kuggson about his trial of strength
+with Audun, and Grettir said how glad he was that
+nothing had come of it.  It was said that he was
+a man of ill-luck; yet luck had befriended him on
+that occasion in sending Bard to interrupt the
+struggle before both lost their tempers and the
+quarrel became serious.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then said Kuggson: "You remind me of the story
+of Bottle-back, which, of course, you know."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"It is many years since I have heard the tale,"
+answered Grettir; "for, indeed, I can be little at
+home now, and am out of the way of hearing stories
+of one's forefathers.  Tell me the tale."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then Kuggson told Grettir</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 3em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst"><span class="bold">The Story of Bottle-Back</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>"You know very surely, Grettir, that your
+great-grandfather was Onund Treefoot.  He was so called
+because in the great battle of Haf's fiord, fought
+against King Harald, he had one of his legs cut off
+below the knee.  You have been told how that
+Onund had first to wife Asa, and that he settled at
+Cold-back; and he had by his first wife two sons,
+Thorgeir and Ufeig, who was also called Grettir,
+and it is after him that you are named.  Onund's
+second wife was the mother of Thorgrim Grizzlepate,
+your grandfather.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"The story I am going to tell you relates to
+Thorgeir, the eldest son of Onund, and how he got the
+name of Bottle-back.  You might think he acquired
+the designation from a rounded back.  It was not
+so, he had a back as straight as yours.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"But to understand the story of how he got the
+name, I must go back to the time when Onund,
+your great-grandfather, came to Iceland.  That was
+in the year of Christ 900; he was unable to remain
+any longer in Norway, because the king, Harald, was
+in such enmity with him.  So he resolved that he
+would come to Iceland and seek there a new home.
+Now this was somewhat late, for the colonization
+of this island had begun some five or six and twenty
+years before, and there had come out great numbers
+of Norwegian chiefs, who fled from the rapacity and
+the vengeance of King Harald Fairhair, who
+outlawed every man who took up arms against him."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>But the story shall be told not in Kuggson's
+words, but in mine.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Onund sailed to Iceland from Norway in the
+summer of A.D. 900, and he had a hard voyage and
+baffling winds from the south that drove him far
+away to the north into the Polar Sea, till he came
+near the pack-ice; and then there came a change, and
+he made south, and after much beating about, for
+he had lost his reckoning, he made land, and found
+that he had come upon the north coast of Iceland,
+and those who knew the looks of the land said he
+was off the Strand Bay.  To the west rose the rocks
+and glaciers of the Drang Jokull, and to the east
+the long promontory that separated the Hunafloi
+from Skagafiord.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Presently a ten-oared boat put off from shore,
+rowed by six men, and approached Onund's vessel,
+and the men in the boat hailed the vessel and asked
+whose it was.  Onund gave his name and inquired
+to whom the men belonged.  They said they were
+servant men belonging to a farm at Drangar, just
+under the mighty field of glacier of Drang Jokull.
+Onund asked if all the land was taken up by settlers,
+and the men answered that along the north coast all
+such land as was worth anything was taken already,
+and that most was also settled to the south.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then Onund consulted with his shipmates what
+was to be done, whether coast along the north
+protuberance of Iceland in search of uninhabited land,
+or go into the great bay and see whether any chance
+opened for them there.  They had arrived so late
+in Iceland after the main rush of settlers that they
+could not expect to get any really favourable quarters.
+The men advised against exploring the north,
+exposed to the cold gales from the Polar Sea, where
+the fiords would be blocked with ice half the year;
+and thought there would be no harm trying what
+they could find further south.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>So Onund turned his vessel in towards the head
+of the splendid bay Hunafloi; but seeing a creek that
+seemed fairly sheltered, having on the north some
+quaint spikes of rock, and a great mountain to the
+south like a horn, and finding that this fiord gave
+a turn northwards under the shelter of the mountains,
+the men with Onund's consent ran in there,
+and having anchored the vessel, entered a boat and
+rowed ashore.  On reaching the strand they were
+met by men who asked them who they were and
+what they did there.  Onund said he had come
+with peaceable intentions, and then he was told that
+all that fiord was occupied, and that the owner of
+the land was Eric Trap, a wealthy man.  Eric came
+to the beach and hospitably invited Onund and his
+ship's crew to his house.  There Onund told him his
+difficulty.  He had come to Iceland too late, and
+he feared that he would be able nowhere to find
+unclaimed lands.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Eric considered a while, and then said there was
+more land that he had claimed than he could well
+keep in hand, and that he would be pleased to
+accommodate a man of such noble family and character
+as was Onund.  Onund pressed him to receive
+payment for the land, but this Eric generously refused.
+When he had come there, said Eric, the country had
+been unpeopled, and he had just claimed what he
+liked, and had claimed more than he wanted.  Now
+he desired to have neighbours, and if Onund would
+be friendly none would be better pleased than
+himself to have him near.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>This gratifying offer satisfied Onund, but, as the
+saying is, 'Don't look a gift-horse in the mouth,' he
+did not at once close with the offer, but asked to be
+allowed to see the land Eric was so ready to part
+with.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Accordingly he rode with Eric along the coast,
+passed the headland where was the horn-shaped
+mountain, and came upon a fiord where some boiling
+springs poured up in the sea out of its depths; the
+mountains on the north came down so abruptly to
+the water's edge that the only habitable ground lay
+at the head of the firth and on the south side, having
+a northern aspect.  Moreover there was a lofty range
+to the south, so that in winter the sun would never
+light up this firth.  Onund did not much like it, he
+thought that Eric had offered him the place because
+he did not care for it himself; so he went across the
+mountain range and down into the little bay south
+of it.  As they rode it was over snow, a long
+descent of wintry mountain, till they reached a valley
+in which was a hot spring, a little lake, and some
+grass.  The situation was somewhat more inviting
+than that Onund had already seen, but it was not
+very attractive, and looking back on the long dreary
+slope of snow he said, "A cold back! a cold back!
+I would like to have had one warmer."  "That is not
+easily acquired," answered Eric.  "Further south there
+is no fiord for many miles till you come to one
+occupied by a man called Biarni.  That I can tell
+you is a fertile settlement, there are woods and
+pastures, and hot springs and good anchorage; but
+that is not my land to give you."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then Onund sang a stave:</span></p>
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<div class="line-block outermost">
+<div class="line"><span>"All across life's strands do run,</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>I who many war-wagers won,</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>Meadows green and pastures fair</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>Once were mine, and woods to spare.</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>Left behind, I rid the steed</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>That o'er wave, with wind doth speed.[#]</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>Cold—cold, icy back behind,</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>This is what alone I find,</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>Hard the lot that fate doth yield</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>To the bearer of the shield."</span></div>
+</div>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em">
+</div>
+<p class="noindent pfirst"><span class="small">[#] </span><em class="italics small">i.e.</em><span class="small"> a ship.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>Eric answered, "Many men have lost everything
+in Norway, and have got nothing in exchange.
+Cold may be the back against which to lean; but
+better cold back than none at all."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>This was true.  Onund had not received Eric's
+offer graciously; but he now accepted it, and he
+called the second bay he saw—that into which he
+had descended over snow—Coldback, and that
+remains the name to this day.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Eric behaved very nobly; he gave up to Onund
+the whole tract of land from the Horn-headland to
+the limit where Biarni's land began.  He received
+the whole of Reykjafiord, Fishless Creek, and
+Coldback Bay.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then Onund built himself a house at Coldback;
+and there was no difficulty about wood, for the
+Gulfstream flowed up past the great north-west
+promontory of Iceland, curled round into Hunafloi, and
+deposited a quantity of American timber as drift
+all along that coast.  Indeed, the drift was so
+abundant that neither Eric nor Onund made any
+agreement about it.  Now, as it happened in the sequel,
+this was an oversight.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Onund prospered at Coldback, and even set up
+for himself a second farm at the head of the firth to
+the north, called Reykja-firth, from the boiling
+springs that puffed and bubbled up in the sea
+at the entrance; and a hot spring is in
+Icelandic—Reykr.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now, a few years after Onund had settled in
+Iceland, his good wife Asa died.  He had by her
+two sons—the elder was called Thorgeir, and the
+younger Ufeig Grettir.  After a while Onund went
+courting a woman called Thordis, in Middle-firth,
+and he married her, and by her had a son called
+Thorgrim; he grew to be a big man, very strong,
+wise, and a capital man at husbandry.  When he
+was twenty-five years old his hair grew gray, and
+so he went by the name of Thorgrim Grizzle-pate,
+and he was the grandfather of Grettir.  After the
+death of Onund, his widow married, as already
+said, Audun of Willowdale, and their son was
+Asgeir, the father of Grettir's cousin Audun, with
+whom he had that affray on the ice, and then with
+the bottle of curds.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>When Onund was a very old man, then he died
+in his bed, and he was buried under a great mound,
+which you may see at Coldback if you go there.  It
+is called Old Treefoot's cairn.  When he was dead,
+then Thorgrim Grizzlepate and his half-brothers,
+Thorgeir and Ufeig Grettir, lived together on the
+best of terms at Coldback, and managed the property
+between them.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>In time Eric Trap of Arness died also, and left
+his lands to his son Flossi.  He had remained in
+friendship with Onund all his life; but Flossi, his
+son, was a grasping man, and he was often heard to
+grumble about the Coldback family, and say that
+they were squatters on his father's land, and had no
+title to show for the land they held.  Thorgrim
+Grizzlepate and his half-brothers did not wish to
+quarrel with Flossi, so they kept out of his company;
+and when there were sports of hurling, and wrestling,
+and horse-fighting, strayed away, so as not to be
+involved in a quarrel with him.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now, Thorgeir was the eldest of the three
+brothers at Coldback, and he was mightily fond of
+fishing.  This was known to Flossi, and he made a
+plot for slaying him; for he was envious of the
+brothers, and wanted to get back all their lands into
+his own possession.  He had got a house-churl
+called Finn, and he and Finn had some talk together.
+The end of this talk was that Finn started secretly
+for Coldback armed with a hatchet, and he hid
+himself in the boat-house at Coldback.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Early in the morning Thorgeir got ready to
+go out fishing, for the weather was good, the sea
+calm and was alive with fish.  His nets were in the
+boat, and before sunrise he left his bed and dressed,
+and went to the boat-house to start on his excursion.
+He had not the smallest suspicion of mischief, and
+as he was like to be on the water for a long time, he
+flung a great leather bottle of curds over his back.
+As already said, these leather bottles were no other
+than the hides of goats or sheep, sewn up and
+converted into receptacles for liquid.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>So Thorgeir went to the boat-house with the
+bottle of curd over his back, opened the door, and
+went in.  He did not look round, he had no suspicion
+of evil, and he did not see Finn lurking in the
+dark corner.  It was, moreover, very dark in the
+boat-house.  Thorgeir stooped to get hold of the
+boat and thrust her out, when all at once out from
+the dark corner leaped the churl, and brought the
+axe down on Thorgeir's back.  The blow made the
+bottle squeak, and all the curds gushed out.  That
+was enough for Finn.  He made sure he had killed
+Thorgeir, so he ran away as fast as he could back to
+Arness, burst into the house, and shouted to his
+master "I have killed him!  I have killed him!  And
+he squeaked!  he squeaked!"</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Let me look at the axe," said Flossi.  Then, when
+he had the axe in his hand he turned it about and
+laughed, and said, "Verily, I did not think that
+Thorgeir had milk in his veins instead of blood.
+That accounts for it, that you have been able to
+slay him."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>This affair was a subject of much comment, and
+much laughter did it provoke.  Thorgeir had not
+received the smallest wound, only his bottle was split,
+and ever after he went by the name of Bottle-back.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>But a song was made about this event which was
+never forgotten.  It runs thus:—</span></p>
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<div class="line-block outermost">
+<div class="inner line-block">
+<div class="line"><span>"Of the days of old</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>Great tales are told</span></div>
+</div>
+<div class="line"><span>How heroes went forth to fight,</span></div>
+<div class="inner line-block">
+<div class="line"><span>Their shields, for show</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>Were whitened as snow,</span></div>
+</div>
+<div class="line"><span>And their weapons were burnished bright</span></div>
+<div class="inner line-block">
+<div class="line"><span>The battle began,</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>In the weapon-clang,</span></div>
+</div>
+<div class="line"><span>The red blood flowed apace</span></div>
+<div class="inner line-block">
+<div class="line"><span>In rivers shed</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>It dyed red</span></div>
+</div>
+<div class="line"><span>The shields o'er all their face.</span></div>
+<div class="inner line-block">
+<div class="line"><span>But nowaday</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>We tune our lay</span></div>
+</div>
+<div class="line"><span>To tell a different story.</span></div>
+<div class="inner line-block">
+<div class="line"><span>The churls who fight</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>Bring axes white,</span></div>
+</div>
+<div class="line"><span>With curds and whey made gory."</span></div>
+<div class="line"> </div>
+</div>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>When Kuggson ceased, Grettir laughed heartily.
+"Ah!" said he, "that cannot be said now, for indeed
+there flows much blood."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"You speak the truth," answered Kuggson; "and
+I wish that this red stream flowed less abundantly."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"That may be," said Grettir; "but I would fain
+hear the rest of the story.  I have not heard it told
+me for a long time; and, indeed, to speak the truth,
+much of it I have clean forgotten, though I did hear
+it when I was a boy at home."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"If you will hear what follows, it must be as a
+new story," said Kuggson.  Again I will tell it in
+my own words.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 3em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst"><span class="bold">The Story of the Stranded Whale</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>Hard times came to Iceland, such as had not been
+known since it was settled, for the timber that had
+been thrown up by the sea came to an end, or very
+nearly so.  There had been great accumulations,
+and these were exhausted, and for some reason or
+other that cannot now be explained the Gulf-stream
+ceased to carry on its current the amount of timber
+it had formerly, the wreckage of the forests on the
+Mississippi, swept down into the great Mexican
+Gulf, and thence washed out over the vast Atlantic,
+borne on the warm stream to the north, to give fuel
+to those lands which were by nature unprovided
+with trees.  At this time the axe was laid against
+the largest and finest birch that grew in the forests
+in Iceland.  But none of that timber was big and
+good enough for building purposes.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>This deficiency in drift-wood continued for many
+seasons, and if men required building timber they
+were constrained to send to Norway for it.  Now,
+it happened that about this time a great merchant
+vessel was wrecked in the fiord in the lap of which
+was Arness, where lived Flossi, and he took four or
+five of the chapmen to his house, and lodged them
+there well and hospitably, and the other wrecked
+men were quartered in other farmhouses near.  All
+winter the men were engaged in building a new ship
+out of the wreck and what other timber they could
+get; but they were not skilful over their work, and
+they built a badly-proportioned vessel, over small at
+the stem and stern and over big amidships; and
+this vessel was much laughed at, and men called it
+the Wooden-tub, and that bay where Flossi lived
+was ever after called Wooden-tub Bay, because this
+broad-beamed, comical vessel was built there.[#]</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>[#] It is still so called, Trèkyllis-víc.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now, it fell out that at the spring equinox there
+was a great storm from the north, and it lasted a
+week.  The waves came in huge rollers against the
+cliffs, and spouted like geysers into the air, and all
+the air was in a haze with spray, and was full of the
+noise of the sea.  Those who lived on the coast were
+not sorry for the storm, because they hoped it would
+blow in drift-wood and other spoils of the deep upon
+the shores; and sure enough, when it abated, a man
+who lived out on Reykja-ness came and told Flossi
+that there was a great whale washed ashore there.
+Then Flossi sent word to all the farms round to the
+north.  But hard-by where the whale had come
+ashore lived a farmer named Einar, who was a
+tenant under the brothers at Coldback, so he took a
+boat and rowed off to Coldback, and told them about
+the monster that was stranded.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>When Thorgrim and his brothers Thorgeir and
+Ufeig heard this, they got ready at once, and were
+twelve in a ten-oared boat, with axes and knives for
+cutting up the whale.  Another boat put off from
+another of their farms, with six men in it, and others
+were sure to come as soon as they could get ready.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>In the meantime, Flossi and all his company,
+his kindred, servants, and tenants, had hurried to
+the spot, and were already engaged in cutting up
+the whale, when round the ness came the boat of
+the brothers.  Now, the shore where the whale was
+cast up belonged to the brothers, and they called out
+to Flossi to assert their right to whatever was found
+on the strand.  Flossi answered that if they had
+any right to the drift they must show their claim.
+They had, he said, been allowed by his father to
+squat on his land, but his father had never given over
+to them all his rights, certainly not the lordship
+over the strand, and claim to flotsam and jetsam.
+Whilst the dispute continued, up came other boats
+of the Coldback party, and then a long boat, that
+contained a fellow called Swan, who lived in
+Biornfiord, to the south of Coldback, a very warm friend
+of the brothers, and a plucky, resolute man.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Thorgrim was hesitating what to do, when Swan
+told him it would be mean to allow himself to be
+robbed.  Moreover, this assault on his rights, if not
+resisted would establish a precedent, and Flossi
+would claim everything found on their strand, even
+at their very doors.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>So a fight began.  The Coldback men came
+ashore, and Thorgeir Bottle-back mounted the carcase
+of the whale, to drive off the servants of Flossi.
+Among these was Finn; he was near the head of
+the whale, and stood in a foothold he had cut for
+himself.  Then Thorgeir Bottle-back said, "Ah!  I
+owe you a stroke of the axe, which has not been
+repaid as yet," and he smote at him, and felled him.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Flossi egged on his men, and a desperate fight
+ensued; some fought on the body of the whale, some
+about it.  There were hardly any present who had
+other weapons save choppers and axes, and they
+hewed at each other with these.  But some had no
+other weapons than the ribs of the whale, and it is
+even said that some of the churls flourished great
+strips of blubber, with which they banged each other
+about, nearly smothering each other in oil, but not
+doing much harm.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The battle was going ill with Flossi, when there
+arrived a contingent of men from Drangar, with
+many boats, and gave help to Flossi, and then those
+of Coldback were borne back overpowered; but they
+did not retreat till they had loaded their boats.
+Swan shouted to the Coldbackers to get on board as
+quickly as they could, for he saw more men coming
+against them from the north.  Flossi received a wound,
+but Ufeig, one of the three brothers, was dealt his
+death-wound before he could get into the boat, and
+he fell on the strand.  Thorgeir Bottle-back at once
+leaped out of the vessel, ran to his brother, heaved
+him up in his arms and plunged back through the
+surf with him, and lifted him into the boat, where
+he died.  It is told that in this battle one man was
+beaten to death by the rib of a whale, and that was
+one of the chapmen of the wrecked vessel.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>After this, the matter was brought before the
+assize, for the question of the right to the shore had
+to be decided one way or the other.  And it was
+decided in this manner: Flossi was condemned
+to outlawry for his high-handed proceeding, and
+because of the death of Ufeig Grettir; but the
+question of the rights was thus settled by the judge,
+Thorkel Moon.  He said, "I cannot see that the
+claim made by the Coldback men is established, for
+no money passed between Onund and Eric.  I know
+this about the land that was possessed by my
+grandfather Ingolf, and which is now my own.  He
+received it from Steinver the Old; but then he gave
+her a mottled cloak, and that was a pledge of sale;
+and this has never been contested.  In the matter
+of the lands inhabited by the Coldback men, as far
+as I can learn, not even a straw was given in
+exchange.  However, it is proved that they have held
+the land, and have taken the drift for a long time;
+and that the original owner, Eric, did not dispute their
+doing so.  I therefore decide that a compromise shall
+hold good.  The Coldback brothers must surrender
+all the Reykja-firth, and content themselves with the
+land south of that.  And I also decide that they shall
+exercise full and undisputed rights to the land, to
+all that grows on it, to the sea and what it throws
+up, along that bit of strand that remains to them."</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>Now when Kuggson had finished this story, then
+Grettir said, "You have not told how my grandfather
+and great-uncle parted."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"No," said Kuggson.  "There is not much to tell
+about that.  The two brothers agreed to separate,
+as your grandfather wanted to marry in the Middlefirth.
+Bottle-back remained at Coldback."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Now that you have spoken so much about Coldback,"
+said Grettir, "I will tell you something,
+though it is to my discredit."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Say on," answered Kuggson.  "Men are generally
+more ready to boast than to discredit themselves."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"When I was a little boy," said Grettir, "my
+father suffered from a cold back and great pains in
+it, in winter, and he only got ease when it was
+rubbed with a hot flannel.  I was a bad, idle boy,
+and I was set in winter to rub his cold back.  This
+I resented.  I thought it was a work fit only for
+servants, and one day when my father had made me
+rub his old back till I was tired, then he said to me,
+'You are growing slack; rub harder, that I may feel
+your hand.'  'Do you so want to feel my hand,
+father,' I said.  Then I saw a wool-comb hard by
+that the women had used for carding wool, and I
+caught it and rubbed down my father's back with
+that—so that he shrieked with pain, and I made the
+blood flow.  It was a wicked act.  I think of it now
+the old man is dead, and I am sorry."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Yes," said Kuggson, "it was an evil act.  Men
+say that you are an unlucky man.  Now, I do not
+wonder at your ill-luck, for none ever raised his
+hand against his father but there followed him ill
+in consequence of so doing all his days."</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst" id="the-foster-brothers"><span class="bold large">CHAPTER XXIV.</span></p>
+<p class="center pnext"><span class="bold medium">THE FOSTER-BROTHERS.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<!--  -->
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<p class="pfirst"><em class="italics">Grettir's Promise—The Yule Ox—Holding the Boat—A
+Hard Pull—Grettir and the Ox—Thorgeir's Hatred—The
+Concealed Axe—Evil Sport—An Iceland Moor</em></p>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>Now, the kinsmen of Oxmain heard where Grettir
+was, so they resolved to form a party, and fall
+upon him at Learwood.  But Grettir's brother-in-law
+was aware of this and forewarned Grettir, so he
+went away to the north, and he followed Gilsfiord
+till he reached Reyk-knolls, where was a pleasant
+farm near the sea, where also were a great number
+of ever-boiling springs, that poured and squirted and
+fizzed out of mounds of red-clay.  Here lived a man
+called Thorgils Arison, and he asked this man if he
+would give him shelter through the winter.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Arison said that he would.  "But," said he, "there
+is only plain fare in my house."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"I am not choice as to my food, so long as I have
+a roof over my head," answered Grettir.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"There is one matter further," said Arison.
+"Somehow or other I get men come to me and offer
+to become my guests who cannot settle elsewhere,
+and I get a rough lot at times.  That comes of
+being too good-hearted to bid them pack.  Even now
+I have two such good-for-naughts guesting with me,
+two foster-brothers, Thorgeir and Thormod; rough,
+unkempt men, of bad tempers both, and I wot not
+how you will agree together.  You may come and
+put your head within my doors if you will, but on
+one condition, that there be no fighting and
+knocking about of my other guests."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir answered that he would not be the first
+to raise strife, and that if the foster-brothers
+provoked him beyond endurance he would go elsewhere,
+and not give his host annoyance by a brawl in his
+house.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>With this promise Arison was content.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Thorgils Arison was a firm man, and he told the
+foster-brothers that he would have no disturbance
+whilst they were with him, and they also promised
+to be orderly.  Thorgeir did not like Grettir.  He
+scowled at him and contradicted him, but did not
+pursue his rudeness beyond bounds; and when
+Grettir was ruffled, a word from the master of the
+house served to appease the rising blood.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>So the early winter wore away.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now, the good man, Thorgils Arison, owned a
+cluster of islands in the firth that are called Olaf's
+Isles; they lie a good sea-mile and a half beyond the
+ness.  On them grass grows, and there the bonder
+kept his cattle to fatten in autumn.  Now, there was
+an ox on one of these isles that Arison said he must
+have home before the snows and storms of winter
+came on, as he intended to kill the beast for the
+feastings of Yule.  So the foster-brothers and
+Grettir volunteered to go out to the island, and fetch
+the ox home.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>They went down to the sea and got out a ten-oared
+boat, and there were but these three to man
+it.  The weather was cold, and the wind was
+shifting from the north and not settled.  They rowed
+hard, and reached the island; but the sea was
+running and foaming over the shore, and they saw it
+would be no easy matter to get the ox on board
+with such a surf.  So the brothers told Grettir he
+must hold the boat, whilst they got the ox in.  He
+agreed, and went into the water, and stood
+amidships on the side out to sea, and thrust the boat
+towards the shore, whilst the brothers laboured to
+get the ox in.  Thorgeir took up the ox by the hind
+legs, and Thormod by the fore legs, as the beast
+refused to be driven on board, and so they carried the
+animal into the boat; but Grettir, who held the
+craft, had the sea up to his shoulder-blades, and he
+held her perfectly fast.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>When the ox was hove in, Grettir let go and
+got into the boat.  Thormod took oar in the bows,
+Thorgeir amidships, and Grettir aft, and so they
+made out into the open bay.  As they came out from
+the lee of the island the squall caught them, the
+waves leaped and foamed, and Thorgeir shouted
+"Now then, stern!  Have you gone to sleep?  Why
+are you lagging?"</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir answered, "The stern will not lag when
+the rowing afore is good."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Thereupon Thorgeir fell to rowing so furiously that
+both the tholes were broken.  So he called to Grettir,
+"Row on steadily whilst I mend the thole-pins."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then Grettir rowed so mightily, whilst Thorgeir
+was engaged mending the pins, that he wore through
+the oars, and when Thorgeir was ready they snapped
+like matches.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Better row with less haste and more caution,"
+growled Thormod.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then Grettir stooped and picked out of the bottom
+of the boat two unshapen oar-beams that lay there;
+but as they were too big to go between the
+thole-pins, he bored large holes in the gunwales, and
+thrust the oars through, and rowed thus so mightily
+that every rib and plank of the boat creaked,
+and the foster-brothers were in fear lest with his
+rowing he would tear the craft to pieces.  However,
+they reached the shore in safety.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then Grettir asked whether the brothers would
+rather haul up the boat, or go home with the ox.
+They preferred to haul the boat ashore, and found
+that it was hung with icicles, for the water had frozen
+on the sides; but Grettir led home the ox, which
+was very fat, and very unwilling to be dragged
+along, so that Grettir became impatient.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>When the foster-brothers had finished bailing out
+the boat, and had put her under cover, they went up
+to the house, and on reaching it Thorgeir inquired
+after Grettir, but Arisen the bonder said he had not
+seen him or the ox.  Then he sent out men in quest
+of him, for he supposed something must have befallen
+him; and when they came to where the land dipped
+towards the sea they saw a strange object indeed
+coming towards them, and did not know at first
+whether what they saw was a human being or a troll.[#]  On
+approaching nearer they saw that this strange
+object was Grettir, who was carrying the ox on his
+back, and striding up the hill with the beast, which had
+the head hanging over his shoulder, the tongue out,
+and was lowing plaintively.  The sight was infinitely
+comical, and the men who saw it burst out laughing,
+and this made Grettir also laugh, so that he dropped the ox.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="noindent pfirst"><span class="small">[#] A troll is a mountain demon or giant.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>Now, it must be known that this story is not
+manifestly absurd, for the Icelandic cattle are very
+small, like Brittany cows, and bear the same relation
+to a good English ox that a pony does to a horse.
+Nevertheless the feat was only such as a strong man
+could have accomplished.  It had taken the two
+brothers to carry the ox down into the boat, and
+here was Grettir alone carrying him up hill.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>This deed of Grettir was much talked of, and this
+made Thorgeir, the elder of the foster-brothers, very
+jealous of Grettir, and he hated him, and sought to
+do him an injury.  One day after Yule, Grettir
+went down to the bath that was made by turning a
+stream of hot water from one of the natural boiling
+springs into a walled basin into which also cold
+water could be turned from a rill.  In former times
+the Icelanders were very particular about bathing,
+and were a clean people.  At the present day they
+never bathe at all, and such of the old baths as
+remain are out of order and full of grass and mud.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Thorgeir said to his brother, "Let us go now and
+try how Grettir will start, if I set upon him as he
+comes away from his bath."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"I do not like this," answered Thormod; "you will
+vex our host, and get no advantage over Grettir."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"I will try what I can do," said the elder; and he
+took his axe, hid it under his cloak, and went down
+towards the bathing-place.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>When he had reached it he said, "Grettir, there
+is a talk that you have boasted that no man could
+make you take to your heels."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"I never said that," answered Grettir, "but
+anyhow you are not the man to make me run."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then Thorgier swung up his axe and would have
+cut at Grettir; but Grettir suspected that the man
+meant mischief, and he was ready, so that the
+instant he drew out the axe and swung it, Grettir
+clashed forward at him, struck him in the chest and
+sent him staggering back, so that he sprawled his
+length on the ground.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then Thorgeir shouted to his brother, "Why do
+you stand by and let this savage kill me?"</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Thormod then laid hold of Grettir, and endeavoured
+to drag him away, but his strength was not sufficient
+to effect this.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>At that moment up came Arison, the bonder, and
+he bade them be quiet and have nought to do with Grettir.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>So the brothers stood up, and Thorgeir pretended
+it was all sport, that he had only proposed giving
+Grettir a fright; but the bonder hardly believed
+him.  As for the younger of the brothers, it was
+well seen that he had been drawn into the matter
+against his will.  So the winter passed, and peace
+was kept.  This little struggle with Grettir had
+shown Thorgeir that it would be ill for him to have
+dealings with a man so prompt and strong as Grettir,
+and he controlled himself and did not seek to pick
+a quarrel with him any more.  At the same time he
+did not like him any better.  Thorgils Arison got
+great credit, when it was reported that throughout
+an entire winter he had maintained such turbulent
+men as the foster-brothers and Grettir under his
+roof without their having fought.[#]</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="noindent pfirst"><span class="small">[#] There is an entire saga relating to the history
+of these brothers, called the
+Foster-Brothers' Saga.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>But when spring came then they went away, all
+of them, away over the heaths and moors of the
+interior.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>When we say that Grettir was on the heaths and
+moors, it must not be supposed that the region so
+called was at all like the moors of Scotland or
+England.  The heaths and moors of Iceland are
+upland desert regions with only here and there a
+scanty growth of vegetation, a little whortleberry,
+no heath at all, but vast tracts of broken stone and
+mud and black sand, with perhaps here and there
+an occasional hill of yellow sandstone.  Most of the
+rock is perfectly black, and breaks into pieces with
+sharp angles.  What is called Icelandic moss is a
+black lichen that grows on the stones, and there is
+a very little gray moss to be seen.  Where there is
+a burn or a stream a little grass may grow, but the
+amount is small indeed.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst" id="how-grettir-was-well-nigh-hung"><span class="bold large">CHAPTER XXV.</span></p>
+<p class="center pnext"><span class="bold medium">HOW GRETTIR WAS WELL-NIGH HUNG.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<!--  -->
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<p class="pfirst"><em class="italics">The Law-man's Judgment—Snorri's Compromise—The
+Compromise Declined—Grettir Helps Himself—The
+Spy—Thirty to One—An Undesirable Prisoner—The
+Gallows for Grettir—Thorbiorg Saves Grettir—Grettir
+Conquers Himself</em></p>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>Now, after the slaying of Thorbiorn Oxmain, his
+kinsman Thorod took the matter up, and rode
+to the great assize with a large train of men.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The relatives of Grettir also appeared at the
+assize, and they took advice of Skapti, the
+law-man; and he said that Atli was slain a week before
+the sentence of outlawry was pronounced against
+Grettir, that Thorbiorn Oxmain was guilty of that,
+and his relatives must pay a heavy fine for the
+murder.  But he said that Grettir was an
+outlaw when he slew Thorbiorn.  Now being an
+outlaw he was outside the cognizance of the law, he
+was as one not a native of the country, as one over
+whom the law had no longer jurisdiction; that,
+therefore, his slaying of Thorbiorn could not count
+as expiation of the slaying of Atli; that,
+moreover, no suit against an outlawed man could
+stand—it was illegal: that the only way in which Grettir
+could be brought into court was by the removal of
+the sentence of outlawry, when at once he could be
+prosecuted.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Thorod was disconcerted at this; for he could not
+bring an action against Grettir, and the Biarg people
+did now bring an action against him for the slaying
+of Atli, and the court gave sentence that he should
+pay down two hundred ounces of silver as blood fine
+for Atli.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now, at this court, Snorri the judge proposed a
+compromise.  He suggested that the fine should be
+let drop, and that Grettir should be held scatheless,
+that the outlawry should be set aside, and the
+slaying of Thorbiorn be put against the slaying of
+Atli, and so reconciliation be made.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Thorod did not at all want to pay down two
+hundred ounces of silver, and the Biarg family were
+very willing to have the outlawry done away with;
+so both parties were quite willing to accept this
+compromise, but Thorir of Garth had to be reckoned
+with.  Grettir was outlawed at his suit for the
+burning of his sons, and he must be brought to
+consent, or this arrangement could not take place.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>But Thorir was not to be moved.  In vain did
+the law-man Snorri urge him, and represent to him
+that Grettir, at large, an outlaw, was a danger
+menacing the country, that he was driven to
+desperation, Thorir absolutely refused to allow the
+sentence to be withdrawn.  Not only so, but he said he
+would set a higher price on his head than had been
+set on the head of any outlaw before, and that was
+three marks of silver.  Then Thorod, not to be
+behind with him, offered three more.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir resolved to get as much out of the way of
+his enemies as he could, so he went into that strange
+excrescence, like a hand joined on by a narrow wrist
+to Iceland, that extends to the north-west.  In this
+peninsula are two great masses of snow and glacier
+mountain, called Glam-jokull and Drang-jokull.  They
+do not rise to any great height, hardly three
+thousand feet, but they are vast domes of snow, with
+glaciers sliding from them to the firths, and these
+fall over the edges of the precipitous cliffs in huge
+blocks of ice that float away on the tide as icebergs.
+The largest of all the fiords that penetrates this
+region is called the Ice-firth, and it runs between
+these great mountains of snow and glaciers.  At
+the extremity of the estuary the valleys are
+well-wooded—that is to say, well-wooded for Iceland—with
+birch-trees, for their valleys are very sheltered,
+and the sea-water that roll in bears with it a certain
+amount of heat, for it has been affected by the Gulf-stream.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>One of these valleys is called Waterdale, and at
+the time of our story there lived there a man named
+Vermund the Slim, and his wife's name was
+Thorbiorg; she was a big, fine woman.  Another valley
+is Lang-dale.  Grettir went to Lang-dale—there
+he demanded of the farmers whatever he wanted,
+food and clothing, and if they would not give him
+what he asked, he took it.  This was not to their
+taste at all, and they wished that they were rid of
+Grettir.  He could not remain long in one place, so
+he rode along the side of the Ice-firth demanding
+food, and sleeping and concealing himself in the
+woods.  So in his course he came to the upland
+pastures and dairy that belonged to Vermund Slim,
+and he slept there many nights, and hid about in
+the woods.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The shepherds on the moors were afraid of him,
+and they ran down into the valleys and told the
+farmers everywhere that there was a big strange
+man on the heights, who took from them their curd
+and milk, and dried fish, and that they were afraid
+to resist his demands.  They did not quite know
+what he was, whether a man or a mountain spirit.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>So the farmers gathered together and took advice,
+and there were about thirty of them.  They set a
+shepherd to watch Grettir's movements, and let
+them know when he could be fallen upon.  Now, it
+fell out one warm day that Grettir threw himself
+down in a sunny spot to sleep.  The glistening beech
+leaves were flickering behind him, the rocks were
+covered with the pale lemon flowers of the dry as,
+and between the clefts of the stones masses of large
+purple-flowered geranium stood up and made a glow
+of colour deep into the wood.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>It is a mistake to suppose that Iceland is bare of
+flowers; on the contrary, there are more flowers there
+than grass.  Beneath Grettir the turf was full of
+tiny deep-blue gentianellas, just as if the turf were
+green velvet, with a thread of blue in it coming
+through here and there.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The shepherd stole near enough to see that Grettir
+really was fast asleep, and then he ran and told the
+bonders, who came noiselessly to the spot.  It was
+arranged among them that ten men should fling
+themselves on him, whilst the others fastened his
+feet with strong cords.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>They made a noose, and cautiously without waking
+him managed to get it about his legs; then, all at
+once, ten of them threw themselves on his body, and
+tried to pin down his arms.  Grettir started from
+his sleep, and with one toss sent the men rolling off
+him, and he even managed to get to his knees.
+Then they pulled the noose tighter and brought him
+down, he, however, kicked out at two, whom he
+tumbled head over heels, and they lay stunned on
+the earth.  Then one after another rushed at him,
+some from behind.  He could not get at his weapons,
+which they had removed, and though he made a
+long and hard fight, and struggled furiously, they
+were too many for him, and they overcame him in
+the end, and bound his hands.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now, as he lay on the grass, powerless, they held
+a council over him what should be done.  The chief
+man of that district was Vermund Slim, but he was
+from home.  So it was settled that a farmer named
+Helgi should take Grettir and keep him in ward till
+Vermund came home.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Thank you gratefully," said Helgi; "but I have
+other business to attend to than to keep sentinel
+over this man.  My hands are fully occupied without
+this.  Not if I know it shall he cross my threshold."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>So the farmers considered, and decided that another
+man who lived at Giorvidale should have the custody
+of Grettir.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"You are most obliging," said he; "but I have
+only my old woman with me at home, and how can
+we two manage him?  Lay on a man only such a
+burden as he can bear."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>They considered again, and came to the conclusion
+that one Therolf of Ere should have the charge
+of Grettir.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>But he replied, "No, thank you, I am short of
+provisions, there is hardly food enough at my house
+for my own party."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then they appointed that he should be put with
+another farmer; but he said, "If he had been taken
+in my land, well and good, but as he has not, I won't
+be encumbered with him."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then every farmer was tried, and all had excuses
+why they should not have the care of Grettir; and
+consequently, as no one would have him, they
+resolved to hang him.  So they set to work and
+constructed a rude gallows there in the wood, and a
+mighty clatter they made over it.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Whilst thus engaged, it happened that Thorbiorg,
+Vermund's wife, was riding up to her mountain dairy,
+attended by five servants.  She was a stirring, clever
+woman, and when she saw so many men gathered
+together and making such a noise, she rode towards
+them to inquire what they were about.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Who is that lying in bonds there?" she asked.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then Grettir answered and gave his name.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Why, now, is it, Grettir," she said, "that you
+have given so much trouble in this neighbourhood?"</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"I must needs be somewhere," he answered.  "And
+wherever I am, there I must have food."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"It is a piece of ill-luck that you should have
+fallen into the hands of these bumpkins," said she.
+Then turning to the farmers she asked what they
+purposed doing with Grettir.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Hang him," answered they.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"I do not deny that Grettir may have deserved
+the rope," said Thorbiorg; "but I doubt if you are
+doing wisely in taking his life.  He belongs to a
+great family, and his death will not be to your
+quietness and content if you kill him."  Then she
+said to Grettir, "What will you do if your life be
+given you?"</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"You propose the conditions," said he.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Very well, then you must swear not to revenge
+on these men what they have done to you to-day,
+and not to do any violence more in the Ice-firth."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir took the required oath, and so he was
+loosed from his bonds.  He said afterwards that
+never had he a harder thing to do than to control
+his temper, when set free, and not to knock the
+farmers' heads together like nuts and crack them,
+for what they had done to him.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then Thorbiorg invited him to her house, and he
+went with her to the Water-firth, and there abode
+till her husband returned, and when Vermund heard
+all, then he was well pleased; and deemed that
+his wife had acted with great prudence and kindness.
+He asked Grettir to remain there as long as
+was consistent with his safety, and Grettir accepted
+his hospitality, and continued there as his guest till
+late in the autumn, when he went south to
+Learwood, where was Kuggson, with whom he
+purposed spending the winter.  However, he was not
+able to stay there, for it soon became known where
+he was, and his enemies prepared to take him.  He
+accordingly left and went to a friend in another
+fiord, and remained a short while with him, but was
+obliged for the same reason to fly thence also; and so
+he spent the winter dodging about from place to
+place, never able to remain long anywhere, because
+his enemies were so resolved on his death, and were
+on the alert to fall on him wherever they heard he
+was sheltering.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst" id="in-the-desert"><span class="bold large">CHAPTER XXVI.</span></p>
+<p class="center pnext"><span class="bold medium">IN THE DESERT.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<!--  -->
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<p class="pfirst"><em class="italics">The Center of the Island—Ice, Desert, and
+Volcanoes—The Bubble-Caves—A Dweller in the
+Desert—Grettir Stops the Rider—Hall-mund
+Stronger than Grettir—Grettir Seeks Skapti's
+Advice—Grettir's Night Fears—Grettir Builds a House</em></p>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>The island of Iceland is one-third larger than
+Ireland, but then the population is entirely
+confined to the coast.  All the centre of the island
+is desert and mountain.  One mighty mass of
+mountain covered with eternal snow and ice occupies
+the south of the island and approaches the sea very
+closely in the south-east.  Much of this is unexplored;
+it has of recent years been traversed once, across the
+great Vatna-jokull, but there are passes west of the
+Vatna.  The mountain masses are broken into three
+main masses.  The vast Vatna-jokull is to the east,
+then comes a pass, and next the circular Arnafells-jokull,
+then another pass, and lastly the jumble of
+snow mountains that form the Ball-jokull and the
+Lang-jokull, the Goatland and the Erick's-jokull.
+North of the Vatna-jokull is a vast region, as large
+as a big county, covered with lava broken up into
+bristling spikes and deep clefts of glass-like rock,
+which no one can possibly get across.  In the midst
+of it, inaccessible, rise the cones of volcanoes that
+have poured forth this sea of molten rock.  East and
+west of this mighty tract of broken-up lava come
+extensive moors also quite desert, covered with
+inky-black sand which has been erupted by volcanoes,
+burying and destroying what vegetation there was.
+The extent of desert may be understood when you
+learn that there are twenty thousand square miles of
+country perfectly barren and uninhabitable, and only
+partially explored.  There are but four thousand
+square miles in Iceland that are inhabited; the rest
+of the country is a chaos of ice, desert, and volcanoes.
+The great lava region mentioned north of the Vatna
+covers one thousand one hundred and sixty square
+miles, and the Vatna envelopes three thousand five
+hundred square miles in ice.  Now, here and there
+in this vast region there are certain sheltered spots
+where some grass grows, valleys that have escaped
+the overflow of the molten rock, or the thrust of the
+glacier; and during the ninety years that Iceland
+had been inhabited, every now and then a churl who
+got tired of service, or a murderer afraid of his life,
+ran away into the centre of the island, and lived
+a precarious existence on the wild birds, their eggs,
+and on the fish that abounded in the countless lakes.
+Probably also they stole sheep, and carried them
+away to the mysterious recesses of the desert where
+they had made for themselves homes.  They lived
+chiefly in caverns, of which there are plenty thus
+formed:—When the lava poured as a fiery stream
+out of the volcanoes, in cooling great bubbles were
+formed in it, sometimes these bubbles exploded, blew
+the fragments into the air, which fell back and made
+a mass of broken bits of rock like an exploded
+soda-water bottle; but all the bubbles did not burst, and
+such hardened when the rock became cool.  These
+bubbles remain as great domed halls, and some of
+them run deep underground, forming a succession
+of chambers.  I have explored one where a band of
+outlaws once lived, and found numbers of sheep-bones
+frozen up in ice in the place where, after they
+had eaten the mutton, they threw away what they
+could not devour.  At the end of the cave they had
+erected a wall so as to inclose a space as a store
+chamber.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>These men, living in the desert and rarely seen,
+were the subject of many tales, and it was not clearly
+known who and what they really were, whether
+altogether human, or half mountain-spirits.
+Imagination invested them with supernatural powers.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>When spring came and the snows melted, then
+Grettir left the farmhouse where he had been last
+in hiding, and went into the desert, to find food and
+shelter for himself.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>One day he saw a man on horseback alone riding
+over a ridge of hill.  He was a very big man, and
+he led another horse that had bags of goods on his
+back.  The man wore a slouched hat so that his face
+could not clearly be seen.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir looked hard at the horse and the goods on
+the pack-saddle, and thought he would probably find
+some of these latter serviceable to him, and in his
+need he was not particular how he got those things
+which he wanted.  So he went up to the rider and
+peremptorily ordered him to stand and deliver.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Why should I give you things that are my own?"
+asked the stranger.  "I will sell some of my wares if
+you can pay for them."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"I have no money," answered Grettir, "what I
+want I take.  You must have heard that by report."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Then I know with whom I have to deal; you
+are Grettir the outlaw, the son of Asmund of
+Biarg."  Thereat he struck spurs into his horse and tried to
+ride past.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Nay, nay!  We part not like this," said Grettir,
+and he laid his hands on the reins of the horse the
+stranger rode.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"You had better let go," said the mounted man.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Nay, that I will not," answered Grettir.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then the rider stooped and put his hands to the
+reins above those of Grettir, between them and the
+bit, and he dragged them along, forcing Grettir's
+hands along the bridle to the end and then wrenched
+them out of his grasp.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir looked at his palms and saw that the skin
+had been torn in the struggle.  Then he found out
+that he had met with a man who was stronger
+than himself.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Give me your name," said he.  "For, good faith!
+I have not encountered a man like you."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then the horseman laughed and sang:</span></p>
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<div class="line-block outermost">
+<div class="line"><span>"By the Caldron's side</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>Away I ride,</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>Where the waters rush and fall</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>Adown the crystal glacier wall</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>There you will find a stone</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>Joined to a hand—alone."</span></div>
+<div class="line"> </div>
+</div>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>This was a puzzling answer.  The meaning was
+that he lived near a waterfall that poured out of the
+Ice mountain, and that his name was Hall-mund,
+</span><em class="italics">hall</em><span> is a stone and </span><em class="italics">mund</em><span> is the hand.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir and he parted good friends; and as he rode
+away Hall-mund called out to Grettir that he would
+remember this meeting, and as it ended in
+friendliness he hoped to do him a good turn yet,—that
+when every other place of refuge failed he was to
+seek him "by the Caldron's side, where the waters
+rush and fall, adown the crystal glacier wall" under
+Ball-jokull, and there he would give him shelter.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>After this Grettir went to the house of his friend
+the law-man Skapti, and asked his advice, and whether
+he would house him for the ensuing winter.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"No, friend," answered Skapti, "you have been
+acting somewhat lawlessly, laying hands on other
+men's goods, and this ill becomes a well-born man
+such as you.  Now, it would be better for you not to
+rob and reive, but get your living in other fashion,
+even though it were poorer fare you got, and
+sometimes you had to go without food.  I cannot house
+you, for I am a law-man, and it would not be proper
+for me who lay down the law to shelter such a
+notorious law-breaker as yourself.  But I will give
+you my advice what to do.  To the north of the
+Erick's-jokull is a tangle of lakes and streams.  The
+lakes have never been counted they are in such
+quantities, and no one knows how to find his way
+among them.  These lakes are full of fish, and swarm
+with birds in summer.  There is also a little creeping
+willow growing in the sand, and some scanty grass.  It
+is only one hard day's ride over the waste to Biarg,
+so that your mother can supply you thence with
+those things of which you stand in absolute need, as
+clothing, and you can fish and kill birds for your
+subsistence, and will have no need to rob folk and
+exact food from the bonders, thereby making
+yourself a common object of terror and dislike.  One
+more piece of advice I give you—Beware how you
+trust anyone to be with you."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir thought this advice was good—only in one
+point was it hard for him to follow.  He was haunted
+with these fearful dreams at night which followed the
+wrestle with Glam, and in the long darkness of
+winter the dreadful eyes stared at him from every
+quarter whither he turned his, so that it was
+unendurable for him to be alone in the dark.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Still—he went.  He followed up the White River
+to the desert strewn with lakes from which that river
+flowed, and there found himself in utter solitude and
+desolation.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>A good map of Iceland was made in 1844, and on
+that fifty-three lakes are marked, but the smaller
+tarns were not all set down.  In such a tangle of
+water and moor Grettir might be in comparative
+security.  He settled himself on a spot of land that
+runs out into the waters of the largest of the sheets
+of water, which goes by the name of the Great Eagle
+Lake, and thereon he built himself a hovel of stones
+and turf, the ruins of which remain to this day, and
+I have examined them.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst" id="on-the-great-eagle-lake"><span class="bold large">CHAPTER XXVII.</span></p>
+<p class="center pnext"><span class="bold medium">ON THE GREAT EAGLE LAKE.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<!--  -->
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<p class="pfirst"><em class="italics">The Ruins of the Hut—Erick's-jokull—A Craving for
+Companionship—A Traitor—Grim Tries to Kill
+Grettir—Redbeard Undertakes the Task—Redbeard's
+Stratagem—A Base Fellow—Grettir sinks to the
+Bottom—Caught in his own Trap—Grettir attacked
+by Thorir—The Attack Baffled—The Guardian of
+Grettir's Back—A Summer with Hallmund</em></p>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>Grettir was settled now on the Great Eagle
+Lake.  This lake is shaped like the figure 8,
+only that the spot of land between the upper and
+lower portion of the lake does not run quite across.
+On one side of this spot the rock falls away precipitously
+into the water, whereas it slopes on the other.
+If I had had a spade and pick, and if there had been
+more grass on the moor so as to allow of a longer
+stay, I would have dug about the foundations of
+Grettir's hut, and, who can tell!  I might perhaps
+have found some relic of him.  There is no record of
+anyone else having inhabited it since he was there,
+and in the middle of the 13th century, when the
+Saga of Grettir was committed to writing, there
+remained the ruins of his hut, but no one lived at
+the place.  Now there is no human habitation for
+many miles; the lake was a day's journey on
+horseback from the nearest farm, where I had spent the
+night.  You must get some idea of the place where
+now for some years Grettir was to live.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The moor is made up of rock split to fragments
+by the frost, and with wide tracts between the ridges
+of rock strewn with black volcanic ash and sand.  It
+lies high; when I camped out there at the end of
+June, there was no grass visible, only angelica shoots,
+and a little trailing willow, so that my horses had to
+feed on these.  The willow does not rise above the
+surface of the ground, but its roots trail long distances
+under the surface, groping for nutriment; and for
+fuel one has to dig out these roots with one's fingers,
+and employ those which are dryest.  Every dip in
+the moor is filled with a lake, and every lake has in
+it a pair of swans; in addition there are abundance of
+other wild fowl, and on the moor are ptarmigan that
+live on the flowers of the whortle or blae-berry.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Above the rolling horizon of moor, to the south
+rises the great snowy dome of Erick's-jokull.  This
+is in reality a huge volcano, with precipitous sides
+of black lava towering up like an immense giant's
+castle.  The great crater has been choked up with
+the snow of centuries, and the snow in falling
+had piled up a vast cupola of snow and ice standing
+high above the black walls, and sliding and falling
+over the edges in a succession of avalanches.  When,
+at eleven o'clock at night, I looked out of my tent at
+Erick's-jokull, the scene was sublime.  The sun had
+just gone under the northern horizon of snow and
+hill, but shone on the great dome of Erick's-jokull,
+turning it to the purest and most delicate rose colour,
+and the walls of upright basalt that sustained the
+dome were of the purple of a plum.  Grettir obtained
+nets and a boat from home, and such things as he
+wanted for his hut.  One great advantage of his
+present situation was that three different roads or
+rather tracks led to it from Biarg, so that those who
+wanted to come to him from home could select their
+way and avoid observation, till they got among the
+lakes, when they were in a labyrinth in which anyone
+might easily be lost, and any one could escape a pursuer.
+It is true that it was a long and arduous day's ride
+from Biarg to the Eagle Lake, but the whole of the
+course along each of the ways lay through
+uninhabited land.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now, when other outlaws heard that Grettir was
+on the Eagle Lake Heath, they had a mind to join
+themselves to him, and Grettir was not unwilling to
+have a companion, so lonely did he feel on this waste,
+and also so fearful was he of being by himself in the
+dark.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>There was a man called Grim, who was an outlaw;
+and Grettir's enemies made a bargain with him, that
+he should go to the Eagle Lake Heath, pretend to be
+friends with Grettir, seek opportunity, and kill him.
+They on their side undertook, if he would do this, to
+get his sentence of outlawry reversed, and to furnish
+him liberally with money.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Accordingly he went to the moor, and after some
+trouble, found Grettir, and asked if he might live
+with him.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir replied, "I do not much relish such company
+as yours, for you have got into outlawry through very
+infamous deeds.  I mistrust you; nevertheless I will
+suffer you to remain if you work hard and be obedient.
+I do not want idle hands here."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grim said he was willing, and prayed hard that he
+might dwell there, and carried his point.  He
+remained with Grettir the whole of the winter; there
+was not much friendship between them.  Grettir
+mistrusted him all along, and was never parted from
+his weapons, night or day, and Grim did not venture
+to attack him whilst he was awake.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>But one morning, when Grim came in from fishing,
+he went into the hut and stamped his foot and made
+a noise, seeing that Grettir lay in his bed asleep;
+and he was desirous to know how soundly he slept.
+Grettir did not start and open his eyes, but lay quite
+still.  Then Grim made more noise, thinking that if
+Grettir were awake he would chide him; but Grettir
+made no motion.  Then Grim made sure that he was
+fast asleep, and he stepped to his side.  Now, the
+short sword that had been taken out of the barrow
+of Karr the Old hung above the bed-head.  Grim
+leaned over Grettir and laid hold of the sword, and
+put both hands to it to draw it out of the sheath.
+At that instant Grettir started up, caught Grim round
+the waist and flung him backwards so that he was
+stunned, and the sword fell from his hand.  So
+Grettir made him confess that he had been bribed
+to set on him and murder him.  And then Grettir
+would have no more of him, and resolved to live
+entirely alone.  Yet—directly he was alone, his
+dreams, and his horror of the dark, returned on him.
+Now, Thorir of Garth heard of an outlaw named
+Thorir Redbeard, a very big man, who for murder
+had been outlawed, and was therefore in hiding
+somewhere.  Thorir of Garth sent out messengers
+in search of him, and at last brought about a
+meeting, and then he offered him a great deal of
+money if he would kill Grettir.  Redbeard said
+it was no easy task, for that Grettir was wise and wary.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"It is because it is no easy task that I set you to
+do it," said Thorir of Garth.  "You are no milksop
+to do easy jobs."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>This flattered Redbeard, and he undertook to do
+what was required.  He came out on the Eagle Lake
+Heath in the autumn after that winter when Grim
+had been with Grettir and made the attempt on his
+life.  Grettir was feeling uneasy and troubled, as the
+days grew shorter, with the eyes that he thought
+stared at him from every quarter, and although his
+judgment prompted him to refuse hospitality to
+Redbeard, yet his dread of being alone in the dark
+induced him to disregard his doubts.  So he
+reluctantly admitted Redbeard to be an inmate of his cot.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Now, mind this," said Grettir.  "I let a man be
+with me here last winter, and he lay wait for my
+life.  If I find that you are false, then I shall not
+spare you."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Redbeard said he wished for nothing else; and so
+Grettir received him, and found him to be a very
+powerful man, and so energetic that he was of the
+greatest assistance to Grettir.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Redbeard was with him all that winter (1019-1020)
+and found no occasion on which he could
+take Grettir unawares.  Then set in the next winter
+1020-1021, and Redbeard had begun to loathe his
+life on the heath, and no wonder, for he saw no one
+save Grettir; the cold and desolation of the spot was
+surpassingly wretched.  Now he became impatient
+to kill Grettir and get away.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>One night a great storm broke over the moor
+whilst he and Grettir were asleep.  The roar of the
+wind woke Redbeard and he ran outside the hut,
+down to the water-side, and with a huge stone he
+smashed the fishing-boat, so that it sank; and the
+oars and bits he had broken off he threw away into
+the lake.  So did he with the nets.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>When he came in Grettir was awake also, and he
+asked how fared the boat.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"She has broken from her mooring," answered
+Redbeard, "and has been dashed to bits on the rocks."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then Grettir jumped up, and taking his weapons
+ran out to the end of the spit of land on which his
+hut was built, and saw how the nets were drifting
+in the waves and were entangled with the oars.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Jump in, swim out, and bring them to shore,"
+said he to Redbeard.  The man shook his head and
+answered:</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"I can do anything save swim.  I have not held
+back from any other work you have set me, but
+swim I cannot."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then Grettir laid his weapons down by the
+waterside and prepared to jump in.  But he mistrusted
+Redbeard, so he said, "I will get in the nets, as you
+cannot; but I trust you will not deal treacherously
+by me."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Redbeard answered, "I should be a base fellow
+and unworthy to live if I were false to you
+now—after you have housed me so long."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then Grettir put off his clothes, and went into the
+water, and swam out to the nets.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>He swept them up together and brought them
+towards the land, and cast them up on the bank;
+but the moment he attempted to land Redbeard
+caught up the short sword, drew it hastily and ran
+at Grettir and smote at him, just as he was heaving
+himself up out of the water.  The blade would have
+cut into his neck, or between his shoulder-blades, had
+not Grettir instantly let go, and fallen backwards
+into the water and sunk like a stone.  Sinking thus
+headlong he reached the bottom, and instead of rising
+to the surface again he clung to the rocks under
+water, and groped his way along as close as he could
+to the bank, so that Redbeard might not see him
+till he had reached the back of the creek and got
+aland.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now, Redbeard stood at the end of the promontory,
+looking into the water, much puzzled.  He had not
+cut Grettir with the sword, and yet Grettir was
+gone down, and did not rise.  He thought he must
+have struck his head against a stone, and so have
+sunk, and he looked out into the water wondering
+where and when he would rise.  Meanwhile Grettir
+had come ashore behind him and was approaching
+stealthily.  Redbeard was unaware of his danger
+till Grettir had his arms about him, had heaved him
+over his head and dashed him down on the rocks, so
+that his skull was broken.  After that Grettir resolved
+not to take another outlaw into his house, though he
+could hardly endure to be alone.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Thorir of Garth did not hear of the death of Redbeard
+till next summer at the great assize; and then
+he was so angry, and so resolved to make an end of
+Grettir, that he collected a body of resolute men, his
+servants and others whom he hired for the purpose,
+to the number of nearly eighty, to sweep the Eagle
+Lake Heath and take and kill Grettir.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>One day, when Grettir was out on the moor, he
+saw a large body of armed men riding towards the
+lake.  He had time to fly to a hill that rises at a
+little distance, where there is a rift in the rock that
+traverses the top of the hill.  When I read the
+account in the saga I could not quite understand
+what follows, but no sooner was I on the spot than
+all appeared quite clear.  One could see, at once,
+that Grettir, taken by surprise, would run to this
+very spot and no other.  It was the nearest available
+place of vantage, with stone and crag.  The situation
+was not the best that might have been chosen, as it
+left Grettir's back unprotected; however, he had no
+time to seek a better.</span></p>
+<div class="align-center auto-scaled figure margin" style="width: 63%" id="figure-86">
+<span id="grettir-attacked-in-the-rift-by-thorir-s-party"></span><img class="align-center block" style="display: block; width: 100%" alt="GRETTIR ATTACKED IN THE RIFT BY THORIR'S PARTY." src="images/img-261.jpg" />
+<div class="caption centerleft figure-caption margin">
+<span class="italics">GRETTIR ATTACKED IN THE RIFT BY THORIR'S PARTY.</span></div>
+</div>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Thorir came with his men to the bottom of the
+hill, and shouted to Grettir and taunted him.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir replied, "Though you may have put the
+spoon to your lips you have not swallowed the
+broth."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then Thorir egged on his men to go up the slope
+at Grettir, but this was not easy.  It was steep, and
+the rocks were close on either side so that Grettir
+could not be surrounded.  Only one man could get
+at him from before at once.  Several attempts were
+made, but all failed; some of the assailants were
+killed, some wounded.  Then Thorir broke up his
+party into two, and sent one detachment round to
+the back of the rocks, to fall on Grettir from behind.
+Grettir saw the manoeuvre, and did not see how to
+meet it.  All he could do would be to sell his life
+dearly.  He could not hold out long when assailed
+simultaneously from before and behind.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Thorir bade the attack slacken till he thought
+those sent to the rear would be ready, and then he
+ordered a grand, and, as he believed, a combined
+assault.  Grettir fought with desperation, expecting
+every moment to be cut down from behind, but to
+his surprise and that of Thorir he was left unmolested
+in the rear.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Thorir called off his men, and went round the hill
+to inquire why the attack from behind had not taken
+place.  To his amazement he came on a discomfited
+party bleeding, faint, and baffled, and to find that
+twelve men had fallen in it.[#]</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="noindent pfirst"><span class="small">[#] At the time, or rather shortly after
+I had been on the spot, I wrote,
+"There is a nook like a sentry-box
+in the side of the cleft, and it was in this
+that Hallmund ensconced himself,
+so that he could hew down anyone who
+attempted to pass through this cleft
+to get at Grettir's back, whilst remaining
+himself screened from observation.
+I could not understand the saga
+account before I saw the spot,
+and how it was that those attacking Grettir
+from behind did not see Hallmund.
+The sight of the place made all plain."</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>Then he bade a retreat.  "Oft," he said, "have I
+heard that Grettir is a man of marvel for prowess,
+but I never knew before that he was a wizard, and
+able to kill as many at his back as he does in front
+of him."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>When he numbered his men, Thorir found that he
+had lost eighteen.  Then he and his retinue rode
+away, and they carried on them many and grievous
+wounds.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now Grettir was no less perplexed with the event
+than was Thorir, and when the latter had withdrawn
+he went through the rift in the rocks to see why he
+had not been fallen on from the rear,—and he lighted
+on a tall strong man leaning against the rocks, sore
+wounded.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir asked his name, and the tall man replied
+that he was Hallmund.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Do you remember meeting me on the heath one
+day?" asked the wounded man, "when you tried to
+stop my horse, and I pulled the reins through your
+hands so as to skin the palms'?  Then I promised if
+I had the chance to back you up."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Indeed," said Grettir, much moved, "I remember
+that right well, and now I thank you with all my
+heart, for this day you have saved my life."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then Hallmund said, "You must now come with
+me, for time must drag with you solitary here on the
+heath."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir said he was glad to accept the offer; so
+they went together south to the Ball-jokull, and
+there Hallmund had a great cave, and his daughter,
+a big muscular girl, lived there with him; there the
+girl applied plasters to the wounds of her father and
+healed him.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir remained with them in the cave all the
+ensuing summer.  But when summer came to an
+end, he wearied of being so long in the desert, and
+longed to see and be with his fellow-men in inhabited
+parts once more; so he bade farewell to Hallmund,
+and went away to the west to Hit-dale that opens on
+the Marshland, through which six or seven large
+rivers flow.  Here he had a friend named Biorn
+living at Holm.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst" id="on-the-fell"><span class="bold large">CHAPTER XXVIII.</span></p>
+<p class="center pnext"><span class="bold medium">ON THE FELL.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<!--  -->
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<p class="pfirst"><em class="italics">The Hollow of Fairwood Fell—Above the Shale
+Slide—The Outlaw's Lair—The Boaster—A Dandified
+Warrior—Hunter and Hunted—A Skin-dressing—Sadder
+and Wiser</em></p>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>Biorn when asked by Grettir to give him shelter
+declined to do so, not that the will was lacking,
+but that he had not the power to protect him.  "You
+have made," he said, "enemies on all sides, and if I
+were to take you under my roof all your enemies
+would become mine also, and I would be involved
+in endless and bitter quarrels.  I cannot give you
+direct assistance and shelter, but indirectly I will do
+what I can for you.  There is a long hill, called
+Fairwood Fell, that runs in front of my house
+on the other side of the river, and ends just above
+the marshes.  Now, in one place there is a steep shale
+slide, and above this is a hollow through the mountain,
+that might very well be made into a dry and
+comfortable place of abode.  From the entrance every one
+who passes along the highway, all who come across
+the marshes, can be seen.  I can supply you with a
+few necessaries to fit the place up, but when there
+you must shift for yourself.  I must not risk too
+much by supporting you."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir consented to this.  So he went up to
+Fairwood Fell and built up the cave, and hung gray
+wadmal before the entrance, so that no one below
+could notice that there was anything peculiar or
+anyone living there.  In this eagle's nest among the
+rocks Grettir spent the time from the autumn of
+1022 to the spring of 1024, that is, two winters.
+Whatever fuel he wanted, all he had to eat, everything
+he wanted, had to be carried up this slippery
+and steep ascent by him.  Down the shale slide he
+came when short of provisions, and went over the
+marshes to this or that farm and demanded or carried
+off, sometimes a sheep, sometimes curds, dried fish,
+in a word what he required; and a very great nuisance
+the men of the district found him.  Heartily did they
+wish they were rid of him, yet they could not drive
+him from his place of abode, for it was so difficult of
+access and so easy of defence.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now, some years ago, in the summer of 1862,
+the year after I was in Iceland, a very similar lair
+which Grettir inhabited a little later in the east of
+Iceland was explored by an Icelandic farmer.  This
+is his description of it: "The lair stands in the lower
+part of a slip of stones beneath some sheer rocks.
+It is built up of stones, straight as a line 4-3/4 ells long
+and 10 inches wide, and is within the walls 7/8 of an
+ell deep.  Half of it is roofed over with flat stones,
+small thin splinters of stone are wedged in between
+these to fill up the joints, and these are so firmly
+fixed that they could not be removed without tools.
+One stone in the south wall is so large that it requires
+six men to move it.  The north wall is beginning to
+give way.  On the outside the walls are overgrown
+with black lichen and gray moss."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Something like this was the den of Grettir on the
+Fairwood Fell, but it was less built up, as he had the
+natural rock for two of the sides and for the roof.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Whilst Grettir was there, there came a ship into
+harbour, in which was a man named Gisli, a merchant,
+very fond of wearing smart clothes, and an inordinately
+vain man.  He heard the farmers talking about
+Grettir, and what a vexation it was to them to have
+him in their neighbourhood.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Don't talk to me about Grettir," said Gisli; "I've
+had battles with harder men than he.  I hope he
+may came in my way, that I may dress his skin for him."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The farmer to whom he said this shook his head.
+"You don't know of whom you are speaking.  If you
+were to kill him you would be well off,—six marks
+of silver were set on his head, and Thorir of Garth has
+added three more, so that there stand on him nine
+marks of silver."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"All things can be done for money," said Gisli;
+"and as I am a merchant I'll see to it.  And when
+we meet—I'll dress his skin for him."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The farmer said it would be well not to talk about
+the matter.  Gisli agreed.  "I will abide this winter
+in Snowfell-ness," he said.  "If his lair is on my road
+thither I'll look out for him, and dress his skin as I
+go along."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now, whether he talked in spite of the caution given
+him, or whether some one overheard what he said, who
+was a friend of Biorn of Holm, is uncertain.  Any
+how Gisli's threat reached the ears of Biorn, who at
+once warned Grettir to be on his guard against the
+merchant.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"If he comes your way," said Biorn, "teach him a
+lesson; but don't kill him."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"No," said Grettir with a grim smile, "I'll merely
+dress his skin for him."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now it happened one day that Grettir was looking
+out of the entrance to his lair, when he saw a man
+with two attendants riding along the highway.  His
+kirtle was of scarlet, and his helmet and shield flashed
+in the sun.  Then it occurred to him that this must
+be the dandified Gisli, of whom he had heard, so he
+came running down the shale descent to the road.
+He reached the man, and at once he went to his
+horse, clapped his hand on a bundle of clothes behind
+the saddle, and said, "This I am going to take."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Nay, not so," answered Gisli, for it was he.
+"You do not know whom you are addressing."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Nor do I care," said Grettir.  "I have little
+respect for persons.  I am in poor and lowly
+condition myself, so low that I am driven to be a
+highway robber."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then Gisli drew his sword, and called to his men
+to attack Grettir, who gave way a little before them.
+But he soon saw that Gisli kept behind his servants,
+and never risked himself where the blows fell; so
+Grettir put the two churls aside with well-dealt
+strokes, and went direct upon the merchant, who,
+seeing that he was menaced, turned and took to his
+heels.  Grettir pursued him, and Gisli in his fear
+cast aside his shield, then, a little further, threw
+away his helmet, and so as he ran he cast away one
+thing after another that he had with him.  There
+was a heavy purse of silver at his girdle.  This
+encumbered him, and as he ran he unbuckled his
+belt and dropped it and the purse with it.  Grettir
+did not purposely come up with him; he could have
+outstripped him had he willed, but he let the fellow
+run a couple of horse lengths before him.  The end
+of the Fell is above an old lava bed that has flowed
+from a crater called Eldborg or the Castle of Fire, and
+like an old ruined castle it looks.  Gisli ran over
+this lava bed, jumping the cracks, then dived through
+a wood of birch that intervened between the lava
+and the river Haf.  The stream was swollen with
+ice, and ill to ford.  Gisli halted hesitating before
+plunging in, and that allowed Grettir to run in on
+him, seize him and throw him down.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Are you the Gisli who were so eager to meet
+Grettir Asmund's son?" asked the outlaw.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"I have had enough of him," gasped the fallen
+man.  "Keep my saddle-bags and what I have
+thrown away, and let me go free."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Hardly yet," said Grettir grimly.  "I think
+something was said about skin-dressing, that is not
+to be overlooked."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then Grettir drew him back to the wood, took a
+good handful of birch rods, pulled Gisli's clothes up
+over his head, and laid the twigs against his back in
+none of the gentlest fashion.  Gisli danced and
+skipped about, but Grettir had him by his garments
+twisted about his head and neck, and continued to
+flog till the poor fellow threw himself down on the
+ground screaming.  Then Grettir let go, and went
+quietly back to his lair, picking up as he went the
+purse and the belt, the shield, casque, and whatever
+else Gisli had thrown away, also he had the contents
+of his saddle-bags.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Gisli never came back to Fairwood Fell to ask for
+them.  When he got on his legs he ran up the river
+to where it was not so dangerous, swam it, and
+reached a farmhouse, where he entreated to be taken
+in.  There he lay a week with his body swollen and
+striped; after which he went home, and much was
+he laughed at for his adventure with Grettir.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst" id="the-fight-on-the-river"><span class="bold large">CHAPTER XXIX.</span></p>
+<p class="center pnext"><span class="bold medium">THE FIGHT ON THE RIVER.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<!--  -->
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<p class="pfirst"><em class="italics">Angry Farmers—A Large Band of Men—The Marshmen
+are Driven Back—The Attacking Party Reinforced—Fighting
+in Desperation—Wearied but Unwounded—The Song of
+Victory</em></p>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>Now, whilst Grettir was on Fairwood Fell,
+favoured by Biorn of Hit-dale, his presence after
+a while became unendurable to the bonders who
+lived in the marshes.  He had been for two winters
+in his den on the hill, and when they saw that he
+intended to remain there a third winter, and rob
+them of sheep and whatever he needed, then they
+took counsel together how they might rid
+themselves of the annoyance.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>One day in the winter of 1023, Grettir came
+down from his place of vantage, and went over the
+marshes to a farm called Acres, and drove away
+from it two bullocks fit for slaughtering, and several
+sheep, and he had got on with them some way over
+the marshes, on his way to his lair, before the
+farmer at Acres was aware of his loss; he had taken
+six wethers beside from another farm named Brookbend.
+This angered the farmers greatly, and they
+sent a message to the chief man of the district,
+Thord at Hitness, and urged him to waylay Grettir
+before he could reach his den.  Thord shrank from
+doing anything; however, they pressed him so much
+that at last he consented to let his son Arnor go
+with them.  Then messengers were sent throughout
+all the country side, to every farmer who was
+concerned.  And it was so planned that two bodies of
+men should march to the taking of Grettir, one on
+the right, the other on the left bank of the Hit
+River, so as to take him for certain.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir was soon aware that the country was
+roused.  He was not alone, he had two men with
+him—one the son of the farmer at Fairwood Fell, with
+whom he was on good terms, the other a farm-servant.
+They advised him to desert the cattle and
+sheep and run for it, cross the river and take
+refuge in his place of vantage; but this Grettir was too
+proud to do.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Presently he could see coming on behind him a
+large band of men, about twenty in all, under
+Thorarin of Acres and Thorfin of Brookbend.  Now, as
+these were pursuing him over the marshes, up the
+opposite side of the river came Arnor, the son of
+Thord of Hitness, and with him a farmer named
+Biarni of Jorvi.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir managed to reach the river before his
+enemies came up with him, and he had also time to
+secure a place of vantage.  This was a ness of rock
+that ran out into the river, or round which the river
+swept, so that he was protected by the water on all
+sides but one.  Grettir said to the two men with
+him, that they must guard his back, see that none
+came up the sides in his rear, and then he took his
+short-sword in both his hands, planted his feet wide
+apart on the rock, and prepared to sell his life dear.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The party headed by Thorarin of Acres and
+Thorfin of Brookbend came up, twenty in all,—but
+more were coming, for Thorarin had begun the
+pursuit before all the farmers were collected, and he
+knew that a body of some twenty or thirty more
+would arrive before long.  Thorarin himself was an
+old man, and he did not enter into the fray, but
+urged on his men.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The fight was hard.  Grettir was not easily
+reached where he stood, and he smote at all who
+approached.  Some of the Marshmen fell, and several
+were wounded.  In vain did they attempt to
+dislodge him by combined rushes, he drove them over
+the edge into the water, or cut them down with his
+sword.  At last his arm was weary, and he called
+to the farmer's son to step into his place.  He did
+so, and held the ground valiantly, whilst Grettir
+rested.  Then the party drew back, discomfited.  At
+that moment up came the fresh body of men under
+Thrand, the brother of Thorarin of Acres, and
+Stonewolf of Lavadale.  These egged on their men eagerly,
+and they thought they would obtain an easy victory,
+for Grettir had been fighting for some time, and was weary.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then Thorarin of Acres called out and advised delay.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"For," said he, "the third party of men under
+Arnor and Biarni of Jorvi have not come up on the
+other side of the river."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>This piece of advice was rejected by the
+newcomers.  What did they want with more men?
+They were a large party, fresh and untired, and
+Grettir had but two men with him, and they were
+wearied with fighting.  So the signal was given for
+the onslaught.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then Grettir saw that he must either jump into
+the river, swim across, and desert the sheep and
+bullocks he had driven there, or use almost
+superhuman exertions to defend himself.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>His position was, indeed, desperate; for, even if
+he did hold his own against this second body of
+men, a third was on its way up the other bank of
+the river to intercept him on his way up to the
+Fell.  For one moment he hesitated, and then was
+resolved.  No, he would not run.  He would die
+there, and die only after having strewn the ground
+with his foes.  Foremost among his assailants was
+Stonewolf of Lavadale, and Grettir made a sudden
+rush at him, and with a tremendous stroke of his
+sword he clove his head down to the shoulders.
+Thrand, who sprang forward to avenge him, Grettir
+struck on the thigh, and the blow took off all the
+muscle, and he fell, crippled for life.  Then Grettir
+fell back to his place of safety, and dared others to
+come on.  They sprang out on the neck of rock,
+but would not meet his weapon, one after another
+fell or was beaten back.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then Thorarin cried out, and bade all draw off.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"The longer ye fight," said he, "the worse ye
+fare.  He picks out what men among you he chooses."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The party withdrew, and there were ten men
+fallen, and five had received mortal wounds, or were
+crippled; and hardly one of the two parties was
+without some hurt or other.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir, moreover, was marvellously wearied, but
+had received no wounds to speak of.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now, hardly had the men withdrawn, carrying
+their dead and wounded, than up came the third
+detachment under Arnor and Biarni, on the other
+side of the river.  There can be no question but that,
+had they crossed and fallen on Grettir, he could not
+have defended himself longer, so overcome was he
+with weariness; but Arnor knew that his father
+had entered on the matter reluctantly, and he was
+discouraged by the ill-success of the other companies.
+Consequently, he neither waded through the river
+at the ford, a little higher, nor did he maintain his
+ground and cut off Grettir's retreat.  Instead, he
+withdrew with all his men, and left Grettir to
+recover his strength, and cross and escape to the Fell.
+This conduct of Arnor provoked much comment;
+and he was accused of cowardice, an accusation that
+clung to him through life.  Even his father
+rebuked him, for the father saw what discredit he had
+brought upon himself.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The point on the river Hit where this affray took
+place is still shown; and is called Grettir's-point to
+this day.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>When the fight was over Grettir and the two
+men went to the Fell, and as they passed the farm
+the farmer's daughter came out of the door, and
+asked for tidings.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then Grettir sang:—</span></p>
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<div class="line-block outermost">
+<div class="line"><span>"Brewer of strong barley-corn,</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>Pourer forth of drinking-horn,</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>Lo! to-day the Stonewolf fell,</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>Ne'er again his head be well.</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>Many more have got their bane,</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>Many in their blood lie slain;</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>Little life has Thorgils now,</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>After that bone-breaking blow.</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>Eight upon the river's bank</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>In their gore expiring sank."</span></div>
+</div>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst" id="a-mysterious-vale"><span class="bold large">CHAPTER XXX.</span></p>
+<p class="center pnext"><span class="bold medium">A MYSTERIOUS VALE.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<!--  -->
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<p class="pfirst"><em class="italics">The Dome of Snow—Cold Dale—A Fair Valley—The
+Mottled Ewe—With Thorir and his Daughters—The
+Stone on Broad-shield—Thorir's Cave</em></p>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>In the spring of 1024 Grettir went away from
+Fairwood Fell; for he had been there so long,
+and had preyed for such a time on the bonders of the
+marshes, that he himself saw that it would be best
+for him to remove into quite another part of the
+island.  So he visited his friend Hallmund once
+more, under the ice of Ball-jokull, and Hallmund
+advised him where to go.  He could not give him
+hospitality himself that winter, because his stock of
+goods was run so short that it would hardly suffice
+for his daughter and himself; but he told him of a
+valley unknown to anyone, save a friend of his
+called Thorir and himself.  And he informed him
+how it was to be reached.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now, as already said, there are passes in Iceland
+between the several blocks of ice mountains, and
+such a pass exists between Goatland-jokull and a
+curious domed snowy mountain called Ok.  The
+pass is called the Cold Dale, because it lies for many
+hours ride between ice mountains, and under the
+precipitous Goatland-jokull, whose rocks are crowned
+with green ice that falls over incessantly in great
+avalanches.  It is seven hours' ride from one blade of
+grass to another through that dale.  I went through
+it on midsummer-day, and saw the bones of horses
+lying about that had died unable to get through;
+perhaps becoming lame or exhausted on the way.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Half through this long trough of the Cold Dale
+stands up a buttress of rock, or rather a sort of ness,
+projecting from Goatland-jokull, so precipitous that
+hardly any snow rests on it, and this is called the
+Half-way Fell.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now, Hallmund told Grettir he must go through
+the Cold Dale till he reached the Half-way Fell,
+and there he must strike up over the snow and
+glaciers of Goatland-jokull, due south, and he would
+all at once drop into a valley known to few.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>So Grettir went up the moor till he struck the
+White River, that flowed out of the Eagle Lakes he
+knew so well, and under the cliffs and icy crown of
+Erick's-jokull, then he climbed over broken trachyte
+rocks for several hundreds of feet, till he found
+himself in the Cold Dale, and along that he trudged till
+he had reached Half-way Fell, standing up like a
+wall as though to stop the pass.  There he turned
+to the left, and as at this point Goatland is no
+longer precipitous, but slopes in a series of steps to
+the Cold Dale, he climbed up through the snow, a
+long and tedious ascent, till he stood on the neck of
+the mountain, and there he saw that the snow slopes
+fell away rapidly to the south, and he descended and
+soon beheld before him a valley in which were a great
+many boiling springs that threw up clouds of steam,
+and he saw also, what greatly pleased him, that
+there was rich and abundant grass in this valley.
+This is what the saga says: "The dale was long
+and somewhat narrow, locked up by glaciers all
+round, in such a manner that the ice walls
+overhung the dale.  He scrambled down into it, as best
+he could, and there he saw fair hillsides grass-grown
+and set with bushes.  Hot springs were
+there, and it appeared to him that it was the
+earth-fires which prevented the ice walls from closing in
+on the valley.  A little river ran down the dale,
+with level banks.  The sun rarely shone into the
+valley; but the number of sheep there could hardly
+be reckoned, they were so many; and nowhere had
+he seen any so fat and in such good condition."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir did not see Thorir, Hallmund's friend, at
+first; so he built himself a hut of such wood as he
+could get, and with turf.  He killed the sheep he
+wanted, and found that there was more meat on one
+of them than on two elsewhere.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The Saga says:—</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"There was one ewe there, brown mottled, with
+a lamb, and she was a beauty.  Grettir killed the
+lamb, and took three stone of suet off it, the meat
+was some of the best he had ever eaten.  But when
+the mottled ewe missed her lamb, she went up on
+Grettir's hut every night, and bleated so plaintively
+as to trouble his sleep, and made Grettir quite
+troubled that he had killed her lamb."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now Grettir noticed that at evening the sheep
+ran in one direction, and once or twice he heard a
+call; so he went after the sheep one evening, and was
+led by them to the hut where Thorir dwelt.  He
+was a strange man, who had spent so many years
+away from the society of his fellow-men as not to
+care any more to meet them, so he did not welcome
+Grettir very warmly.  However he had three
+daughters, and they were glad to have someone to talk
+to, and as the winter crept on Thorir himself
+became more amiable, and so the winter did not pass
+as drearily as Grettir had feared it would.  He sang
+his songs and related stories, and the party played
+draughts with knuckle-bones of sheep.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>When spring came, however, he was fain to go;
+and he did not leave by the way he came, but
+followed the little river, and it led him out between
+rock and glaciers into a piece of desert, covered with
+lava beds that have poured out of a volcano, or
+rather two that stand opposite this entrance to
+Thorir's valley.  These two volcanoes are quite unlike
+each other, though side by side, one, called Hlothu-fell
+has upright walls, like Erick's-jokull, and a
+crater filled up and brimming over with ice; but
+the other Skialdbreith, or the Broad-shield, is like
+a conical round silver shield laid on the ground.
+The entrance to Thorir's Dale is completely hidden
+by a round snowy mountain that blocks it, and then
+a second snowy mountain stands further out in front
+of the opening, so that not a sign of any valley can
+be seen from anywhere.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>So difficult did Grettir think it would be to find
+it, that he ascended on Broad-shield and set up a
+stone there with a hole in it, so that anyone
+looking through this hole would see directly into the
+narrow entrance of Thorir's Dale.  This stone still
+stands where Grettir had placed it; but has sunk on
+one side, so that by looking through the hole the
+eye is no longer directed to the entrance.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>No one had ever visited Thorir's Dale since Grettir
+left it till the year 1654, when it was explored by
+two Icelandic clergymen, and an account of their
+expedition in Icelandic is to be found in the British
+Museum.[#]  The valley as far as I know has not
+been explored since.  It is marked on the map of
+Iceland, but apparently from the description left by
+the two clergymen, not from any visit made to it
+by the map-maker.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="noindent pfirst"><span class="small">[#] I have given a translation of it
+in my </span><em class="italics small">Curiosities of Olden Times</em><span class="small">, London, Hayes, 1869.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>When the two men visited the valley they went
+to it in the same way as did Grettir.  They found no
+hot springs, and the valley was utterly barren; but
+then they had no time to descend it, they only
+looked down on it from above.  They found the cave
+with a door, and a window to it, which was probably
+the habitation of Thorir and his daughters.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst" id="the-death-of-hallmund"><span class="bold large">CHAPTER XXXI.</span></p>
+<p class="center pnext"><span class="bold medium">THE DEATH OF HALLMUND.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<!--  -->
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<p class="pfirst"><em class="italics">Grim's Fish Disappear—The Thief Wounded and
+Tracked—Death of Hallmund</em></p>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>Now, there was a man called Grim, who was an
+outlaw for his ill-deeds, and he thought that
+as Grettir no longer abode in his hut on the Eagle
+Lake, he might go there and occupy it.  This did not
+please Hallmund, for Grettir had left him his nets,
+and he was wont to fish in the lake.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grim had supplied himself with nets, and he one
+day caught a hundred char, large red-fleshed fish,
+delicious eating; so he piled them up outside his
+hut.  Next morning to his great surprise all his
+char had disappeared.  Then he went fishing again,
+and caught even more fish, and he brought them to
+land, and heaped them up as before.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Next morning they also had disappeared.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>He could not understand it; so he fished again,
+and had on this occasion extraordinary luck: he
+must have netted nearly three hundred fish.  He
+brought them home, and put them in the same
+place as before; but he did not go to sleep this
+time: he remained within, and watched his store
+through a peep-hole in the door.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>During the night he heard someone who trod
+heavily coming along the ness, and then he saw a
+man picking up his fish, and putting them into a
+basket he had on his back.  Grim watched till he
+had filled the basket, which he now heaved upon
+his shoulders.  Instantly Grim threw open the
+door, rushed out, and whilst the man was still
+stooping adjusting his load, he swung up a very sharp
+axe he held, holding it in both hands, and smote at
+the man's neck.  The axe hit the basket, and that
+somewhat broke its force, but it glanced aside and
+sank into the shoulder.  Then the man started aside,
+and set off running with the basket to the south,
+skirting a lava field that had flowed out of
+Erick's-jokull, and which now goes by the name of
+Hallmund's Lava-bed.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grim ran after him, and saw that he was making
+for Ball-jokull; but the man, who was of great
+size and strength, though wounded and losing blood,
+ran on, and did not stay till he reached a cave in
+the face of the cliff, above which was the ice, and
+with long icicles hanging over the front.  Into this
+he entered.  There was a fire burning inside, and a
+young woman sitting by it.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grim heard her welcome the man, and call him
+her father, and name him Hallmund.  He cast his
+basket of fish down, and groaned aloud.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then the girl saw that blood was flowing from
+him, and she asked him what had happened.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Hallmund told what had befallen him, and said
+that he was wounded to the death, and that he
+trusted Grettir would avenge him, for he had no
+other friend to do so.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>After that Hallmund began a lay, and sang the
+history of his life, the achievements he had wrought,
+and he sang on till his breath failed, and either he was
+unable to finish his lay, or Grim could not remember
+all of it.  A good deal, however, of Hallmund's
+death-song has been retained and is given in the saga.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>But Hallmund's hope or expectation that Grettir
+would avenge him was disappointed, for Grim
+managed to get away from Iceland, and did not
+return to it again during the lifetime of Grettir.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst" id="of-another-attempt-against-grettir"><span class="bold large">CHAPTER XXXII.</span></p>
+<p class="center pnext"><span class="bold medium">OF ANOTHER ATTEMPT AGAINST GRETTIR.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<!--  -->
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<p class="pfirst"><em class="italics">Thorir raises a Party against Grettir—Grettir
+plays the Herdsman—A Daring Trick—Thorir a
+Laughing-Stock</em></p>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>Now, during the summer, tidings came to Thorir
+of Garth that Grettir was somewhere about on
+Reekheath in the north-east.  There was his lair
+which was examined a few years ago, and which
+remains in tolerable condition, as already mentioned
+when his lair at Fairwood Fell was described.  Now,
+Thorir of Garth, when he got this tidings was
+resolved to make another attempt to kill him; and
+no wonder, for with singular audacity Grettir had
+come into his neighbourhood.  Grettir no doubt
+thought that he had preyed long enough on men
+who had not harmed him, and that now he would
+prey on the goods and cattle of the man who had
+made an outlaw of him, and who pursued him with
+such remorseless hostility.  Thorir gathered a
+number of men together and went in pursuit of Grettir.
+Grettir was not at that time in his den but out on
+the moor, and he was near a mountain-dairy that
+stood back somewhat from the wayside, and there
+was another man with him, when they spied the party
+of Thorir, all armed, coming along.  They had not
+been observed, so they hastily led their horses into
+the shed attached to the dairy, and concealed
+themselves.  Thorir came along, went to the dairy,
+looked about to see if anyone were there who could
+inform him if Grettir had been seen, noticed only a
+couple of horses tied up, but supposed they belonged
+to the farmer whose summer dairy this was, and,
+without looking further, went on.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>As soon as Thorir and his band had gone out of
+sight, Grettir crept from his place of hiding, and
+said to his companion:</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"It is a pity they should have come such a ride
+to see me, and should be disappointed.  You watch
+the horses, and I will go on and have a word with
+them."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"You surely will not be so rash?" exclaimed the
+other man.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"I cannot let them come all this way without
+exchanging words with me," said Grettir, and
+leaving the horses under the care of his comrade, he
+strode away over the moor to a place where he was
+sure he could be observed.  Now, Grettir had a
+slouched hat on and a long staff in his hand, and at
+the dairy he had found some clothes belonging to
+the herdsman usually there, and these he had put on.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Directly Thorir and his party saw a man with a
+staff striding about on the moor they rode to him.
+None of them knew Grettir's face, for, indeed, they
+had not been given the chance.  So they thought
+this great rough man was the herdsman, and they
+asked him if he had seen the outlaw Grettir.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"What sort of man is he?" asked Grettir.  "Is he
+armed?"</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Armed indeed is he, with a casque on his head,
+a long sword, and also a short one in his girdle."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Is he riding?"</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Most certainly he is."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Then," said Grettir, "you had better get you
+along after him due south; he has gone that way
+not so long agone."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>When they heard this Thorir and his party struck
+spurs into their horses, put them into a gallop, and
+away they went as hard as they could in the direction
+indicated.  Now, Grettir knew the country very
+well, and he was well aware that south of where he
+stood were impassable bogs.  Thorir and his fellows
+were too eager in pursuit to attend to the nature of
+the ground over which they rode; besides, they
+thought that if Grettir had ridden that way they
+could ride it as well.  They were speedily mistaken,
+for in they floundered into a bottomless morass;
+some of the horses were in to their saddles; the men
+got off and got out with difficulty, and they had
+much ado to get their horses out at all.  Indeed,
+some were wallowing there more than half the day.
+Many curses were heaped on the churl who had
+befooled them, but they could not find him when
+the went after him to chastise him.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir hastened back to the dairy, mounted his
+horse, and rode to Garth itself, whilst the master
+was floundering in the bog.  As he came to the
+farm he saw a tall, well-dressed girl by the door,
+and he asked who she was.  He was told this was
+Thorir's daughter.  Then Grettir sang a stave to her,
+the meaning of which was that he who came there
+was the man whom Thorir was vainly pursuing.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Much laughter was occasioned by this failure of
+Thorir to take Grettir when he was in his own
+neighbourhood, and by his being so deceived and
+befooled by Grettir when he had him in his power.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst" id="at-sandheaps"><span class="bold large">CHAPTER XXXIII.</span></p>
+<p class="center pnext"><span class="bold medium">AT SANDHEAPS.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<!--  -->
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<p class="pfirst"><em class="italics">A Deadly Enemy—In the Service of Steinvor—The
+Way to Church—Crossing the Quivering Flood—The
+Priest's Caution—A Weird Tale—The Old Hag—The
+Stream-churl—Steinvor's Husband's Death—The
+Foundation of the Story—The Troll-woman of
+Grettir—The Basaltic Troll-wife—The Search
+under Goda-foss—Grettir's Dive—The Fight with the
+Stream-churl—Runes of the Fight—A Bag of Bones</em></p>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>The summer was passing away, and Grettir could
+not remain without shelter through the winter;
+so he considered what was best to be done.  He
+could not ask any farmer in the north-east to shelter
+him, because they were all afraid of Thorir of Garth,
+who would have pursued with implacable animosity
+the man who befriended and housed the outlaw.
+Moreover, Thorir had his spies everywhere, and
+Grettir found he had to shift quarters repeatedly to
+escape his deadly enemy.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now, when the first snows fell Grettir sent his man
+away with his horses across country to Biarg, and
+he went further away from where Thorir was; but
+never stayed long anywhere, nor gave his real
+name.  He had no relatives in this part of the
+island, and no friends.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now, a little before Yule—that is Christmas—he
+came to a farm called Sandheaps, on that river
+which is called the Quivering Flood.  This farm
+belonged to a widow woman called Steinvor, who
+had recently lost her husband.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir came and offered his services; he said his
+name was Guest, that he was out of work, and that
+he had come there because he heard she was short
+of hands.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Steinvor looked at him, and saw that he was a
+very powerfully-built man, and that there was a
+certain dignity and nobility in his face; so she
+accepted him, against the opinion of the rest in the
+house, who were frightened at the appearance of
+Grettir, and did not know what to make of him,
+whether he were an ordinary human being or a wild
+man, half mountain-goblin or troll.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>It came to pass on Christmas-eve that the widow
+Steinvor was very desirous to go to church, but the
+church was on the further side of the river, and
+there was no bridge.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir heard Steinvor lament that she could not
+go to church, so he said bluntly: "You can go.  I
+will attend you and see you over the water."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then she made ready for worship, and took her
+little daughter with her.  Now, at times the river
+froze hard across, and then it was possible to cross
+on the ice.  At other times it might be traversed at
+a ford.  But when Grettir came to the side of the
+Quivering Flood, it was plain to him that by the ice
+the water could not be crossed.  For there had been
+a rapid thaw, and now the river was overflowed and
+very full of water; and, moreover, it was rolling
+down great masses of ice.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>When Steinvor saw the condition of the river, she
+said, "There is plainly no way across for horse or
+man."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"I suppose there is a ford somewhere," said
+Grettir.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Yes," answered Steinvor, "there is a ford at
+this place; but I do not see how it is to be traversed."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"I will carry you across," said Grettir.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Carry over the little maiden first," said the
+widow.  "She is the lightest."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"I don't care about making two journeys when
+one will suffice," answered Grettir.  "Come, jump
+up; I will carry you in my arms."</span></p>
+<div class="align-center auto-scaled figure margin" style="width: 61%" id="figure-87">
+<span id="fording-the-quivering-flood"></span><img class="align-center block" style="display: block; width: 100%" alt="FORDING THE QUIVERING FLOOD." src="images/img-297.jpg" />
+<div class="caption centerleft figure-caption margin">
+<span class="italics">FORDING THE QUIVERING FLOOD.</span></div>
+</div>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The widow crossed herself, and said, "That will
+never do.  How can you manage such a burden?"</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>But without more ado Grettir caught up Steinvor
+on his arm, and then he picked up the little girl
+and set her on her mother's lap, and strode into the
+water; they were on his left arm, but he kept the
+right free.  They were so frightened that they durst
+not cry out.  He waded on in the river, and the
+water foamed up to his breast; and then he saw a
+great ice-floe coming bearing down upon him.  He
+put out his right hand, gave the mass of ice a thrust,
+and it was whirled past them by the current.  Then
+he waded further, and the water washed about his
+shoulders, and that was the deepest point.  After
+that the river shallowed, and he bore the mother
+and child safely to the shore and set them down.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now Grettir turned to go back, and he took up a
+great stone and set it on his head, and so waded
+back.  If he had tried to go through the water
+without a stone he would have been washed away;
+but the great stone on his head enabled him to stand
+firm and resist the current of the water.  Those who
+have not been through an Icelandic river can hardly
+imagine the intensity of the cold.  I have ridden
+through these rivers, my horse swimming under me,
+and when I reached the further side have thrown
+myself off and lain on the sand for a quarter of an
+hour before I could recover from the numbness
+caused by the deadly cold; for some of these rivers
+are as broad as the Thames at London Bridge, and
+the water is milky because full of undissolved snow.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>When Steinvor reached the church every one was
+astonished to see her, and asked how she had
+managed to get across the Quivering Flood.  But when
+the priest heard the story, he called Steinvor aside,
+and said:</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Mind and do not say too much about your new
+man; do not talk about his strength, and set folk
+a-wondering who he may be.  I have my own
+opinion, and I think you will do well to house him,
+and say nothing to anyone about his being in any
+way remarkable."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>And now there comes into the saga of Grettir a
+story which is certainly untrue, but how it comes in
+can be made out pretty easily.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The real truth was, as the saga writer confesses,
+that Grettir remained hidden at Sandheaps all that
+winter, and no one in the country round knew that
+he was there.  But then, the saga writer did not feel
+satisfied with such a dull winter, in which nothing
+happened; so, to fill out his story and say
+something interesting, he worked into his history a
+wonderful tale.  The story, which I tell in my own
+words, is this:—</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 3em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst"><span class="bold large">The Story of the Stream-Troll</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>There is on the Quivering Flood some miles below
+Sandheaps a mighty foss, or waterfall.  The whole
+river pours over a ledge in a thundering, magnificent
+cascade.  The stream in the middle is broken
+by an island.  You can hear the roar of the falling
+water for a long way around, and see the spray
+thrown up from the fall like a cloud or column of
+steam rising high into the air.  This waterfall is
+called Goda-foss, and was long supposed to be the
+finest in the island; but there is another, which I
+was the first to see, on the Jokull-river, called
+Detti-foss, which is infinitely finer, but which is in a
+region of utter desert of sand and volcanic crater,
+many miles from any human habitation.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>It happens that there is a curious black lava rock
+standing near the river, higher up than the fall,
+which bears a quaint resemblance to an old woman,
+and this stone is called The Old Hag; and the story
+goes that it is a troll-woman turned to stone.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now, you must know that throughout Norway and
+Iceland, and, indeed, wherever the Scandinavian race
+is found, a superstition exists that every river has
+its spirit, that lives in the river; and it was held
+that these river-spirits demanded a sacrifice of a
+human life, at least once a year.  If a sacrifice were
+not given to them, then they took some man or
+woman, when crossing the water, and carried the
+victim away.  And in heathen times there can be
+no doubt whatever that human sacrifices were
+offered to every river; generally an evildoer or a
+prisoner was thrown in and drowned, to propitiate
+the Stream-churl, as he was called, so that he should
+not snap at and carry off other and more valuable
+lives.  Wherever there was a cataract, there the
+Stream-churl was believed to live, hidden away
+behind the curtain of falling water.  If the stream was
+small, then this spirit or demon was small; if,
+however, it were a mighty river, then the spirit was a
+great troll or giant.  Even to this day in Iceland
+and Norway, the ignorant and superstitious believe
+that there are these Stream-churls, and tell stories
+about them, and cannot but suspect that, when anyone
+is drowned, it is the Stream-churl exacting his toll.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now, it is quite certain that Steinvor, although
+she was a Christian, believed in there being a great
+Stream-churl living under Goda-foss; and as she had
+lost her husband and one of her servants who had
+been drowned in the Quivering Flood, she held that
+they had been carried off by the Troll of the waterfall.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>There had been, as it happened, something
+mysterious about the death of Steinvor's husband.  Two
+years before Grettir came to Sandheaps, on Christmas-eve,
+he had disappeared.  She had gone off to see
+some friends at a distance, and when she returned
+home next day she heard that her husband had not
+been seen—he was gone, and not a trace of him
+remained.  It occurred to her that in all probability
+he had gone across the river to church, and had been
+carried off by the river—that is, by the Stream-churl.
+But she could be certain of nothing, and she was
+greatly distressed because she could not give his
+body burial.  A year passed and not a word about her
+husband could she hear.  His body had not be
+found anywhere washed up by the river, supposing
+he had been drowned.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Next year she lost one of her men-servants in the
+same way.  He vanished, and none knew how or
+whither he had gone.  If he had run away, she
+would probably have had tidings of him; but she
+heard none, and his body was also never found.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>I have no doubt that she told Grettir about this,
+and also that she believed that the Stream-churl
+who lived under Goda-foss had carried off both her
+husband and the servant.  I believe also that, to
+satisfy her, Grettir undertook to look, and that he
+actually dived under the fall, and came up and
+searched between the sheet of falling water and the
+rock, and found—nothing.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>That is the foundation of a wonderful story which
+has found its way into the saga.  It did not satisfy
+those who told the tale of Grettir that he should
+have spent the winter at Sandheaps and done
+nothing—that he should have dived under Goda-foss
+and found nothing.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>So by degrees old nursery tales got mixed up with
+this incident about Grettir's search for the
+Stream-churl, and all was worked into a wonderful story,
+which you shall hear.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>On that night on which Grettir had carried Steinvor
+across the river, he returned to the farm, and
+lay down in his bed.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>When midnight arrived, then a great din was
+heard outside, and presently the hall door was thrown
+open and in through it came a gigantic woman, a
+Troll-wife, with a trough in one hand and a huge
+chopper in the other.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>As she entered she peered about her, and saw
+Grettir where he lay, and she ran at him.  Then
+he jumped up and went to meet her, and they fell
+a-wrestling terribly, and struggled together so
+furiously, that all the panelling of the hall side was
+broken.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>She was the stronger, and she dragged Grettir
+towards the door, and forth towards the entrance,
+in spite of all his efforts.  She had got him as far
+as the entrance, when there he made a final struggle,
+and in the struggle the door-posts and fittings were
+torn from their place, and fell outwards.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then the Troll-woman laboured away with him
+towards the river, and right down towards the gulfs.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir was exceedingly weary, yet he saw that
+his only chance was to make a last effort, or be flung
+by her over the edge into the deep, boiling river.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>All night they contended in such fashion, and
+ever was he drawing nearer to the edge.  But just
+as she was preparing to fling him into the water, he
+got his right hand free, and he swiftly seized his
+short-sword, and struck off her arm; and at that
+moment the sun rose, and the Troll-woman was
+turned into stone.  There she stands with her
+amputated arm-socket, as a mass of black basalt or lava
+to this day.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>If the reader will recall the story of Grettir's
+struggle with Glam at Thorod's-stead, in the valley
+of Shadows, he will see that this is only the same
+story over again almost in every particular,—except
+that the first fight was with a man, and this is with
+a woman.  The reason why this story was concocted
+and put in here, was to account for the stone figure
+which stands by the river, and which is called the
+Troll-wife.  So far the story carries its character on
+its face.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now we will go on to the next part of the tale.
+It did not satisfy people that Grettir should have
+dived under Goda-foss and found nothing, so the
+story was thus told:</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>When the goodwife, Steinvor, came from church,
+she thought that her house had been rudely handled;
+so she went to Grettir and asked him what had
+occurred.  Then he told her all, and she prayed him
+to go and make a search for her husband's bones,
+under Goda-foss.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir consented, but he asked that the priest
+might be sent for.  His name was Stone.  Steinvor
+sent for him, and Stone was curious to know whether
+his suspicions about this stranger were true.  So he
+asked him questions, but Grettir answered that if
+the priest wanted to know who he was, he must find
+out.  The priest laughed at the story of the Troll-wife,
+and said he did not believe a word about the
+struggle.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then Grettir said, "Well, priest, I see that you
+have no faith in my tale; now I propose that you
+accompany me to Goda-foss, and we will search for
+the Troll himself, and see if we can recover the bones
+of Steinvor's husband."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The priest, Stone, agreed, and they went together
+to the side of the waterfall, and they had a rope with
+them.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Stone shook his head, and he said, "It would be
+too risky for anyone to venture down there."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"I will go," said Grettir.  "But you mind the rope."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The priest drove a peg into the sward on the cliff,
+and heaped stones over it, so as to make the end
+firm, and then he seated himself by the heap.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then Grettir made a loop in the end of the rope,
+and put a stone through the loop, and threw the
+stone down, and the end of the rope went to the
+bottom of the gulf.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"How are you going down?" asked Stone.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"I shall dive," said Grettir.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then he stripped, but girt on a short-sword, and
+so leaped off the cliff into the foss.  The priest saw
+only the soles of his feet as he went into the water,
+and then saw no more.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now, Grettir had gone in below the fall, and he
+dived and went under the curtain of water and
+came up near the rock.  The whirlpool below the
+falls was so strong that he had a desperate struggle
+with the water before he could reach the rock.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>When he rose, he saw that the water fell over a
+lip of rock, quite clear, and that in the face of the
+rock was a cavern, and that smoke issued from this
+cave, and mingling with the spray and foam passed
+away, and was not discerned beyond.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir climbed over the stones into the cave, and
+there he saw a great fire flaming from amidst brands
+of drift-wood; and there was the Stream-churl seated
+there, a great Troll with a hideous face.  When he
+saw Grettir he roared and jumped up, and caught
+a glaive that was near him, and smote at the
+newcomer.  Grettir hewed back at him with his
+short-sword, and smote the handle of the glaive and broke
+it.  Then the giant stretched back for a sword that
+hung up to a peg against the side of the cave, but as
+he was thus leaning back Grettir smote him across
+the breast, and cut through to the ribs, and gashed
+open his belly.  The blood poured forth out of the
+cave and mingled with the stream.  When the priest
+saw the bloody foam beneath the fall, he was so
+frightened that he ran away, for he made sure that
+Grettir was dead.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir remained in the cave, standing across the
+giant, till he had killed him.  Then he took up a
+flaming brand and searched the cave through.  He
+found nothing more than dead men's bones, and
+these he put together into a bag, threw that over
+his shoulder, and went again into the water.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>He rose beyond the foss and looked up, but could
+see nothing of the priest; so he caught the rope,
+and by means of that he swarmed up to the top of
+the cliff.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then he sat down, and with a sharp knife he cut
+runes on a staff.  And what he wrote was this:</span></p>
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<div class="line-block outermost">
+<div class="line"><span>"Down into the gulf I went,</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>Where the rocks are widely rent;</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>Where the swirling waters fall</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>O'er the black basaltic wall;</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>Where, with voice of thunder, leap</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>In the foaming darkling deep.</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>There the stream with icy wave</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>Washes the grim giant's cave."</span></div>
+</div>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>He had cut as much as he could on one stick, so
+now he took another, and on that he cut:</span></p>
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<div class="line-block outermost">
+<div class="line"><span>"Dreadful dweller in the cave</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>Underneath the falling wave,</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>Fierce at me he brandished glaive;</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>Full of rage at me he drove,</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>Desperate we together strove.</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>Lo!  I smote his halft in twain,</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>Lo!  I smote and he was slain,</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>Bleeding from each riven vein."</span></div>
+<div class="line"> </div>
+</div>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>Then Grettir carried the bag of bones and the
+staves to the church, and laid them in the porch.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Next morning when the priest came to the church
+he found the bag of bones and the staves.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Such is the story.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now, it is clear that a good bit of it is simply
+transferred from the story of Grettir going down
+into the cairn of Karr the Old.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The real truth of the tale is no more than what
+has been stated, that Grettir went under the
+waterfall and found nothing.  It is, of course, possible
+that he may have hoaxed the priest; but I think it
+more probable that all this marvellous matter is
+simply tacked on to one simple fact, and that it was
+taken, partly from the story of Grettir in the barrow
+of Karr, and partly from that of his struggle with Glam.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>What the saga writer does admit is that the
+versions of the story do not quite agree, and that—in
+spite of this wonderful achievement, folks did not
+know that Grettir was at Sandheaps that winter.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst" id="how-grettir-was-driven-about"><span class="bold large">CHAPTER XXXIV.</span></p>
+<p class="center pnext"><span class="bold medium">HOW GRETTIR WAS DRIVEN ABOUT.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<!--  -->
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<p class="pfirst"><em class="italics">Thorir comes too Late—The Needle of Basalt—The
+Island of Drangey—The Terrors of the Dark—Brother
+holds to Brother</em></p>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>After a while rumours reached Thorir of Garth
+that either Grettir, or someone very like
+Grettir,—a tall, powerful man with reddish hair,
+and one who gave no account of whence he came,—was
+lodging at Sandheaps, and Thorir made ready
+to go there after him.  Fortunately Grettir, or
+rather the housewife Steinvor, heard of his intention,
+and so Grettir made off out of the valley of
+the Quivering Flood before Thorir came there in
+quest of him.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>He escaped to Maddervales, in the Horg-river
+Dale.  This is a noble valley of the Horg River,
+with chains of snowy peaks on each side, of peculiar
+shape, barred with precipices of basalt, on which lie
+slopes of snow.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Some way up this valley are some very remarkable
+spires of basaltic rock, one of which that is like
+a needle is said to have been climbed by Grettir
+whilst staying in this valley.  It is not so said in
+the saga, but I was told so on the spot, and the tale
+goes that when he climbed to the top he slipped his
+belt round the needle, and there it hangs round it
+still—but no one has been up since to find if it be
+there where he left it.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>He could not remain long there, for Gudmund
+the Rich, who was farmer at Maddervales, was afraid
+to house him for long.  Thorir of Garth would come
+and burn his house if he harboured Grettir.  However,
+he kept him for some little while, and then he
+gave him advice what he should do.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>It had come to such a pass with Grettir now that
+no one dared to shelter him for long, and Thorir had
+spies everywhere to inform him where Grettir was.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Gudmund the Rich said to Grettir: "You can
+find no safety anywhere that men dwell; for if there
+be not treachery, yet the news flies about that you
+are there.  So I advise you to go where you shall
+be alone."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Where shall I go?" asked Grettir.  "I am hunted
+like a dog."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"There is an island," answered Gudmund, "lying
+in the Skagafirth, called Drangey.  It is a place
+excellent for defence, as no one can reach it without
+a ladder.  If you could get upon Drangey, no one
+could come on you unawares.  You would see
+anyone who came by boat to the island, and you could
+pull up a rope-ladder, without which no one would
+be able to ascend."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"I will try that," said Grettir; "but I have
+become so fearsome in the dark that not even at the
+risk of my life can I endure to be alone."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Well," said Gudmund, "that is my counsel.
+Trust none but yourself.  Treachery lies where least
+expected."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir thanked him for his advice, and went
+away west to see his mother.  And he was most
+joyfully welcomed by her and his young brother
+Illugi at Biarg.  There he remained some nights—not
+many; for Ramsfirth was only over a brow of
+hill, and the tidings of his return home was sure in
+a few days to reach the relatives of Oxmain, when
+he would again be set on.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>I said, after giving an account of Grettir's
+adventure at Thorhall's-stead with Glam, that there must
+have been something of fact in that story, and not
+pure fiction; and now it has been seen how that
+event coloured and affected his whole after life,
+leaving his nerves so shaken, that he could not
+drive off the impression then made on him, and
+he was ready to run serious risks rather than be
+subject to the terrors that came on him in the dark
+when alone.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>He told his mother and Illugi how it was with
+him, and how that he had been advised to go to
+Drangey, but that he could not; he dare not, in the
+long winter night, be on that lonely islet by himself.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then Illugi his brother said, "Grettir, I will be
+with you."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Brother holds to brother as hand clasps hand,"
+answered Grettir, and so they parted.  All that
+summer he wandered about in wild places, shifting
+his quarters repeatedly, and living how he could.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst" id="on-the-isle"><span class="bold large">CHAPTER XXXV.</span></p>
+<p class="center pnext"><span class="bold medium">ON THE ISLE.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<!--  -->
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<p class="pfirst"><em class="italics">Illugi will go to Drangey—Asdis gives Consent—Asdis
+prophesies Woe—Within Sight of Drangey—Glaum
+becomes Grettir's Servant—Thorwald rows Grettir
+to Drangey—Thorbiorn Hook—The Bonders visit the
+Island—Grettir in Possession—An Inaccessible Spot</em></p>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>When summer was now over, and the first snow
+of winter began to fall, when the days were
+rapidly shortening, and the sun had gone out of the
+north to the south, where it began to move in a
+rapidly narrowing arc, Grettir returned to Biarg
+and remained there a while.  "But," says the saga,
+"so great grew his fear in the dark that he durst
+go nowhere as soon as dusk set in."  We can see
+that the many years strain on his nerves had broken
+them.  Hunted about as a wild beast, always forced
+to be on his guard, never able to sleep without fear
+of being murdered in his sleep, the trial had told on
+him.  This was now the winter of 1028.  He was
+aged but thirty-one; his strength of body was not
+abated, only his nervous force.  He had been in
+outlawry altogether fifteen years, three for the
+slaying of Skeggi, then he had been outlawed by King
+Olaf in 1016.  On his return to Iceland he had
+been outlawed in 1017; this was the eleventh year
+of his outlawry at the suit of Thorir of Garth, an
+outlawry not only unjust, but according to general
+opinion illegal, because he had been tried and
+sentenced in his absence, and without any witnesses
+having been called to establish his guilt—condemned
+on hearsay evidence, and he never allowed to defend
+himself.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now Illugi, Grettir's sole surviving brother, was
+aged fifteen, and was a very handsome, honest-looking
+boy.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Grettir," said he, "you know what I said.  I
+will go with you to Drangey, if you will take me.
+I know not that I will be of much help to you, but
+this I know, that I will be ever true to you, and
+will never run from you so long as you stand up.
+Besides, I shall like to be with you, for here at home
+we are ever in anxiety for news about you, always
+fearing the worst; but if I am at your side, I shall
+know how you fare."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"I would rather have you with me than anyone
+else," answered Grettir.  "But I cannot take you
+unless our mother consent."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then said Asdis, "Now I can see that I have the
+choice of evils.  I can ill spare Illugi; yet I know
+your trouble, Grettir, and that something must be
+done for you.  It grieves me, my sons, to see you
+both leave me; yet I will not withhold my youngest
+from you, Grettir.  It is right that brother should
+help brother."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>That rejoiced Illugi.  Then Asdis gave her sons
+what things she thought they might want on the
+island, and they made them ready to depart.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>She led them outside the farm inclosure, and then
+she took farewell of them, saying, "My two sons!
+There you depart from me, and I dreamed last night
+that you left me for ever, and would fall together.
+What is fated none may fly from.  Never shall I see
+you again, either of you.  Be it so, that one fate
+overtake you both.  In my dream I saw your bones
+whitening on Drangey.  Be careful and watchful.
+My dreams have troubled me greatly.  Above all
+beware of witchcraft.  None can cope with the craft
+of the old."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>When she had said this she wept sore.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then said Grettir, "Weep not, mother, for if we
+be set on with weapons it will be said of thee that
+thou hadst men and not girls for thy children.  Live
+on well, and be hale."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>So they parted.  Grettir and Illugi went to their
+relatives and visited them, never, however, staying
+long in any place, and so on by Swine Lake, a long
+sheet of water in a shallow basin, to the Blend River.
+This river is of the colour of milk and water, because
+it is so full of undissolved snow, and milk and water
+is called Bland, </span><em class="italics">i.e.</em><span> Blend, in Icelandic.  Another
+river enters it that is called the Black Stream,
+because of the dark colour of the water.  Grettir
+turned up the valley of the Black River and then
+over a pass by a pretty lake lying in a mountain
+lap, down into a broad marshy valley in which are
+three or four rivers, and boiling springs pouring
+forth clouds of steam on the hill-slopes.  The valley
+is commanded by a beautiful mountain peak, called
+the Measuring Peak, because the natives thereabouts
+reckon distances from it.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir and Illugi went down this valley till they
+reached the sea, and now there opened before them
+a glorious view of the fiord, extending out north
+about forty miles, and from ten to fifteen miles
+across, between mountains and precipitous cliffs.  A
+little way back from the eastern shore stood up the
+Unadals Jokull, crowned with perpetual snows and
+with glaciers rolling down the sides, and on the
+west, close to the sea, seeming to rise in a wall out
+of it and running up into fantastic peaks, was the
+range of Tindastoll, famous for its cornelians and
+agates and other precious stones.  In the offing,
+fifteen miles out, right in the midst of the fiord,
+stood up the isle of Drangey with sheer cliffs, about
+which the sea perpetually danced and foamed.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir and Illugi skirted the shore on the west.
+The wind was blowing cold, and snow was driving
+before it, as they passed a farm.  The farmer stood
+in his door, and saw a great man stride by with an
+axe over his shoulder, his hood thrown back, and his
+wild red hair blowing about in the gale.  "Verily,"
+said the farmer, "that must be a strange fellow not
+to cover his head with his hood in such weather as
+this."  Near this little farm the brothers stumbled
+upon a tall, thin man, dressed in rags and with a
+very big head.  They asked each other's names, and
+the fellow called himself Glaum.  He was out of
+work, and he went along with the brothers chatting,
+and telling them all the gossip of the neighbourhood.
+Then Glaum asked if they were in want of
+a servant, and Grettir gladly accepted him, and the
+man became thenceforth his constant attendant.
+But the fellow was a sad boaster, and most people
+thought him both a fool and a coward.  He was
+not fond of work, and he spent his time strolling
+about the country picking up and retailing news.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir and his brother and Glaum reached a
+farm called Reykir as the day closed in, where was
+a hot spring in the farm paddock.  The farmer's
+name was Thorwald; and Grettir asked him to put
+him across in a boat to Drangey.  Thorwald shook
+his head and said, "I shall get into trouble with
+those who have rights of pasturage on the island.
+I had rather not."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then Grettir offered him a bag of silver which his
+mother had given him, and at the sight of this,
+Thorwald raised his eyebrows and thought that he
+might perhaps do what was asked.  The distance
+was just five miles.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>So on a moonshiny night Thorwald got three of
+his churls and they rowed Grettir and the two who
+went with him over.  On reaching his destination
+Grettir was well pleased with the spot, for it was
+covered with a profusion of grass, and the sides were
+so precipitous that it seemed a sheer impossibility
+for anyone to ascend it without the aid of the
+rope-ladder that hung from strong staples at the summit.
+In summer the place would swarm with sea-birds,
+and at the time there were eighty sheep left on the
+island for fattening.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>A good many farmers had rights of pasturage on
+the island.  Hialti of Hof was one, whose brother's
+name was Thorbiorn Hook, of whom more hereafter.
+Another was Haldor, who lived at Head-strand; he
+had married the sister of these brothers.  Biorn, Eric,
+and Tongue-stone were the names of three others.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Thorbiorn Hook was a hard-headed, ill-disposed
+fellow.  His father had married a second time, and
+there was no love lost between the stepmother and
+Thorbiorn.  It is said that one day as The Hook was
+sitting at draughts, she passed, and looking over his
+shoulder laughed, because he had made a bad move.
+Thorbiorn Hook thereupon said something abusive
+and insulting; this so enraged her that she snatched
+up a draught-man, and pressing it against his
+eye-socket, drove the eyeball out.  He started to his
+feet, and with the draught-board struck her over the
+head such a blow that she took to her bed, and
+died of the injury.  The Hook now went from bad
+to worse, and leaving home settled at Woodwick
+on the fiord, a small farm.  It will be understood
+from this story that he was a violent and brutal
+fellow, and that, indeed, the life in his father's house
+had not been of an orderly description.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>As many as twenty farmers claimed rights to
+turn out their sheep on Drangey in summer.  The
+way they managed it is the way still employed by
+their successors.  They take the sheep out in boats,
+and then put them over their shoulders, with the
+feet tied under their chins, and so they climb the
+rope-ladder, carrying the sheep up on their backs.
+Though all these farmers claimed rights on Drangey,
+The Hook and his brother had the largest share,
+that is to say, the right to turn out more sheep
+than the rest.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now, about the time of the winter solstice, that
+is just before Yule, the bonders made ready to visit
+the island, and bring home their sheep for slaughtering
+for the Christmas feasting.  They rowed out
+in a large boat, and on nearing the island were
+much surprised to see figures moving on top of the
+cliffs.  How anyone had got there without their
+knowledge puzzled them, for Thorwald had kept his
+counsel, and told no one what he had done for
+Grettir.  They pulled hard for the landing-place,
+where hung the ladder, but Grettir drew it up
+before they landed.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The bonders shouted to know who were on the
+crags, and Grettir, looking over, told his name and
+those of his companions.  The farmers then asked
+how he had got there? who had put him across?</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir answered, "If you very much wish to
+know, it was not one of you below now speaking to
+us.  It was someone else, who had a good boat and
+a pair of lusty arms."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Let us fetch our sheep away," called the bonders,
+"then you come to land with us.  We will not
+make you pay for the sheep you have eaten, and we
+will do you no harm."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Well offered," answered Grettir; "but he who
+takes keeps hold; and a bird in the hand is worth
+two in the bush.  Believe me, I will not leave this
+island till the time of my outlawry is expired,
+unless I be carried from it dead."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The bonders were silenced, it seemed to them
+that they had got an ugly customer on Drangey, to
+get rid of whom would be no easy matter; so they
+rowed home, very ill-satisfied with the result of
+their expedition.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The news spread like wildfire, and was talked
+about all through the neighbourhood.  Thorir of
+Garth was the more embittered, because he could
+see no way in which Grettir could be reached and
+overmastered in this inaccessible spot.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst" id="of-grettir-on-heron-ness"><span class="bold large">CHAPTER XXXVI.</span></p>
+<p class="center pnext"><span class="bold medium">OF GRETTIR ON HERON-NESS.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<!--  -->
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<p class="pfirst"><em class="italics">Grettir goes to Heron-ness—At the Games—The Hook's
+Challenge—Amongst Strangers—The Oath of Safe-conduct—An
+old Formula—A Surprise for the Bonders—Regretting the
+Oath—The two Brothers—Grettir returns to Drangey</em></p>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>Winter passed, and at the beginning of summer
+the whole district met at an assize held
+on the Herons'-ness, a headland in the Skaga-firth,
+between the rivers that discharge into the fiord.
+It is, in fact, the seaward point of a large island in
+the delta of the river that divides about eight miles
+higher up, inland.  The gathering was thronged, and
+the litigations and merry-makings made the assize
+last over many days.  Grettir guessed what was
+going on by seeing a number of boats pass to the
+head of the fiord.  He became restless, and at last
+announced to his brother that he intended being
+present at the assize, cost what it might.  Illugi
+thought it was sheer madness, but Grettir was
+resolute.  He begged his brother and Glaum to watch
+the ladder and await his return.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now, Grettir was on very good terms with the
+farmer at Reykir, and with some others on that
+side of the firth, and they were not unwilling to
+help him.  Sometimes his mother sent things to
+the brothers that she thought they would need, and
+then there were not wanting men to take these over
+to the island.  So Grettir got put across by his
+friend Thorwald to the mainland, and he borrowed
+of him a set of old clothes, and thus attired he went
+along the coast boldly to Heron-ness.  He had on a
+fur cap, which was drawn closely over his eyes, and
+concealed his face, so that no one might recognize
+him.  Now, in parts of Iceland, the flies are such
+torments that men have to wear literally cloth
+helmets, with only nose and eyes showing, the cloth
+fitting tight to the head, and round over the ears
+and neck, exactly like a helmet, or a German knitted
+sledging cap.  When I was in Iceland, when the
+flies were troublesome, I put my head into a
+butterfly net, and buckled it round my neck tightly with
+a leather strap.  Now, Grettir's cap was something
+like those I have described, and no one was surprised
+at his wearing it, as the whole of that valley
+is one vast marsh, and is infested with flies that
+blacken the air and madden men and beasts.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir thus attired sauntered between the booths
+erected on the headland, till he reached the spot
+where games were going on.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now, Hialti and Thorbiorn Hook were the chief
+men in these sports.  Hook was specially noisy and
+boisterous, and drove men together to the sports,
+and whether men liked it or not, he insisted on
+their attendance.  He would take this man and that
+by the hands and drag him forth to the field, where
+the wrestling and other games went on.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now, first wrestled those who were weakest, and
+then each man in turn, and great fun there was.
+But when most men had tried their strength
+except the very strongest, it was asked who would be
+a match for Hialti and The Hook.  These two being
+the strongest and the roughest of all, went round
+inviting each man in turn to wrestle with them,
+but all declined.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then Thorbiorn Hook, looking round, spied a tall
+fellow in the shabbiest and quaintest of suits, sitting
+by himself, speaking to no one.  Thorbiorn walked
+up to him, laid his hands on his shoulders and asked
+him to wrestle.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The man sat still, and The Hook could not drag
+him from his seat.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Well!" exclaimed The Hook, "no one else has
+kept his place before me to-day.  Who are you?"</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Guest," answered Grettir shortly.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"A wished-for guest thou wilt be, if thou
+furnish some entertainment to the company," said
+Thorbiorn Hook.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir answered, "I am indisposed to make a
+fool of myself before strangers.  How am I to know,
+supposing that I give you a fall, that I shall not be
+set upon by you or your kindred, and be unfairly treated?"</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then many exclaimed that there should be fair play.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"It is all very well your saying Fair-play now; but
+will you say Fair-play, and stick to it, supposing I
+get the better of this man.  You are all akin, or
+friends, and I am a stranger to you all."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Again he was assured that no one would resent
+what he did.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"But see," said Grettir, "I have not wrestled
+for many years, and have lost all skill in the
+matter."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Yet they pressed him the more.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then he said, "I will wrestle with whom you
+will, if you will swear to show me no violence so
+long as I am among you as a guest."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>This all agreed to, and an oath of safe conduct
+was made, the form of which is so curious that it
+must be given.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>A man named Hafr recited the terms of the oath,
+and the rest agreed to it.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Here set I peace among all men towards this
+man Guest, who sits before us, and in this oath I
+bind all magistrates and well-to-do bonders, and all
+men who bear swords, and all men whatsoever in
+this district, present or absent, named or unnamed.
+These are to show peace to, and give free passage
+to the aforenamed stranger, that he may sport,
+wrestle, make merry, abide with us and depart from
+us, without stay, whether he go by land or flood.
+He shall have peace where he is, in all places where
+he may be till he reaches his house whence he set
+out, so long and no longer.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"I set this treaty of peace between him and us,
+our kinsmen male and female, our servants and
+children.  May the breaker of this compact be cast
+out of the favour of God and good men, out of his
+heavenly inheritance and the society of just men
+and angels.  May he be an outcast from land to its
+farthest limits, far as men chase wolves, as Christians
+frequent churches, as heathen men offer sacrifices,
+as flame burns, earth produces herb, as baby calls its
+mother, and mother rocks her child; far as fire is
+kindled, ships glide, lightnings flicker, sun shines,
+snow lies, Finns slide on snow-shoes, fir-trees grow,
+falcons fly on a spring day with a breeze under their
+wings; far as heaven bends, earth is peopled, winds
+sweep the water into waves, churls till corn; he
+shall be banished from churches and the company
+of Christian men, from heathen folk, from house
+and den, from every house—save hell!  Now let us
+be agreed whether we be on mountain or shore, on
+ship or skate, on ground or glacier, at sea or in
+saddle, as friend with friend, as brother with
+brother, as father with son, in this our compact.  Lay
+we now hand to hand, and hold we true peace and
+keep every word of this oath."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now, this formula is very curious.  It must have
+been brought by the Icelandic settlers with them
+from Norway, for parts of it are inappropriate to
+their land.  There are no Finns there, nor do
+fir-trees grow there, nor is any corn tilled.  But all
+that about Christians is of later origin.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>After a little hesitation the oath was taken by all.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then said Grettir, "You have done well, only
+beware of breaking your oath.  I am ready to do my
+part, without delay, to fulfil your wishes."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Thereupon he flung aside his hood and garments,
+and the assembled bonders looked at each other,
+and were disconcerted, for they saw that they had
+in their midst Grettir Asmund's son.  They were
+silent, and thought that they had taken the oath
+somewhat unadvisedly, and they whispered the one
+into another, to find if there were not some
+loophole by which they might evade the obligation to
+observe the oath.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Come now," said Grettir, "let me know your
+purpose, for I shall not long stand stripped.  It will
+be worse for you than for me if you break your
+oath, for it will go down in story to the end of time
+that the men of Heron-ness swore and were perjured."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>He received no answer.  The chiefs moved away;
+some wanted to break the truce, and argued that
+an oath taken to an outlaw was not legally binding;
+others insisted that the oath must be observed.
+Then Grettir sang:</span></p>
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<div class="line-block outermost">
+<div class="line"><span>"Many trees-of-wealth (</span><em class="italics">men</em><span>) this morn,</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>Failed the well-known well to know,</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>Two ways turn the sea-flame-branches (</span><em class="italics">men</em><span>),</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>When a trick on them is tried;</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>Falter folk in oath fulfilling,</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>Hafr's talking lips are dumb."</span></div>
+<div class="line"> </div>
+</div>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>Then Tongue-stone said, "You think so, do you,
+Grettir?  Well, I will say this of you, you are a
+man of dauntless courage.  Look how the chiefs are
+deep in discussion how to deal with you."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then Grettir sang:</span></p>
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<div class="line-block outermost">
+<div class="line"><span>"Shield-lifters (</span><em class="italics">men</em><span>) rubbing of noses,</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>Shield-tempest-senders (men) shake beards,</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>Fierce-hearted serpent's-lair-scatterers (</span><em class="italics">men</em><span>),</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>Lay their heads one 'gainst another,</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>Now that they know, are regretting</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>The peace they have sworn to to-day."</span></div>
+<div class="line"> </div>
+</div>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>In these staves a number of periphrases for men
+or warriors are used—and the use of these
+periphrases constitute the charm of these verses.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then Hialti of Hof burst away from the rest, and
+said, "No, never, never shall it be said of us men of
+Heron-ness, that we have broken an oath because
+we have found it inconvenient to keep it.  Grettir
+shall be at full liberty to go to his place in peace,
+and woe betide him who lays hand on him, to do
+him an injury.  But an oath no longer binds us
+should he venture ashore again."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>All except Thorbiorn Hook, Hialti's brother, agreed
+to this, and felt their minds and consciences relieved,
+that he had spoken out as a man of honour.  And
+thus was seen how of those two brothers, rude and
+violent though both were, Hialti had some nobleness
+in him that was lacking in the other.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The wrestling began by Grettir being matched
+with Thorbiorn Hook, and after a very brief struggle
+Grettir freed himself from his antagonist, leaped
+over his back, caught him by the belt, lifted him off
+his legs, and flung him over his back.  This is a
+throw called "showing the white mare," among
+Cornish wrestlers of the present day, and a very
+dangerous throw it is, for it sometimes breaks the
+back of the man thrown.  The Hook, however, picked
+himself up, and the wrestling continued with unabated
+vigour, and it was impossible to tell which side had
+the mastery, for, though Grettir was matched against
+both brothers, and after each bout with one brother
+fell to with the other, he was never thrown down.
+After all three were covered with blood and bruises
+the match was closed, the judges deciding that the
+two brothers conjointly were not stronger than
+Grettir alone, though they were each of them as
+powerful as two ordinary able-bodied men.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir at once left the place of gathering, rejecting
+all the entreaties of the farmers that he would leave
+Drangey.  And, so, after all but The Hook had thanked
+him for his wrestling and praised his activity and
+strength, he departed.  He was put across from
+Reykir to his island, and was received with open
+arms by Illugi.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>There now they abode peaceably, and Grettir told
+his brother and his churl Glaum the story of what
+had taken place at the assize, and thus the summer
+wore away.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>There was much talk through the island of Iceland
+about this adventure, and all good men approved the
+conduct of the men of the Skagafiord that they had
+kept the oath they had so inconsiderately taken.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst" id="of-hoering-s-leap"><span class="bold large">CHAPTER XXXVII.</span></p>
+<p class="center pnext"><span class="bold medium">OF HŒRING'S LEAP.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<!--  -->
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<p class="pfirst"><em class="italics">The Piebald Ram—In want of Fire—Not born to be
+Drowned—Thorwald aids Grettir—A Stratagem—Hœring
+climbs the Cliff—Hœring's Leap</em></p>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>The smaller farmers began seriously to feel their
+want of the islet Drangey for pasture in summer,
+and, as there seemed no chance of their getting rid
+of Grettir, they sold their rights to Thorbiorn Hook,
+who set himself in earnest to devise a plan by which
+he might possess himself of the island.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>When Grettir had been two winters on the island,
+he had eaten all the sheep except one piebald ram,
+with magnificent horns, which became so tame that
+he ran after them wherever they went, and in the
+evening came to the hut Grettir had erected and
+butted at the door till let in.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The brothers liked this place of exile, as there was
+no dearth of eggs and birds, besides which, some
+drift-wood was thrown upon the strand, and served
+as fuel.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir and Illugi spent their days in clambering
+among the rocks, and rifling nests, and the occupation
+of the thrall was to collect drift timber and keep
+up the fire in the hut.  He was expected to remain
+awake and watch the fire whilst the others slept.
+He got very tired of his life on the islet, became
+idle, morose, and reserved.  One night,
+notwithstanding Grettir's warnings to him to be more
+careful, as they had no boat, he let the fire go out.
+Grettir was very angry, and told Glaum that he
+deserved a sound thrashing for his neglect.  The
+thrall replied that he loathed the life he led; and
+that it seemed it was not enough to Grettir that he
+should keep him there as a prisoner, he must also
+maltreat him.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir consulted his brother what was best to be
+done, and Illugi replied that the only thing that could
+be done was to await the arrival of a boat from the
+friendly farmer at Reykir.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"We shall have to wait long enough for that,"
+said Grettir.  "The bonders have taken it ill that
+he has favoured us, and he is now unwilling to be
+seen visiting Drangey.  The only chance is for me
+to swim ashore and secure a light."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Do not attempt that!" exclaimed Illugi.  "That
+is what you did in Norway, and that led to all your
+misfortune."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"This case is different," answered Grettir.  "Then
+I brought fire for ill-conditioned men, now it is for
+ourselves.  Then I knew not who was on the other
+side, but now I can get the fire for the asking from
+Thorwald."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"But the distance is so great!" remonstrated Illugi.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Do not fear for me," said Grettir; "I was not
+born to be drowned."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>From Drangey to Reykir is, as already said, about
+five English miles.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir prepared for swimming, by dressing in
+loose thin drawers and a sealskin hood; he tied his
+fingers together, that they might offer more resistance
+to the water when he struck out.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The day was fine and warm.  Grettir started in
+the evening, when the tide was in his favour, setting
+in; and his brother anxiously watched him from the
+rocks.  At sunset he reached the land, after having
+floated and swum the whole distance.  Immediately
+on coming ashore, he went to the warm spring and
+bathed in it, before entering the house.  The hall
+door was open, and Grettir stepped in.  A large fire
+had been burning on the hearth, so that the room
+was very warm; Grettir was so thoroughly exhausted
+that he lay down beside the hot embers, and was
+soon fast asleep.  In the morning he was found by
+the farmer's daughter, who gave him a bowl of milk,
+and brought her father to him.  Thorwald furnished
+him with fire, and rowed him back to the island,
+astonished beyond measure at his achievement, in
+having swum such a distance.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now, the farmers on the Skagafiord began to taunt
+Thorbiorn Hook with his unprofitable purchase of
+the island, and Hook was greatly irritated and
+perplexed what to do.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>During the summer, a ship arrived in the firth,
+the captain of which was a young and active man
+called Hœring.  He lodged with Thorbiorn Hook
+during the autumn, and was continually urging his
+host to row him out to Drangey, that he might try
+to climb the precipitous sides of the island.  The
+Hook required very little pressing; and one fine
+afternoon he rowed his guest out to Drangey, and
+put him stealthily ashore, without attracting the
+notice of those on the height.  For in some places
+the cliffs overhung, so that a boat passing beneath
+could not be seen from above.  Now Hœring had
+lain in the bottom of the boat, covered with a piece
+of sailcloth, so that the brothers saw nothing of him
+as the boat was approaching the islet.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>They saw and recognized Thorbiorn Hook and his
+churls, and at once drew up the ladder.  Now it was
+whilst they were watching at the landing-place that
+Thorbiorn put Hœring out on another point, where
+the cliffs seemed possible to be climbed by a very
+skilful man, and then came on to the usual landing
+place, and there shouted to Grettir.  Grettir replied,
+and then Thorbiorn began the usual arguments to
+persuade the outlaw to leave the isle.  He promised
+to give him shelter in his house the winter, if he
+would do so.  All was in vain.  What he sought
+was to divert Grettir's attention so as to allow time
+and occasion for Hœring to climb the cliffs
+unobserved and unresisted.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The discussion went on but led to nothing.  In the
+meantime Hœring had managed most cleverly to get
+up by a way never ascended by man before or after;
+and when he came to the top and had his feet on the
+turf, he saw where the brothers stood with their backs
+turned towards him, and he thought that now an
+opportunity had come for him to make himself a
+great name.  Grettir suspected nothing, and
+continued talking to Thorbiorn, who was getting, or
+feigning to get, angry, and used big and violent
+words.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now, as luck would have it, Illugi chanced to
+turn his head, and he saw a man approaching from
+behind.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then he cried out, "Brother!  Brother!  Here
+comes a man at us with uplifted axe!"</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"You go after him," said Grettir.  "I will watch
+at the ladder."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>So Illugi started to his feet and went to meet
+Hœring, and when the young merchant saw that he
+was discovered, he fled away across the islet, and
+Illugi went after him.  And when Hœring came to
+the edge he leaped down, hoping to fall into the sea;
+but he had missed his reckoning, and he went upon
+some skerries over which the waves tossed, and broke
+every bone in his body, and so ended his life.  The
+spot is called Hœring's Leap to this day.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Illugi came back, and Grettir asked him what had
+been the end of the encounter.  Illugi told him.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Now, Thorbiorn," shouted Grettir; "we have had
+enough of profitless talk.  Go round to the other
+side of the island and gather up the remains of your
+friend."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The Hook pushed off from the strand and returned
+home, ill pleased with the result of the expedition,
+and Grettir remained unmolested on Drangey the
+ensuing winter.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst" id="of-the-attempt-made-by-grettir-s-friends"><span class="bold large">CHAPTER XXXVIII.</span></p>
+<p class="center pnext"><span class="bold medium">OF THE ATTEMPT MADE BY GRETTIR's FRIENDS.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<!--  -->
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<p class="pfirst"><em class="italics">The New Law-man—The Outlawry almost at an End</em></p>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>The ensuing summer, that is to say, the summer
+of 1031, at the great annual assize at Thingvalla,
+all Grettir's kin and friends brought up the
+matter of outlawry, and contended that he ought to
+have his sentence done away with.  They said that
+no man could be an outlaw all his life, that was not
+a condition contemplated by their laws.  They said
+that he had been outlawed first in 1011 for the
+slaying of Skeggi, and that he had been in outlawry
+ever since, which made nineteen years.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The old law-man was dead, and now there was
+another at the assize, whose name was Stein.  He laid
+down that no man might by law be in outlawry more
+than twenty years.  Now, when they came to reckon
+since 1011 it was nineteen years.  It was true that
+he had been outlawed thrice, once for Skeggi, then
+by King Olaf, and lastly by the court for the burning
+of the sons of Thorir of Garth, still—the fact
+remained that for nineteen years he had been an
+outlaw, and Stein laid down that by next assize, that is
+to say in one year, his outlawry would have expired.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Thereat Grettir's kinsfolk were pleased, for they
+thought that he would only have to spend one winter
+more on Drangey, and afterwards his troubles
+would be at an end; Thorir of Garth and his other
+foes could no more pursue him, and the price set on
+his head would fall away.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>But on the other hand, Thorir of Garth, who had
+not become more charitable and forgiving as he grew
+old, became still more incensed and impatient to have
+Grettir killed before this year would expire, also
+Thorbiorn Hook cast about how he might be avenged
+for the deprivation of his rights over Drangey.  The
+men who had sold their claims came to Thorbiorn,
+and told him he must do one of two things: get rid
+of Grettir and assert his rights by turning out sheep
+on the islet, or they would regard the sale as quashed,
+by his non-usance of the pasture, and they would
+reclaim their shares of the island as soon as Grettir's
+outlawry was at an end, and he left the place.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst" id="of-the-old-hag"><span class="bold large">CHAPTER XXXIX.</span></p>
+<p class="center pnext"><span class="bold medium">OF THE OLD HAG.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<!--  -->
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<p class="pfirst"><em class="italics">The Hook's Foster-mother—The Hag's Request—The
+Witch in the Boat—The Hag's Dooming—An Unlucky
+Throw—Working Bane—The Magic Runes</em></p>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>Now it was so, that Thorbiorn Hook had a
+foster-mother, a woman advanced in age, and of a
+very malicious disposition.  When the people of
+Iceland accepted Christianity, she, in her heart,
+remained a heathen, and would not be baptized and
+have anything to do with the new religion.  She
+had always been reckoned a witch, but with the
+introduction of Christianity witchcraft had been
+made illegal, and anyone who had recourse to
+sorcery was severely dealt with.  The old woman had
+not forgotten her incantations and strange
+ceremonies, whereby she thought to be able to conjure
+the spirits of evil, and send ill on such as offended her.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>When Thorbiorn Hook found that he could contrive
+in no way to get Grettir out of Drangey, and
+when he saw that if his expulsion were delayed, and
+Grettir left of his own accord, he would forfeit the
+money he had paid for the rights of pasturage on the
+island, he went to his foster-mother, and told her
+his difficulty, and pretty plainly let her understand
+that as he could get help nowhere else, he did not
+mind having recourse to the black art.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Ah!" cackled she, "I see how it is, when all else
+fails, man's arms and man's wit, then you come to
+the bed-ridden crone and seek her aid.  Well, I will
+assist you to the best of my power, on one condition,
+and that is, that you obey me without questioning."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The Hook agreed to what she said, and so all
+rested till August without the matter being again
+alluded to.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then one beautiful day the hag said to Thorbiorn,
+"Foster-son, the sea is calm and the sky bright, what
+say you to our rowing over to Drangey and stirring
+up the old strife with Grettir?  I will go with you
+and hear what he says, then I shall be able to judge
+what fate lies before him, and I can death-doom him
+accordingly."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The Hook answered, "It is waste of labour going
+out to Drangey.  I have been there several times
+and never return better off than when I went."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"You promised to obey me without questioning,"
+said the crone.  "Follow my advice and all will be
+well for you and ill for Grettir."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"I will do as you bid me, foster-mother," said
+Thorbiorn, "though I had sworn not to go back to
+Drangey till I was sure I could work the bane of
+Grettir."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"That man is not laid low hastily, and patience
+is needed; but his time will come, and may be close
+at hand.  What the end of this visit will be I
+cannot say.  It is hid from me, but I know very well
+that it will lead to his or to your destruction."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Thorbiorn ran out a long boat, and entered it
+with twelve men.  The hag sat in the bows coiled
+up amongst rugs and wadmal.  When they reached
+the island, at once Grettir and Illugi ran to the
+ladder, and Thorbiorn again asked if Grettir would
+come to his house for the winter.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir made the same reply as before, "Do what
+you will, in this spot I await my fate."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now Thorbiorn saw that this expedition also was
+likely to be resultless, and he became very angry.
+"I see," he said, "that I have to do with an
+ill-conditioned churl, who does not know how to accept a
+good offer when made.  I shall not come here again
+with such an offer."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"That pleases me well," said Grettir, "for you and I
+are not like to come to terms that will satisfy both."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>At that moment the hag began to wriggle out of
+her wraps in the bows.  Grettir had not perceived
+her hitherto.  Now she screamed out, "These men
+may be strong, but their strength is ebbing.  They
+may have had luck, but luck has left.  See what a
+difference there is between men.  Thorbiorn makes
+good offers, and such they blindly, foolishly reject.
+Those who are blinded and cast away chances do
+not have chances come to them again.  And now
+Grettir"—she raised her withered arms over her head—"I
+doom you to all ill, I doom you to loss of health,
+to loss of wisdom and of foresight.  I doom you to
+decline and to death.  I doom your blood to fester,
+and your brain to be clouded.  I doom your marrow
+to curdle and chill.  Henceforth, so is my doom, all
+good things will wane from you, and all evil things
+will wax and overwhelm you.  So be it."  As she
+spoke a shudder ran over Grettir's limbs, and he
+asked who that imp was in the boat.  Illugi told
+him he fancied it must be that old heathen woman,
+the foster-mother of Thorbiorn Hook.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Since the powers of evil are with our foes," said
+Grettir, "how may we oppose them?  Never before
+has anything so shaken me with presentiment of evil
+as have the curses of this witch.  But she shall have
+a reminder of her visit to Drangey."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Thereupon he snatched up a large stone and threw
+it at the boat, and it fell on the bundle of rags, in
+the midst of which lay the old hag.  As it struck
+there rose a wild shriek from the witch, for the stone
+had hit and broken her leg.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Brother!" exclaimed Illugi, "you should not
+have done this."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Blame me not," answered Grettir gloomily.  "It
+had been well had the stone fallen on her head.  But
+I trow the working of her curse is begun, and what
+I have done has been because my understanding and
+wit are already clouded."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>On the return of Thorbiorn to the mainland the
+crone was put to bed, and The Hook was less pleased
+than ever with his trip to the island.  His
+foster-mother, however, consoled him.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Do not be discouraged," she said.  "Now is
+come the turning-point of Grettir's fortunes, and
+his luck will leave him more and more as the light
+dies away up to Yule.  But the light dies and comes
+again.  With Grettir it will not be so, it will die,
+and die, till it goes out in endless night."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"You are a confident woman, foster-mother," said
+Thorbiorn.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>When a month had elapsed, the old woman was
+able to leave her bed, and to limp across the room.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>One day she asked to be led down to the beach.
+Thorbiorn gave her his arm, and she had her crutch,
+and she hobbled down to where the water was lapping
+on the shingle.  And there, just washed up on
+the beach, lay a log of drift-timber, just large enough
+for a man to carry upon his shoulder.  Then she
+gave command that the log should be rolled over
+and over that she might examine each side.  The
+log on one side seemed to have been charred, and
+she sent to the house for a plane, and had the burnt
+wood smoothed away.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>When that was done she dismissed every one save
+her foster-son, and then with a long knife she cut
+runes on the wood where it had been planed—that
+is to say, words written in the peculiar characters
+made of strokes which Odin was supposed to have
+invented.  Then she cut herself on the arm, and
+smeared the letters she had cut with her blood.
+After that she rose and began to leap and dance,
+screaming a wild spell round the log, making the
+most strange and uncouth contortions, and waving
+her crutch in the air, making with it mysterious
+signs over the log.  Presently, when the incantation
+was over, she ordered the log to be rolled back
+into the sea.  The tide was now ebbing, and with
+the tide the log went out to sea further and further
+from land till Thorbiorn saw it no more.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst" id="how-the-log-came-to-drangey"><span class="bold large">CHAPTER XL.</span></p>
+<p class="center pnext"><span class="bold medium">HOW THE LOG CAME TO DRANGEY.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<!--  -->
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<p class="pfirst"><em class="italics">Food for the Winter—Cast up by the Sea—The Log
+comes back again—The Worst is come—An ugly
+Wound—The Hag's Revenge—Grettir sings his Great
+Deeds—Presage of Evil</em></p>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>In the meantime Grettir, Illugi, and the churl
+Glaum were on Drangey catching fish and fowl
+for winter supplies.  The fish in Iceland are beaten
+hard with stones and then dried in the wind, that
+makes them like leather; but it preserves them for
+a very long time, and they form the staple of food,
+as the people have no corn, and consequently no
+bread.  They put butter on these dry fish, and tear
+them with their teeth.  What Grettir did with the fowl
+he caught was to pickle them with salt water from
+the sea, and when the frost and snow came on
+then he would take them out of pickle and freeze
+them.  Now, the whole of the sheep had been eaten
+some time ago, except the old mottled ram, which
+Grettir could not find in his heart to kill; and, as
+may be supposed, he and his brother suffered from
+want of change of food.  Especially deficient were
+they in any green food; and we know, though he
+did not, that the eating of green food is a very
+essential element of health.  He had nothing for
+consumption but salted birds and dried fish—no
+milk, no bread, no vegetables.  Such a diet was
+certain to disorder his health.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The day after that on which the hag had charmed
+the piece of timber, the two brothers were walking
+on the little strand to the west of the island looking
+for drift-wood.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Here is a fine beam!" exclaimed Illugi.  "Help
+me to lift it on to my shoulder, and I will carry it
+up the ladder."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir spurned the log with his foot, saying, "I
+do not like the looks of it, Little brother.  Runes are
+cut on it, and what they portend I do not know.
+There may be written there something that may
+bring ill.  Who can tell but this log may have been
+sent with ill wishes against us."  They set the log
+adrift, and Grettir warned his brother not to bring
+it to their fire.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>In the evening they returned to their cabin, and
+nothing was said about the log to Glaum.  Next
+day they found the same beam washed up not far
+from the foot of the ladder.  Grettir was dissatisfied,
+and again he thrust it from the shore, saying that
+he hoped they had seen the last of it, and that the
+stream and tide would catch it and waft it elsewhere.
+And now the equinoctial gales began to rage.  The
+fine Martinmas summer was over.  The weather
+changed to storm and rain; and so bad was it that
+the three men remained indoors till their supply of
+firewood was exhausted.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then Grettir ordered the thrall to search the shore
+for fuel.  Glaum started up with an angry
+remonstrance that the weather was not such as a dog
+should be turned out in, with unreason, not
+considering that a fire was as necessary to him as
+to his master.  He went to the ladder, crawled
+down it, and found the same beam cast at its very
+foot.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Glad not to have to go far in his search, Glaum
+shouldered the log, crept up the ladder, bore it to
+the hut, and throwing open the door, cast it down
+in the midst.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir jumped up, "Well done," said he, "you
+have been quick in your quest."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Now I have brought it, you must chop it up,"
+said Glaum.  "I have done my part."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir took his axe.  The fire was low and
+wanted replenishing, and without paying much
+attention to the log, he swung his axe and brought
+it down on the log.  But the wood was wet and
+greasy with sea-weed, and the axe slipped, glanced
+off the beam, and cut into Grettir's leg below the knee,
+on the shin, with such force that it stuck in the bone.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir looked at the beam; the fire leaped up,
+and by its light the runic inscription on it was
+visible.  Grettir at once saw evil.  "The worst is
+come upon us," he said sadly, as he cast the axe
+away, and threw himself down by the fire.  "This
+is the same log that I have twice rejected.  Glaum,
+you have done us two ill turns, first when you
+neglected the fire and let it go out, and now in that
+you have brought this beam to us.  Beware how
+you commit a third, for that I foresee will be your
+bane as well as ours."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Illugi bound up his brother's wound with rag;
+there was but a slight flow of blood, but it was an
+ugly gash.  That night Grettir slept soundly.  For
+three days and nights he was without pain, and the
+wound seemed to be healing healthily, the skin to
+be forming over it.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"My dear brother," said Illugi, "I do not think
+that this cut will trouble you long."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"I hope not," answered Grettir.  "But none can
+see where a road leads till they have gone through
+to the end."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>On the fourth evening they laid them down to
+sleep as usual.  About midnight the lad, Illugi,
+awoke hearing Grettir tossing in his bed as though
+suffering.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Why are you so uneasy?" asked the boy.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir replied that he felt great pain in his leg,
+and he thought, he said, that some change must
+have taken place in the condition of the wound.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Illugi at once blew up the embers on the hearth
+into a flame, and by its light examined his brother's
+leg.  He found that the foot was swollen and
+discoloured, and that the wound had reopened, and
+looked far more angry than he had seen it yet.
+Intense pain ensued, so that poor Grettir could not
+remain quiet for a moment, but tossed from side to
+side.  His cheeks were fevered, and his tongue
+parched.  He could obtain no sleep at all.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Illugi never left him, he sat beside him holding
+his hand, or bringing him water to slake his
+unquenchable thirst.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"The worst approaches, and there is no avoiding
+it," said Grettir.  "This sickness is sent by the old
+witch in revenge for the stone I had cast at her."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"I misliked the casting of that stone," said Illugi.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"It was ill that it did not fall on her head," said
+Grettir.  "But what is done may not be undone."  Then
+he heaved himself up into a sitting posture
+and sang, supporting himself against his brother's
+shoulder, a lay, of which only fragments have come
+down to us.  A good deal of the lay refers to incidents
+in Grettir's life, of which no record remains in
+the saga, and many staves have fallen away and
+been lost.  So we give but a few verses:—</span></p>
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<div class="line-block outermost">
+<div class="line"><span>"I fought with the sword in the bye-gone day,</span></div>
+<div class="inner line-block">
+<div class="line"><span>In the day when I was young;</span></div>
+</div>
+<div class="line"><span>When the Rovers I slew in old Norway,</span></div>
+<div class="inner line-block">
+<div class="line"><span>The land with my action rung.</span></div>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div class="line-block outermost">
+<div class="line"><span>"I entered the grave of Karr the Old,</span></div>
+<div class="inner line-block">
+<div class="line"><span>I rived his sword away;</span></div>
+</div>
+<div class="line"><span>I strove with the Troll at Thorod's-stead,</span></div>
+<div class="inner line-block">
+<div class="line"><span>Before the break of day.</span></div>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div class="line-block outermost">
+<div class="line"><span>"With Thorbiorn Oxmain in the marsh</span></div>
+<div class="inner line-block">
+<div class="line"><span>I fought, and his blood I shed;</span></div>
+</div>
+<div class="line"><span>Against Thorir of Garth have I stood in arms,</span></div>
+<div class="inner line-block">
+<div class="line"><span>Who long would have me dead.</span></div>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div class="line-block outermost">
+<div class="line"><span>"For nineteen years, I a hunted man,</span></div>
+<div class="inner line-block">
+<div class="line"><span>On mountain, on moor, and fen;</span></div>
+</div>
+<div class="line"><span>For nineteen years had to shun and flee</span></div>
+<div class="inner line-block">
+<div class="line"><span>The face of my fellow men.</span></div>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div class="line-block outermost">
+<div class="line"><span>"For nineteen years all bitter to bear</span></div>
+<div class="inner line-block">
+<div class="line"><span>Both hunger and cold and pain;</span></div>
+</div>
+<div class="line"><span>And never to know when I laid me down,</span></div>
+<div class="inner line-block">
+<div class="line"><span>If I might awake again.</span></div>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div class="line-block outermost">
+<div class="line"><span>"And now do I lie with a burning eye,</span></div>
+<div class="inner line-block">
+<div class="line"><span>As a wolf is fain to die;</span></div>
+</div>
+<div class="line"><span>Whilst the skies are dripping and ocean roars,</span></div>
+<div class="inner line-block">
+<div class="line"><span>And the winds sob sadly by—"</span></div>
+<div class="line"> </div>
+</div>
+</div>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>The song was probably composed before, as otherwise
+it is not easy to account for its preservation.
+His head was burning, his thoughts wandered, and
+he ceased singing.  He seemed to be dozing off.  But
+presently he started and shivered, and looked hastily
+about him.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Let us be cautious now," he said, "for Thorbiorn
+Hook will make another attempt.  To me it matters
+little—but to you, brother.  Glaum, watch the
+ladder by day, and draw it up at night.  Be a faithful
+servant, for now all depends on you.  Illugi will
+not leave me, so we are in your hands."</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst" id="the-end-of-the-outlaw"><span class="bold large">CHAPTER XLI.</span></p>
+<p class="center pnext"><span class="bold medium">THE END OF THE OUTLAW.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<!--  -->
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<p class="pfirst"><em class="italics">The Shadow of Death—Thorbiorn and his
+Foster-mother—The Hook sails for Drangey—Out in
+the Gale—The Unguarded Ladder—Glaum is Captured—The
+Brothers' last Evening—Defending the Hut—Grettir
+Wounded—Illugi Taken—The Notch in the Sword—Illugi
+vows Vengeance—Death of Illugi</em></p>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>The weather became daily worse, and a fierce
+north-east wind raged over the country, bearing
+with it cold and sleet, and covering the fells
+with the first snows of winter.  Grettir inquired
+every night if the ladder had been drawn up, according
+to order.  Glaum answered churlishly, "How
+can you expect folk to live out in such a storm as
+this?  Do you think they are so eager to kill you
+that they will jeopardize their lives in trying to do
+this?  It is easy to see that a little cut was all that
+lacked to let your courage leak out."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir answered, "Go! and do not argue with
+us; guard the ladder as you have been bidden!"</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>So Illugi drove the churl from the hut every
+morning, notwithstanding his angry remonstrances;
+and Glaum was in the worst of humours.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The pain became more acute, and the whole leg
+inflamed and swollen, signs of mortification
+appeared, and wounds opened in different parts of the
+limb, so that Grettir felt that the shadow of death
+hung over him.  Illugi sat night and day with his
+brother's head on his shoulder, bathing his forehead,
+and doing his utmost to console the fleeting spirit.
+A week had elapsed since the wound had been made.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now, Thorbiorn Hook was at home, ill-pleased at
+the failure of all his schemes for dispossessing Grettir
+of the island.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>One day his foster-mother came to him, and asked
+whether he were ready now to pay his final visit to
+the outlaw?</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Thorbiorn replied that he had paid quite as many
+visits to him as he liked, and that he should not go
+to Drangey again till Grettir left it; and then, with
+a sneer he asked his foster-mother whether she
+wanted to have her second leg broken, and was not
+satisfied with the fracture of one.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"I will not go to Drangey myself," answered the
+old woman.  "That is unnecessary.  I have sent him
+my salutation, and by this he has received it.  Speed
+away now to Drangey, and find how he relishes my
+message.  But I warn you, you must go now or you
+will be too late."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Thorbiorn would not listen; he said that her advice
+last time had led to no advantage when he followed
+it, and that the weather was too bad to go out in.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"You need go but this once," said the crone.
+"The storm is of my sending, and is sent to work
+my ends."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Finally he allowed himself to be persuaded.  So
+he got together men, and asked his neighbours to
+help him; and a large vessel was manned.  That
+is to say, the other farmers consented to lend him
+men, but none of them would accompany him
+themselves.  The Hook took twelve of his own men;
+his brother, Hialti, lent him three; Erick of
+Gooddale sent one man; Tongue-stone furnished him
+with two; another, named Halldor, let him have
+six.  Of all these, the only two whose name need
+be mentioned are Karr and Vikarr.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Thorbiorn got a large sailing-boat for his purpose,
+and started from Heron-ness.  None of the men
+were in good spirits, as the weather was bad;
+moreover, they had no liking for their leader.  By dusk
+the boat was afloat, the sail spread, and they ran
+out to sea.  As the wind was from the north-east,
+they were under the lee of the high cliffs, and were
+not exposed to the full violence of the storm.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Heavy scuds of rain and sleet swept the fiord;
+the sky was overcast with whirling masses of vapour,
+charged with snow, and beneath their shadow the
+waters of the firth were black as ink.  For one
+moment the clouds were parted by the storm, the
+rowers looked up, and saw the heavens tinged with
+the crimson rays of the northern light.  A flame ran
+along the cordage, and finally settled on the
+masthead of the vessel, swaying and dancing with the
+motion of the boat.  It was that electric spark, which
+is called in the Mediterranean S. Elmo's fire.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>A line of white foam marked the base of Drangey;
+and now and then a great wave from the mouth of
+the fiord boomed against the crags, and shot in
+spouts of foam high into the air.  Along the western
+shore of the firth, which was exposed to the full
+brunt of the gale, the mighty billows were beaten
+into white yeasty heaps of water.  From the top
+of Drangey one tiny spark shone from the window
+of the hovel where lay the dying outlaw.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now let us look again at Grettir.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>He had been in less pain that day.  Illugi had
+not left him, but remained faithful at his post.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The thrall, Glaum, had been sent out as usual to
+collect fuel and to watch the ladder, and to draw it
+up at nightfall.  But instead of doing as he was
+bidden, the fellow laid himself down at the head of
+the steps, under a shelter-hut of turf that had been
+there erected, and went to sleep.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>When Thorbiorn and his party reached the shore,
+they found to their content that the ladder had not
+been removed.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Good luck attends on those who wait," said The
+Hook "Now, my fellows! the journey will not
+prove as bootless as you expected.  Up the ladder
+with you! and let us all be cautious and bold!"</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>So they ascended, one after the other, The Hook
+taking the lead.  On reaching the top he looked
+into the shelter-hut, and there found Glaum, asleep
+and snoring.  Thorbiorn struck him over the
+shoulders, and asked him who he was.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Glaum turned on his side, rubbed his eyes, and
+growled forth, "Can you not leave a poor wretch
+alone?  Never was a man so ill-treated as am I.  I
+may not even sleep out here in the cold."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The Hook then knew who this was.  "Fool!"
+shouted he.  "Look up, and see who are come.  We
+are your foes, and intend to kill every one of
+you."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Glaum started now to his feet full awake, and
+shrieked with dismay when he saw the black figures
+crowding up from the ladder and surrounding him.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Make no noise," said Thorbiorn Hook.  "I give
+you the choice of two things; answer the questions
+I put to you truthfully, or die at once."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The churl answered sullenly that he would speak,
+and he had nothing to conceal.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Then tell me where the brothers are?"</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"In the hovel I left them, where there is a fire.
+Not out in the cold.  Grettir is sick and nigh on
+death, and Illugi is with him."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The Hook asked for particulars, and then Glaum
+told him about the log, and how Grettir was
+wounded.  Thereat the Hook burst out laughing,
+and said, "Woe to the man that leans on a churl!
+That is a true proverb.  Shamefully have you
+betrayed your trust, Glaum."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Thereupon Glaum was dragged along to the cabin
+where Grettir lay, and they treated him so roughly,
+that what with their blows and what with fear, he
+was nearly senseless when he reached it.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Illugi had been sitting by the fire with his brother's
+head in his lap, whilst Grettir lay in some sheepskins
+beside the hearth.  All that evening the sick
+man's eyes had been wandering about the roof,
+watching the light play among the rafters, as the
+firewood blazed up or smouldered away.  Illugi saw that
+his fingers plucked at the wool of the sheep-skins,
+riving it out, and that he knew was a bad sign.  He
+felt sure that Grettir would die that night, and he
+watched his face intently, and could not bear to
+withdraw his eyes from him, for he loved him dearly.
+Presently Grettir turned his head, and smiled when
+he saw how he was watching him, and said that he
+felt easier, and would sleep.  In a few moments his
+eyes closed.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>As he dozed, his face became calmer than Illugi
+had seen it before; the muscles relaxed, and the
+wrinkles furrowed in his brow by care and suffering
+were now smoothed quite away.  Grettir's face was
+never handsome, but it was grave and earnest, and
+the sorrow and trial he had passed through had left
+its trace on his features.  His breath now came more
+evenly in sleep.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>All at once there sounded a crash at the door,
+and the sleeper opened his eyes dreamily.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"It is only the old ram, brother," said Illugi.
+"He is butting, because he wants to come in."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"He butts hard! he butts hard!" muttered Grettir,
+and at that moment the door burst open.  They
+saw faces looking in.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Illugi was on his feet in a moment.  He seized his
+sword, flew to the doorway and defended it bravely,
+so that no one could pass through.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Thorbiorn called to some of the men to get upon
+the roof, and he was obeyed.  The hovel was low,
+and in a moment four or five were on top of it
+tearing off the turf that covered it.  Grettir tried
+to rise to his feet, but could only stagger to his knees.
+He seized his spear and drove it through the roof,
+so that it struck Karr in the breast, and the wound
+was his death.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Thorbiorn Hook called to the men to act more
+warily—they were twenty-five in all against two
+men, and one dying.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>So the men pulled at the gable ends of the house
+and got the ridge-piece out, that it broke and fell,
+and with it a shower of turfs, into the hut.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir drew his short-sword—the sword he had
+taken from the barrow of Karr the Old—and smote
+at the men as they leaped upon him from the wall.
+With one blow he struck Vikarr over the left
+shoulder, as he was on the point of springing down.
+The sword cut off his arm.  But the blow was so
+violent, that Grettir, having dealt it, fell forward,
+and before he could raise himself Thorbiorn Hook
+struck him between the shoulders, and made a
+fearful wound.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then cried Grettir, "Bare is the back without
+brother behind it!" and instantly Illugi threw his
+shield over him, planted one foot on each side of
+him as he lay on the floor, and defended him with
+desperate courage.</span></p>
+<div class="align-center auto-scaled figure margin" style="width: 64%" id="figure-88">
+<span id="illugi-defends-the-dying-grettir"></span><img class="align-center block" style="display: block; width: 100%" alt="ILLUGI DEFENDS THE DYING GRETTIR." src="images/img-368.jpg" />
+<div class="caption centerleft figure-caption margin">
+<span class="italics">ILLUGI DEFENDS THE DYING GRETTIR.</span></div>
+</div>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The mist of death was in Grettir's eyes; he
+attempted in vain to raise himself, but sank again
+on the sheep-skins, which were now drenched in blood.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>No one could touch him, for the brave boy warded
+off every blow that was aimed at his brother.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then Thorbiorn Hook ordered his men to form a
+ring round and close in on them with their shields
+and with beams.  They did so, and Illugi was taken
+and bound; but not till he had wounded most of his
+opponents, and had killed three of Thorbiorn's men.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Never have I seen one braver of your age," said
+The Hook.  "I will say that you have fought well."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then they went to Grettir, who lay where he had
+fallen, unable to resist further, for he had lost
+consciousness.  They dealt him many a blow, but
+hardly any blood flowed from his wounds.  When
+all supposed he was dead, then Thorbiorn tried to
+disengage the sword from his cold fingers, saying
+that he considered Grettir had wielded it long
+enough.  But the strong man's hand was clenched
+around the handle so firmly that his enemy could
+not free the sword from his grasp.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Several of the men came up, and tried to unweave
+the fingers, but were unable to do so.  Then the
+Hook said, "Why should we spare this wretched
+outlaw?  Off with his hand!"  And his men held
+down the arm whilst Thorbiorn hewed off the hand
+at the wrist with his axe.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>After that, standing over the body, and grasping
+the hilt of the sword in both hands, he smote at
+Grettir's head; the edge of the blade was notched
+by the blow.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Look!" laughed Thorbiorn.  "This notch will
+be famous in story for many generations; for men
+will point to it and say, 'This was made by Grettir's
+skull.'"  He struck twice and thrice at the outlaw's
+neck, till the head came off in his hands.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Now have I slain a notable man!" exclaimed
+Thorbiorn.  "I will take this head with me to land,
+and claim the price that was set on it; and none
+shall deny that it was my hand that slew that
+Grettir whom all else feared."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The men present said he might say what he liked,
+but that they believed Grettir was already dead
+when he smote him.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Thorbiorn now turned to Illugi, and said, "It is
+a pity that a brave lad like you should die,
+because you are associated with outlaws and evil-doers."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"I tell you this," said Illugi, "that I will appear
+before you at the great assize, and there will charge
+you with having practised witchcraft to effect my
+brother's death."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"You hearken to me, boy," said Thorbiorn.  "Put
+your hand to mine, and swear that you will not
+seek to avenge the death of your brother, and I will
+let you go; but if you will not take this oath, you
+shall die."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"And hearken to me, Thorbiorn," said lllugi.
+"If I live, but one thought shall occupy my heart
+night and day, and that will be how I may best
+avenge my brother.  Now that you know what to
+expect of me—take what course you will."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Thorbiorn drew his companions aside to ask their
+advice; but they shrugged their shoulders, and
+replied that, as he had planned the expedition, he
+must carry it out as he thought best.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Well," said The Hook, "I have no fancy for
+having the young viper lying in wait to sting me
+wherever I tread.  He shall die."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now, when Illugi knew that they had determined
+on slaying him, he smiled and said, "You have
+chosen that course which is best to my mind.  I do
+not desire to be parted from my brother."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The day was breaking.  They led Illugi to the
+east side of the island, and there they slew him.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>It is told that they neither bound his eyes nor his
+hands, and that he looked fearlessly at them when
+they smote him, and neither changed colour nor
+even blinked.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Then they buried the brothers beneath a cairn in
+the island, but they took the head of Grettir and
+bore it to land.  On the way they also slew the
+thrall Glaum.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst" id="how-asdis-received-the-news"><span class="bold large">CHAPTER XLII.</span></p>
+<p class="center pnext"><span class="bold medium">HOW ASDIS RECEIVED THE NEWS.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<!--  -->
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<p class="pfirst"><em class="italics">A Charge of Witchcraft—A Heroic Mother—Thorbiorn's
+Sentence—Burial of the Brothers</em></p>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>Had the old hag, Thorbiorn's foster-mother, any
+hand in the death of Grettir?  Certainly none.
+It was true that Grettir was wounded in the way
+described, by his own axe, but the condition of the
+wound was due to the scorbutic condition of his
+blood, through lack of green food.  This the
+Icelanders did not understand; they could not
+comprehend how a wound could seem to be healing well
+and then break out and mortify afterwards, and
+they supposed that this was due to witchcraft.
+Then, again, Grettir's kin could not take the case of
+Grettir's murder into court, because Thorbiorn had
+acted within the law when killing him; but by
+charging him with the practice of witchcraft they
+made him amenable to the law.  So, partly, no
+doubt, in good faith, they trumped up against Thorbiorn
+the accusation of having effected Grettir's death
+by witchcraft.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now, it must be told how that, one day after
+the slaying of Grettir, Thorbiorn Hook at the head
+of twenty armed men rode to Biarg, in the Midfirth-dale,
+with Grettir's head slung from his saddlebow.
+On reaching the house he dismounted and
+strode into the hall, where Grettir's mother was
+seated with a servant.  Thorbiorn threw her son's
+head at her feet, and said: "See!  I have been to
+the island and have prevailed."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>The lady sat proudly in her seat, and did not shed
+a tear; but lifting her voice in reply, she sang:</span></p>
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<div class="line-block outermost">
+<div class="line"><span>"Milk-sop—as timid sheep</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>Before a fox all cow'ring keep;</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>So did you—nor could prevail</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>So long as Grettir's strength was hale.</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>Woe is on the Northland side,</span></div>
+<div class="line"><span>Nor can I my loathing hide!"</span></div>
+<div class="line"> </div>
+</div>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>After this The Hook returned home, and folk
+wondered at Asdis, saying that only a heroic
+mother could have had sons so heroic.  When Yule
+was over The Hook rode east away to Garth, and
+told Thorir what he had done, and claimed the
+money set on Grettir's head.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>But Thorir was crafty, and just as the Biarg folk
+sought a charge against Thorbiorn for his deed, so
+did Thorir, that he might escape having to pay the
+silver.  He answered, "I do not deny that I offered
+the money on Grettir's head, promising it to
+whomsoever should slay Grettir, but I will pay nothing
+to him who compassed his death by witchcraft;
+and if what the men who went with you say be
+true, you did not slay him with a sword, but hacked
+off his head after he was dead."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>This made Thorbiorn Hook very angry, and when
+summer came he brought his suit against Thorir
+for the money.  But simultaneously Grettir's kin
+brought a charge against Thorbiorn for having
+practised witchcraft.  Also they had a summons
+against him for the slaying of Illugi.  Now, the case
+was tried, and hotly discussed, and it ended this
+way:—It was judged that Thorbiorn had struck off
+the head of a man who was already dead, and that
+he had brought about the death of that man by
+witchcraft; thereupon it was judged that he should
+receive nothing of the money, and that he should be
+outlawed from Iceland.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>So he went away and never returned.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now, Grettir and Illugi were brought to land, and
+their bones lie at Reykir, where was the friendly
+farmer who had helped them when they were at
+Drangey.  But Grettir's head was buried at Biarg.
+There is now no church or churchyard there, but
+there is a mound in the </span><em class="italics">tún</em><span> where his head is said
+to lie.  I obtained leave to dig there, and I
+examined the spot, but found only a great stone under
+the turf, and this we had not the appliances to move.
+And perhaps it was as well; for if Grettir's head be
+there, it were better that there it should rest
+undisturbed.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst" id="how-dromund-kept-his-word"><span class="bold large">CHAPTER XLIII.</span></p>
+<p class="center pnext"><span class="bold medium">HOW DROMUND KEPT HIS WORD.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<!--  -->
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<p class="pfirst"><em class="italics">Thorbiorn Hook in Norway—Dromund on Thorbiorn's
+Track—The Varangians—Grettir's Sword—Grettir is
+Avenged</em></p>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>Now, after that Thorbiorn Hook had been outlawed,
+he found that he had gotten to himself
+no advantage, but great harm by what he had done
+upon Drangey.  He was forced to leave Iceland;
+and he saw, withal, that never again might he set
+foot therein again with safety, for all the relatives
+of the Biarg family would seek his life.  Accordingly
+he made over his farm at Woodwick to his brother
+Hialti, and also all his rights over the island of
+Drangey, such as they were.  Then he collected
+together what moveable goods he had, and went on
+board ship and sailed for Norway.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>On reaching Norway he bragged much of what
+he had done in having slain Grettir, of whom tales
+were told in Norway; and, as may well be understood,
+he told the tale of the slaying of Grettir in
+his own way, magnifying his heroism, and saying
+nothing about such matters as lessened the greatness
+of his deed.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>During the early winter tidings reached Thorstein
+Dromund at Tunsberg that his brother Grettir
+was dead, and also that the man who slew him was
+in the north of the country.  When Dromund heard
+the tidings he was very sorrowful, and he called to
+mind the words he had said to Grettir when they
+showed each other what sort of arms they had.
+Dromund considered that he was bound to avenge
+his brother's death on his murderer.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Thorbiorn Hook also was aware that there was a
+half-brother of Grettir in Norway, and when he
+knew that he was wary, for he suspected that
+Dromund would seek his life.  And, indeed, Thorstein
+Dromund sent spies to watch Thorbiorn Hook; but
+the latter was so careful of himself that Dromund
+was not able to attempt anything against him all
+that winter.  No sooner did the soft, warm, spring
+breezes begin to blow, than The Hook got away out
+of Norway by the earliest opportunity.  He had
+heard much talk how that the Emperors of the East,
+at Constantinople, kept a guard of Norsemen about
+them, and paid them well, and how that this guard
+was held in high esteem.  So Thorbiorn Hook
+considered he could not do better than go to
+Constantinople, and try his fortune there.  But before
+he left Norway he talked of his intention, and this
+was reported to Dromund at Tunsberg.  So Dromund
+put his lands and affairs into the hands of his
+kinsmen, and got ready for journeying in search of
+Hook, whom he had never seen.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>He sailed away after him, and wherever he came
+he made inquiries after the ship in which Thorbiorn
+Hook had been, and he was always just too late.
+He never could catch the ship up.  And then finally
+Thorbiorn left the vessel and journeyed overland,
+and Thorstein lost his traces.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>However, Dromund knew that Thorbiorn Hook
+was going to Constantinople, so he travelled thither
+also, and reached the imperial city.  Now there
+were a great many Norsemen and Icelanders there
+in the company called the Varangians, who acted as
+a bodyguard to the Emperor, and among these men
+were some twenty or more called Thorbiorn, and
+which among them was the murderer of Grettir,
+Thorstein Dromund did not know.  The Hook, as
+may well be imagined, did not tell anyone what his
+nickname was; not that he imagined he was pursued,
+but because it was not a pretty and flattering name.
+Thorstein also offered himself as a soldier in the
+guard, and was enrolled.  He also merely gave his
+name as Thorstein, and told no one of his nickname
+of Dromund, lest the man he pursued should take
+alarm and leave.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>So time passed, and Thorstein Dromund could not
+find out his man; and he lay awake in bed many
+nights musing on what he had undertaken, on the
+sad lot of Grettir, and on his ill-success in finding
+the murderer of his half-brother.  Now, it fell out
+that on a certain day the order came to the Varangian
+guard that they were to be ready, as they were
+about to be sent on an expedition of importance.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>It was usual, before any such an expedition, that
+all the men of the guard should burnish up their
+weapons and armour, and show them, that they were in condition.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>So was it on this occasion also.  They were
+assembled in the guard-room, and each produced his
+weapon.  Then Thorbiorn held forth his short-sword—the
+very weapon that Grettir had taken from the
+tomb of Karr the Old, the sword with which he
+The Hook had hewed off Grettir's head.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Now, when Thorbiorn held forth the sword all the
+other guardsmen praised it, and said it was an
+excellent weapon; but it had one grievous blemish,
+for that there was a notch in the edge.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Oh!" laughed Thorbiorn, "that notch is no
+blemish at all.  It is a memorial of one of my
+greatest achievements."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"What was that?" asked one of the Varangians.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"With this sword," answered Thorbiorn, "I slew
+the man who was esteemed the greatest and most
+powerful champion of his time; a man who was in
+outlawry for twenty years, who had in his time
+fought and beaten off as many as thirty or forty
+who attacked him.  But I was too much for him.
+When I went against him, then he had to give way.
+We fought for an hour without flagging, and finally
+I smote him down.  Then I took from him his own
+sword, and with it I smote off his neck; and thus
+got the sword its notch."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"And his name?" asked Thorstein Dromund.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"His name was Grettir the Strong."</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>There was a pause; and in that pause the sword
+was handed to Dromund for him to look at.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>"Thus is Grettir avenged!" suddenly exclaimed
+Dromund.  He struck across the table at Thorbiorn
+with Grettir's own sword; and so great was the
+stroke that it smote through his skull to the
+jaw-teeth, and The Hook fell without a word, dead.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>It was said, in after times, that Grettir was
+wonderful in his life, and wonderful in his death—for
+in life no man had been his equal in strength, and
+had had a sadder span of life; and in death he was
+wonderful—for of all Icelanders he was the only one
+who was avenged far away from home by the shores
+of the Bosphorus, in the City of the Emperors.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst" id="epilogue"><span class="bold large">EPILOGUE.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<!--  -->
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<p class="pfirst"><em class="italics">Date of Grettir's Death—Mention of Grettir in other
+Sagas—Historical Basis of the Grettir Story</em></p>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>In the Icelandic annals the death of Grettir is set
+down as having occurred in 1033, but the dates
+are not quite correct, and the real date should be
+1031.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir is mentioned in other Icelandic sagas.
+He is spoken of and his pedigree given in the
+Landnama Book, the Icelandic Domesday, the most
+reliable book for history they have.  The persons
+spoken of in the saga of Grettir are heard of in
+several other quite independent sagas, and in no
+case is there any serious anachronism.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>Grettir, it will be recalled, was taken by the
+farmers in the Ice-firth.  This incident is also related
+in the saga of the Foster-brothers; so is another
+incident about a contest concerning a dead whale I
+have not related, as likely to break the continuity
+of the history.  In the saga of Thord, the hero is
+said to have blessed the Middle-firth in these words:
+"Let the man who grows up in this vale never be
+hung."  And this blessing was thought to have had
+something to do with the saving of Grettir's neck
+in the Ice-firth.  The story of Gisli has been told
+whom Grettir whipped.  Now, in the Viga-styr saga,
+the most ancient of all Icelandic sagas, we hear of
+this same Gisli, and his character is painted in the
+same colours as in the saga of Grettir, but no
+mention is made of the whipping administered by
+Grettir.  The murder of Atli, the brother of our
+outlaw, and the consequent slaying of Thorbiorn
+Oxmain is spoken of in the saga of Bard.  The
+circumstance of Grettir having lived in a cave on the
+farm in Hit-dale is spoken of in the saga of Biorn.
+In the history of Grettir mention is made of the
+strife which took place between Biorn and Thord,
+but the full particulars of what is there alluded to
+casually are given in the saga of Biorn of Hit-dale.
+In our saga, Grettir is spoken of as meeting Bard
+wounded after a hard fight, in which he had avenged
+the death of his brother, but no particulars are given.
+In the saga of the Heath-fights we recover the
+whole story.  Thus one saga explains and supports
+another.</span></p>
+<p class="pnext"><span>It is therefore impossible to set down the story
+of Grettir as fabulous.  It is historical; but the
+history has been somewhat embellished, partly by
+family vanity which led to the undue glorification of
+their hero, and partly by superstition which
+imagined the marvellous where all was really natural.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 3em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst"><span>THE END.</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
+</div>
+<p class="center pfirst"><span>Transcriber's note:</span></p>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em">
+</div>
+<!--  -->
+<blockquote>
+<div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span>The source book's pages had variant headers.  These headers
+have been collected into the introductory paragraph
+at the start of each chapter.</span></p>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="vspace" style="height: 6em">
+</div>
+<!-- -*- encoding: utf-8 -*- -->
+<div class="backmatter">
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst" id="pg-end-line"><span>*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK </span><span>GRETTIR THE OUTLAW</span><span> ***</span></p>
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@@ -0,0 +1,10702 @@
+.. -*- encoding: utf-8 -*-

+

+.. meta::

+   :PG.Id: 48622

+   :PG.Title: Grettir the Outlaw

+   :PG.Released: 2015-03-31

+   :PG.Rights: Public Domain

+   :PG.Producer: Al Haines

+   :DC.Creator: \S. Baring-Gould

+   :MARCREL.ill: \M. Zeno Diemer

+   :DC.Title: Grettir the Outlaw

+              A Story of Iceland

+   :DC.Language: en

+   :DC.Created: 1889

+   :coverpage: images/img-cover.jpg

+

+==================

+GRETTIR THE OUTLAW

+==================

+

+.. clearpage::

+

+.. pgheader::

+

+.. container:: coverpage

+

+   .. vspace:: 3

+

+   .. figure:: images/img-cover.jpg

+      :figclass: white-space-pre-line

+      :align: center

+      :alt: Cover art

+

+      Cover art

+

+   .. vspace:: 4

+

+.. container:: frontispiece

+

+   .. _`THORKELL AND THE OUTLAWED GRETTIR LEAVE THE ASSIZE`:

+

+   .. figure:: images/img-front.jpg

+      :figclass: white-space-pre-line

+      :align: center

+      :alt: THORKELL AND THE OUTLAWED GRETTIR LEAVE THE ASSIZE.

+

+      THORKELL AND THE OUTLAWED GRETTIR LEAVE THE ASSIZE.

+

+   .. vspace:: 4

+

+.. container:: titlepage center white-space-pre-line

+

+   .. class:: xx-large bold

+

+      Grettir the Outlaw

+

+   .. class:: large bold

+

+      A Story of Iceland

+

+   .. vspace:: 2

+

+   .. class:: medium

+

+      by

+

+   .. class:: large

+

+      \S. BARING-GOULD

+

+   .. class:: small

+

+      Author of "John Herring" "Mehalah" "Iceland: its Scenes and Sagas" &c.

+

+   .. vspace:: 3

+

+   .. class:: center medium

+

+      *WITH SIX PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS BY M. ZENO DIEMER*

+

+   .. vspace:: 3

+

+   .. class:: medium

+

+      BLACKIE AND SON LIMITED

+      LONDON GLASGOW AND DUBLIN

+      1889

+

+   .. vspace:: 4

+

+.. class:: center large bold

+

+   PREFACE.

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+.. class:: center

+

+   TO MY YOUNG READERS.

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+It is now just thirty years since I first began to read the

+"Saga of Grettir the Strong" in Icelandic.  At that time I

+had only a Danish grammar of Icelandic and an Icelandic-Danish

+dictionary, and I did not know a word of Danish.  So

+I had to learn Danish in order to learn Icelandic.

+

+It was laborious work making out the Saga, and every line

+when I began took me some time to understand.  Moreover,

+I had not much time at my disposal, for then I was a master

+in a school.

+

+Now, after I had worked a little way into the Saga, I

+became intensely interested in it myself, and it struck me that

+my boys whom I taught might like to hear about Grettir.  So

+I tried every day to translate, after school hours, a chapter,

+hardly ever more at first, and sometimes not even as much

+as that.  Then, when on half-holidays I proposed a walk

+to some of my scholars, they were keen to hear the story

+of Grettir.  Well, Grettir went on for some months in this

+way, a fresh instalment of the tale coming every half-holiday,

+and it was really wonderful how interested and delighted the

+boys were with the story.  Nor was I less so; the labour of

+translation which was so great at first became rapidly lighter,

+and I was as much interested in the adventures of the hero as

+were the boys.  The other day I met an old pupil of mine,

+and almost the first thing he said to me was: "Oh! do you

+remember Grettir?  Thirty years ago!  Fancy!  I am a

+married man and have boys of my own, and I have often tried to

+tell them the story which made such an impression on me, but

+I cannot remember all the incidents nor their order.  I do

+wish you would write it as a story for boys.  I should like to

+read it myself again, and my boys would love it."  "Very

+well," I said, "I will do so."

+

+Now my boy readers must understand that I have told them

+the story in my own words and in my own way.  I went to

+Iceland in 1861, and went over nearly every bit of the ground

+made famous by the adventures of Grettir.  Consequently, I

+am able to help out and illustrate the tale by what I actually

+saw.  In the original book there is a great deal more than I

+have attempted to retell, but much has to do with the ancestors

+of Grettir, and there are other incidents introduced of no

+great importance and very confusing to the memory.  So I

+have taken the leading points in the story, and given them.

+

+.. vspace:: 1

+

+\S. BARING-GOULD.

+

+.. vspace:: 4

+

+.. class:: center large bold

+

+   CONTENTS.

+

+.. class:: noindent small

+

+   CHAP.

+

+.. class:: noindent white-space-pre-line

+

+I.  `Winter Tales`_

+II.  `How Grettir played on the Ice`_

+III.  `Of the Ride to Thingvalla`_

+IV.  `The Doom-day`_

+V.  `The Voyage`_

+VI.  `The Red Rovers`_

+VII.  `The Story of the Sword`_

+VIII.  `Of the Bear`_

+IX.  `The Slaying of Biorn`_

+X.  `Of Grettir's Return`_

+XI.  `The Horse-fight`_

+XII.  `Of the Fight at the Neck`_

+XIII.  `How Grettir and Audun made Friends`_

+XIV.  `The Vale of Shadows`_

+XV.  `How Grettir fought with Glam`_

+XVI.  `How Grettir Sailed to Norway`_

+XVII.  `The Hostel-burning`_

+XVIII.  `The Ordeal by Fire`_

+XIX.  `The Winter in Norway`_

+XX.  `Of what Befell at Biarg`_

+XXI.  `The Return of Grettir`_

+XXII.  `The Slaying of Oxmain`_

+XXIII.  `At Learwood`_

+XXIV.  `The Foster-brothers`_

+XXV.  `How Grettir was well nigh Hung`_

+XXVI.  `In the Desert`_

+XXVII.  `On the Great Eagle Lake`_

+XXVIII.  `On the Fell`_

+XXIX.  `The Fight on the River`_

+XXX.  `A Mysterious Vale`_

+XXXI.  `The Death of Hallmund`_

+XXXII.  `Of Another Attempt against Grettir`_

+XXXIII.  `At Sandheaps`_

+XXXIV.  `How Grettir was Driven About`_

+XXXV.  `On the Isle`_

+XXXVI.  `Of Grettir on Heron-ness`_

+XXXVII.  `Of Hœring's Leap`_

+XXXVIII.  `Of the Attempt made by Grettir's Friends`_

+XXXIX.  `Of the Old Hag`_

+XL.  `How the Log came to Drangey`_

+XLI.  `The End of the Outlaw`_

+XLII.  `How Asdis received the News`_

+XLIII.  `How Dromund kept his Word`_

+

+.. class:: noindent

+

+`Epilogue`_

+

+.. vspace:: 4

+

+.. class:: center large bold

+

+   ILLUSTRATIONS.

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+`Thorkell and the outlawed Grettir leave the Assize`_, *Frontis*.

+

+.. vspace:: 1

+

+`Grettir challenges Kormak and his Party`_

+

+.. vspace:: 1

+

+`Grettir defends Himself from the Mob`_

+

+.. vspace:: 1

+

+`Grettir attacked in the Rift by Thorir's Party`_

+

+.. vspace:: 1

+

+`Fording the quivering flood`_

+

+.. vspace:: 1

+

+`Illugi defends the dying Grettir`_

+

+.. vspace:: 4

+

+.. _`PEDIGREE OF THE FAMILY OF ASMUND OF BIARG`:

+

+.. figure:: images/img-010.jpg

+   :figclass: white-space-pre-line

+   :align: center

+   :alt: PEDIGREE OF THE FAMILY OF ASMUND OF BIARG

+

+   PEDIGREE OF THE FAMILY OF ASMUND OF BIARG

+

+.. vspace:: 4

+

+.. _`WINTER TALES`:

+

+.. class:: center x-large bold

+

+   GRETTIR THE OUTLAW.

+

+.. vspace:: 3

+

+.. class:: center large bold

+

+   CHAPTER I.

+

+.. class:: center medium bold

+

+   WINTER TALES.

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+..

+   

+   *The Birthplace of Grettir—The Peopling of

+   Iceland—A History of Quarrels—Stories Round

+   the Hearth—Biarg—The Great Blue Bay—The

+   Boy Grettir—The Saga of Onund Treefoot—The

+   Northern Pirates—The Fight with King

+   Harald—Onund's Wound—After the Battle*

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+It was night—drawing on to midnight—in

+summer, that I who write this book

+arrived at the little lonely farm of Biarg,

+on the Middle River, in the north of Iceland.

+It was night, near on midnight, and yet I could

+hardly call it night, for the sky overhead was

+full of light of the clearest amethyst, and every

+stock and stone was distinctly visible.  Across the

+valley rose a rugged moor, and above its shoulder a

+snow-clad mountain, turned to rosy gold by the

+night sun.  As I stood there watching the mist form

+on the cold river in the vale below, all at once I

+heard a strange sound like horns blowing far away

+in the sky, and looking up, I saw a train of swans

+flying from west to east, bathed in sunlight, their

+wings of silver, and their feathers as gold.

+

+I had come all the way from England to see Biarg,

+for there was born, about the year A.D. 997, a man

+called Grettir, whose history I had read, and which

+interested me so much that I was resolved to see

+his native home, and the principal scenes where his

+stormy life was passed.

+

+The landscape was the same as that on which

+Grettir's childish eyes had looked more than eight

+hundred and fifty years ago.  The same outline of

+dreary moor, the same snowy ridge of mountain

+standing above it, catching the midnight summer

+sun, the same mist forming over the river; but the

+house was altogether different.  Now there stood

+only a poor heap of farm-buildings, erected of turf

+and wood, where had once been a noble hall of

+wood, with carved gable-ends, surrounded by many

+out-houses.

+

+Before we begin on the story of Grettir, it will be

+well to say a few words about its claim to be history.

+

+Iceland never was, and it is not now, a much-peopled

+island.  The farmhouses are for the most part

+far apart, and the farms are of very considerable

+extent, because, owing to the severity of the climate,

+very little pasturage is obtained over a wide extent

+of country for the sheep and cattle.  The population

+lives round the coast, on the fiords or creeks of the

+sea, or on the rivers that flow into these fiords.

+The centre of the island is occupied by a vast waste

+of ice-covered mountain, and desert black as ink

+strewn with volcanic ash and sand, or else with a

+region of erupted lava that is impassable, because

+in cooling it has exploded, and forms a country of

+bristling spikes and gulfs and sharp edges, very

+much like the wreck of a huge ginger-beer bottle

+factory.

+

+What are now farmhouses were the halls and

+mansions of families of noble descent.  Indeed, the

+original settlers in Iceland were the nobles of

+Norway who left their native land to avoid the tyranny

+of Harold Fairhair, who tried to crush their power

+so as to make himself a despotic king in the land.

+

+These Norse nobles came in their boats to Iceland,

+bringing with them their wives, children, their

+thralls or slaves, and their cattle; and they settled

+all round the coast.  The present Icelanders are

+descended from these first colonists.

+

+Now, the history of Iceland for a few hundred

+years consists of nothing but the history of the

+quarrels of these great families.  Iceland was without

+any political organization, but it had an elected

+lawman or judge, and every year the heads of the

+families rode to Thingvalla, a plain in the south-west,

+where they brought their complaints, carried on

+their lawsuits, and had them settled by the judge.

+There was no army, no navy, no government in

+Iceland for a long time; also no foreign wars, and

+no internal revolutions.

+

+These noble families settled in the valleys and upon

+the fiords thought a good deal of themselves, and

+they carefully preserved, at first orally then in

+writing, the record of their pedigrees, and also the

+tradition of the famous deeds of their great men.

+

+In summer there is no night; in winter, no day.

+In winter there is little or nothing to be done but

+sit over the fire, sing songs, and tell yarns.  Now,

+in winter the Icelanders told the tales of the brave

+men of old in their families, and so the tradition

+was handed on from father to son, the same stories

+told every winter, till all the particulars became

+well known.  At the same time there can be no

+doubt that little embellishments were added, some

+exaggerations were indulged in, and here and there

+the grand deed of some other man was grafted into

+the story of the family hero.  About two hundred

+or two hundred and fifty years after the death of

+Grettir, his history was committed to writing, and

+then it became fixed—nothing further was added to

+it, and we have his story after having travelled

+down over two hundred years as a tradition.  That

+was plenty of time for additions and emendations,

+and the hobgoblin and ghost stories that come into

+his life are some of these embellishments.  But the

+main facts of his life are true history.  We are able

+to decide this by comparing his story with those of

+other families in the same part of the island, and to

+see whether they agree as to dates, and as to the

+circumstances narrated in them.

+

+In the north-west of Iceland is an immense bay

+called the Huna-floi, which branches off into several

+creeks, the largest of which is called the Ramsfirth,

+and the next to that is the Middlefiord.  Into this

+flows a river that has its rise in the central desert, in

+a perfect tangle of lakes.  Three rivers issuing from

+these lakes unite just above Biarg, and pour their

+waters a short morning's ride lower through sands

+into the Middlefirth.

+

+The valley is not cheerful, running from north to

+south.  Biarg lies on the east side, and faces the

+western sun.  The moor which lies behind it, and

+forms the hill on the other side of the river, is not

+broken and picturesque, and if it were not for the

+peak of Burfell, covered with snow a good part of

+the year, the view from Biarg would be as

+uninteresting as any to be found in the land.  But then,

+when one rides down to the coast, or ascends the

+moor, what a splendid view bursts on the sight!

+The great Polar Sea is before one, intensely blue,

+not with the deep ultramarine of the Mediterranean,

+but with the blue of the nemophyla or forget-me-not,

+rolling in from the mysterious North; and

+across the mighty bay of the Huna-floi can be seen

+the snowy mountains of that extraordinary peninsula

+which runs out to the north-west of Iceland, and is

+only just not converted into an island because

+connected with Iceland by a narrow strip of land.  That

+great projection is like a hand with fiords between

+the fingers of land, and glacier-mountains where are

+the knuckles; but the wrist is very narrow indeed,

+only about one English mile across, and there lies a

+trough along this junction, with a little stream and a

+lake in it.  Now, at this wrist, as we may call it, lies

+the farm of Eyre, where, somewhat later, lived the

+sister of Grettir, who married a man that farmed

+there, named Glum.

+

+Looking away across the great blue bay, the

+mountains of the hand may be seen rising out of the

+sea, and looking like icebergs.

+

+Grettir the Strong was the son of a well-to-do

+bonder, or yeoman, who lived at Biarg, and was

+descended from some of the great nobles of Norway.

+His father's name was Asmund with the Grey-head,

+and his mother's name was Asdis.

+

+He had a brother called Atli, a gentle, kindly

+young fellow, who never wittingly quarrelled with

+anyone, and was liked by all with whom he had to

+do.  He had also two sisters—one was called

+Thordis, and she was married to Glum of Eyre—but

+neither come into the story; and he had another

+sister called Rannveig, who was married to Gamli of

+Melar, at the head of Ramsfirth.  He had also a

+little brother called Illugi, of whom more hereafter.

+Grettir was not a good-looking boy; he had reddish

+hair, a pale face full of freckles, and light blue

+eyes.  He was broad-built, not tall as a boy, though

+in the end he grew to be a very big man.

+

+He was not considered a good-tempered or sociable

+boy.  He seemed lazy and sullen; he liked to

+sit by the fire without speaking to anyone, listening

+to what was said, and brooding over what he had

+heard.

+

+If his father set him a task, he did it so

+unwillingly, and so badly that Asmund Greyhead regretted

+having set him to do anything.

+

+Now, during the winter, as we have already seen,

+when there is but a very little daylight, and the

+nights are vastly long, when, moreover, the whole

+land is deep in snow, so that there is no farm-work

+that can be done, and no travelling about to visit

+neighbours, it was, and is still, usual in Iceland for

+those in the house to tell tales, or sagas, as they

+are called.  Some of these sagas relate to the old

+gods of the Norsemen, some are fabulous stories of

+old heroes who never existed, or, if they did exist,

+have had all sorts of fantastic legends tacked on to

+their histories; but other sagas are the tales of the

+doings of ancestors of the family.

+

+Now, among the sagas that Grettir used to hearken

+to with greatest delight was that of old Onund

+Treefoot, his great-grandfather, who first settled in

+Iceland.  And this was the tale:

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+Onund, the son of Ufeigh Clubfoot, son of Ivar

+the Smiter, was a mighty Viking in Norway; that is,

+he went about every summer harrying the coasts of

+England, Ireland, and Scotland.  He joined with

+three friends, and they had five ships together, and

+one summer they sailed to the Hebrides—which

+were then called the Sudereys, or southern isles.

+The Bishop of the Isle of Man is still called Bishop

+of Sodor and Man, because his diocese originally

+included the Sudereys.  Then out against them came

+Kiarval, king of the Hebrides, with five ships, and

+they gave him battle, and there was a hard fray.

+But the men of Onund were the mightiest warriors.

+On each side many fell, but the end of the battle

+was that the king fled with only one ship.  So

+Onund took the four vessels and great spoil, and he

+wrought great havoc on the coast, plundering and

+burning, and so in the fall of the year returned to

+Norway.  In the history of England, and in that of

+Scotland and of Ireland, we read of the terrible

+annoyance given to the natives of Great Britain and

+Ireland by the northern pirates; and, indeed, they

+conquered Dublin, and established a kingdom there,

+and also took to themselves Orkney.  Well, when

+Onund returned to Norway he did not find that

+matters were pleasant there; for King Harald the

+Unshorn had begun to establish himself sole king in

+Norway.  Hitherto there had been many small

+kings and earls; but Harald had taken an oath

+that he would not cut or trim his hair till he had

+subdued all under his power, and made himself

+supreme throughout the land.

+

+A great many bonders and all the little kings

+united against him, and there was a great battle

+fought at Hafrsfiord—the greatest battle that had

+as yet been fought in Norway.  Onund was in the

+battle along with his friend, King Thorir Longchin,

+and he set his ship alongside of that of King Longchin.

+King Harald ran his ship up alongside of that

+of Longchin, grappled it, and boarded it.  There was a

+furious fight, and Harald sent on board his Bearsarks,

+a set of half-mad ruffians, who wore not bear but

+wolf skins, and who were said to lead charmed lives,

+so that no weapon would wound them.  Thorir

+Longchin and all his men were killed; and then

+King Harald cut away the ship and ran up against

+that of Onund.  Onund was in the fore part, and

+he fought manfully.  As the grappling-irons of

+Harald caught his ship, Onund made a sweep with

+his longsword at the man who threw the irons, and

+in so doing he put his leg over the bulwark.  Then

+one on the king's ship threw a spear at Onund.

+He saw it flung, and leaned his head back to let it

+fly over him, and as he did so one on the king's

+ship smote at him with a battle-axe, and the axe

+fell on his leg below the knee and shore his leg off.

+Then Onund fell back on board his own vessel, and

+his men carried him across into that of a friend

+named Thrand, who lay alongside of him on the

+other board.  And Thrand had a great cauldron

+there of pitch boiled, and Onund set his knee in the

+boiling pitch, and never blinked nor uttered a cry.

+That staunched the blood.  If he had not done this

+he would have bled to death.

+

+Now, Thrand saw that King Harald was gaining

+the mastery everywhere, so he fled away with his

+ship and sailed west.

+

+Onund was healed of his wound, but ever after

+he walked with a wooden leg, and that is why he

+got the name of Onund Treefoot.

+

+After the battle of Hafrsfiord, Onund could only

+return to Norway by stealth, and he could not

+recover his lands there, so he deemed it wisest for

+him to sail away and seek a home elsewhere.  That

+is how he left Norway and settled in Iceland.

+

+And when King Harald saw himself lord and

+master through all the land, then he had his hair

+trimmed and combed, and it was so long and so

+beautiful, that ever after he who had been called

+"The Unshorn" went by the name of "Fairhair,"

+and in history he is known as King Harald Fairhair.

+

+

+

+

+

+.. vspace:: 4

+

+.. _`HOW GRETTIR PLAYED ON THE ICE`:

+

+.. class:: center large bold

+

+   CHAPTER II.

+

+

+.. class:: center medium bold

+

+   HOW GRETTIR PLAYED ON THE ICE.

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+..

+   

+   *An Evil Boyhood—Golf on the Ice—Grettir Quarrels

+   with Audun—A Threat of Vengeance*

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+There are several tales told of Grettir when he

+was a boy, which show that he was a rough

+and unkindly lad.  He was set by his father to keep

+geese on the moors, and this made him angry, so he

+threw stones at the geese and killed or wounded

+them all.

+

+The old man suffered from lumbago, and in winter

+when unwell asked his wife and the boys to rub his

+back by the fire; but when Grettir was required to

+do this, he lost his temper, and on one occasion he

+snatched up a wool-carding comb and dug it into

+his old father's back.

+

+Many other things he did which made those at

+home not like him, and there was not much love

+lost between him and his father.  The fact was that

+Grettir was a headstrong, wilful fellow, and bitterly

+had he to pay in after life for this youthful

+wilfulness and obstinacy.  It was these qualities, untamed

+in him, that wrecked his whole life, and it may be

+said brought ruin and extinction on his family.

+There were great and good qualities in Grettir's

+nature, but they did not show when he was young;

+only much suffering and cruel privations brought

+out in the end the higher and nobler elements that

+were in him.

+

+It is so with all who have any good in them, if

+by early discipline it is not manifested, then it is

+brought out by the rough usage of misfortune in

+after life.

+

+And now I will give one incident of Grettir's

+boyhood.  It was a favourite amusement for young

+fellows at that time to play golf on the ice, and in

+winter, when the Middlefirth was frozen over, large

+parties assembled there for the sport.

+

+One winter a party was arranged for a match on

+the ice, and a good many lads came to Middlefirth

+from Willowdale, a valley only separated from the

+Middlefirth by a long shoulder of ugly moor.  The

+Willowdales-men had a much better sheet of water,

+a very large lake called Hop, into which their river

+flowed, before discharging itself into the sea; and

+the return match was to be played on Hop.

+

+Among the young fellows who came from Willowdale

+was Audun, a fine, strapping fellow; frank,

+well-built, good-looking, and amiable.

+

+When the parties were assembled at the place,

+there they were paired off according to age and

+strength; and on this occasion I am speaking of,

+Grettir, who was fourteen, was set to play with

+Audun, who was two years older than he, and a

+head taller.

+

+Audun struck the ball and it flew over Grettir's

+head, and he missed it, and it went skimming away

+over the ice to a great distance, and Grettir had to

+run after it.  Some of those who were looking on

+laughed.  Then Grettir's anger was roused.  He got

+the ball and came back carrying it, till he was

+within a few yards of Audun, and then, instead of

+dropping the ball, and striking it with his golfing-stick,

+he suddenly threw it with all his force against his

+adversary, and struck him between his eyes, so that

+it half-stunned him, and cut the skin.  Audun

+whirled his golfing-bat round, and struck at Grettir,

+who dodged under and escaped the blow.  Then

+Audun and Grettir grappled each other, and wrestled

+on the ice.

+

+Every one thought that Audun would have the

+stumpy, thick-set boy down in a trice, but it was

+not so; Grettir held his ground;—they swung this

+way, that way; now one seemed about to be cast,

+and then the other, and although Audun was almost

+come to a man's strength, he could not for a long

+time throw Grettir.  At last Grettir slipped on a

+piece of ice where some had been sliding, and went

+down.  His blood was up, so was that of Audun; and

+the fight would have been continued with their sticks,

+had not Grettir's brother Atli thrown himself

+between the combatants and separated them.  Atli held

+his brother back, and tried to patch up the quarrel.

+

+"You need not hold me like a mad dog," said

+Grettir.  "Thralls wreak their vengeance at once,

+cowards never."

+

+Audun and Grettir were distant cousins.  They

+were not allowed to play against each other any

+more, and the rest went on with their game.

+

+

+

+

+

+.. vspace:: 4

+

+.. _`OF THE RIDE TO THINGVALLA`:

+

+.. class:: center large bold

+

+   CHAPTER III.

+

+

+.. class:: center medium bold

+

+   OF THE RIDE TO THINGVALLA.

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+..

+   

+   *Thorkel Mani's Find—Thorkel Krafla—The Halt

+   at Biarg—A Bad Prospect—Among the Lakes—The

+   Lost Meal-bags—Suspicion Confirmed—The Slaying

+   of Skeggi—The Song of the Battle-ogress—Grettir

+   Chooses to take his Trial*

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+There lived in Waterdale, a day's journey from

+Biarg, an old bonder, named Thorkel Krafla.

+He was the first Icelander who became a Christian.

+

+In heathen times, among the Northmen as among

+the Romans, it was allowable for parents to expose

+their children to death, if they did not want to have

+the trouble of rearing them.  Now Thorkel had

+been so exposed, with a napkin over his face.  It so

+happened that a great chief called Thorkel Mani

+was riding along one day, thinking about the gods

+that he had been taught to believe in, who drank

+and got drunk, and fought each other, and, being a

+grave, meditative man, he could not make out what

+these rollicking, fighting gods could have had to do

+with the world,—with the creation of sun, moon,

+and stars, and the earth with its yield.  He thought

+to himself, "There must be some God above these

+tipsy, quarrelsome deities; and this higher God

+must love men, and be good and kind to men."

+

+As he thought this, he heard a little whimpering

+noise from behind a stone; he got off his horse, and

+went to see what produced this noise, and found

+there a poor little baby, that with its tiny hands

+had rumpled up the kerchief which had been spread

+over its nose and mouth.  Thorkel Mani took up

+the deserted babe in his arms, and looking up to

+heaven, to the sun, said, "If the good God, who is

+high over all, called this little being into life, gave

+it eyes and mouth and ears and hands and feet, He

+surely never intended His handiwork to be cast out

+as a thing of no value, to die.  For the love of Him

+I will take this child."

+

+Then Thorkel Mani rode home, carrying the baby

+in his arms; and he called it by his own name,

+Thorkel; but to distinguish it from himself, it was

+given the nickname Krafla, which means to rumple,

+because the babe had rumpled up the kerchief, so

+as to let its cries be heard.  So the child grew up,

+and kept the name through life of Thorkel Rumple.

+This Thorkel became a very great man, and

+Godi, or magistrate, of the Waterdale; and, as I

+have said, he was the first man to become a

+Christian, when missionaries of the gospel came to

+Iceland.

+

+Very soon after Grettir's birth Christianity

+became general, and in the year 1000 was sanctioned by

+law; but there were few Christian priests in the land,

+so that the knowledge of the truth had not spread

+much, and taken hold and transformed men's lives.

+Thorkel Rumple was now very old.  He was the

+bosom friend of Asmund, and every year when in

+the spring he rode to the great assizes at Thingvalla,

+he always halted at least one night at Biarg.  Not

+only were Asmund and he men of like minds, and

+friends, but they were also connected.  In the spring

+of the year 1011, Thorkel arrived as usual at Biarg,

+attended by a great many men, and he was most

+warmly received by Asmund and his wife.  He

+remained with them three nights, and he and

+they fell a-talking about the prospects of the two

+young men, Atli and Grettir.  Asmund told his

+kinsman that Atli was a quiet, amiable fellow,

+now at man's estate, and likely to prove a good

+farmer; a man who would worthily succeed him at

+Biarg when he died, and keep the honour of the

+family untarnished, and would enlarge the estate.

+

+"Ah!  I see," said Thorkel.  "A useful man, good

+and respectable, like yourself.  But what about

+Grettir?"

+

+Asmund hesitated a moment before answering;

+but presently he said, "I hardly know what to say

+of him.  He is unruly, sullen, makes no friends, and

+he has been a constant cause of vexation to me."

+

+Thorkel answered, "That is a bad prospect;

+however, let him come with me to Thingvalla, and I

+shall be able to see on the journey of what stuff he

+is made."

+

+To this Asmund agreed; and right glad was

+Grettir to think he was to go to the great law-gathering.

+

+Thorkel had sixty men with him, and he rode in

+some state; for, as already said, he was a great man.

+The way led over the great desolate waste, called

+the Two-days-ride; but as on this expanse there were

+few halting-places, the grass most scanty, and not

+sufficient to allow of a stay, the party rode across it

+down to the settled lands nearer the coast as quickly

+as they could, and reached Fleet-tongue in time to

+sleep; so they took the bridles off their horses, and

+let them graze with their saddles on.  Their road

+had lain among the lakes, from which issued the

+rivers that united above Biarg.  In each lake floated

+a pair of swans.  Often they heard the loud hoarse

+cry of the great northern diver; but there was

+hardly any grass, for the moor lies high, is swept

+by the icy blasts from the glacier mountains to the

+south, and is made up of black sand.  Before them

+all day had stood towering into the sky the Eyreksjokull,

+a mountain with perfectly precipitous sides of

+black basalt, domed over with glittering ice.  It

+resembles an immense bridecake.  At one place this

+mountain in former times had gaped, and poured

+forth a fiery stream of lava that ran to the lakes,

+and for a while converted them to steam.  One can

+still see whence this great fiery river issued from

+the mountain.  Little did Grettir think then as he

+passed under it, a boy of fourteen, that, for the three

+most lonely, wretched years of his life, that great

+glacier-crowned mountain was to be the one object

+on which his eye would rest.

+

+The men were all very tired after their long ride,

+and they slept till late next morning, lying about

+on the scant herbage, around a fire made of the roots

+of trailing willows that they had dug out of the

+sand.

+

+When they awoke many of the horses had strayed,

+and some had rolled in the sand, burst their girths

+and shaken off their saddles.  But they could not

+have gone any great distance, for they were all

+hobbled.  In Iceland thick woollen ropes are put

+round the legs of the horses, below the hocks, and

+twisted together into a knot with a knuckle-bone.

+This serves as a secure hobble, and the wool being

+soft does not gall the skin.

+

+It was customary in those days for every one to

+take his own provisions with him, and most of those

+who went to the great assize carried meal-bags

+athwart their saddles.  Grettir found his horse at

+last, but not his meal-bag, which had come off, and

+was lost; for the saddle was turned under the belly

+of his cob.

+

+The horses could not have strayed far, not only

+because they were hobbled, but also because the

+Tongue where they had been turned loose was a

+narrow strip of land between two rivers; but then

+the slope was considerable in places, and the

+meal-bag might have rolled down into the water.

+

+As Grettir was running about hunting for his bag,

+he saw another man in the same predicament.  What

+is more, he saw that the rest of the party, impatient

+to get on their way, would tarry no longer for them,

+and were defiling down the hill to cross the river.

+

+Grettir was in great distress.  Just then he saw

+the man run very directly in one course, and at the

+same moment Grettir saw something white lying

+under a mass of lava.  It was towards this that the

+fellow was running.  Grettir ran towards it also.  It

+was a meal-sack.  The man reached it first, and

+threw it over his shoulder.

+

+"What have you got there?" asked Grettir, coming up panting.

+

+"My meal-sack," answered the fellow.

+

+"Let me look at it," said Grettir.  "It may be

+mine, not yours.  Let me look before you

+appropriate it."

+

+This the man refused to do.

+

+Grettir's suspicion was confirmed, and he made a

+catch at the sack, and tried to drag it away from

+the fellow.

+

+"Oh, yes!" sneered the man—who was a servant

+at a farm called The Ridge, in Waterdale, and his

+name Skeggi,—"Oh, yes! you Middlefirthers think

+you will have everything your own way."

+

+"That is not it," answered Grettir.  "Let each

+man take his own.  If the sack be yours, keep it;

+if mine, I will have it."

+

+"It is a pity Audun is not here," scoffed the

+serving-man, "or he would trip up your heels and

+throttle you, as he did on the ice when golfing."

+

+"But as he is not here," retorted Grettir, "you

+are not like to get the better of me."

+

+Skeggi suddenly took his axe by the haft and

+hewed at Grettir's head.  Grettir saw what he was

+at, and instantly put up his left hand and caught

+the handle below where Skeggi's hand held it;

+wrenched it out of his grasp, and struck him with

+it, so that his skull was cleft.  The thing was done

+in a moment, and Grettir had done it in self-preservation

+and without premeditation.  He was but a

+boy of fourteen, and this was a full-grown stout

+churl.

+

+Grettir at once seized the meal-bag, saw it was

+his own, and threw it across his saddle.  Then he

+rode after the company.  Thorkel Krafla rode at the

+head of his party, and he had no misgiving that

+anything untoward had taken place.

+

+But, when Grettir came riding up with his meal-bag,

+the men asked him if he had left Skeggi still

+in search of his.  Grettir answered in song:

+

+   |  "A rock Troll did her burden throw

+   |  Down on Skeggi's skull, I trow.

+   |  O'er the battle-ogress saw I flow

+   |  Ruby rivers all aglow.

+   |  She her iron mouth a-gape

+   |  Did the life of Skeggi take."

+   |

+

+This sounds like nonsense; to understand it one

+must have a notion of what constituted poetry in

+the minds of Icelanders and Northmen.  With them

+the charm of poetry consisted in never calling

+anything by its right name, but using instead of it some

+far-fetched similitude or periphrasis.  Thus—the

+burden of the rock Troll is iron.  The Troll is the

+spirit of the mountain, and the heaviest thing found

+in the mountain is iron.  The battle-ogress is the

+axe which bites in battle.  The verses that the Norse

+poets sang were a series of conundrums, and the

+hearers puzzled their brains to make out the sense.

+This time they soon understood what Grettir meant,

+and the men turned and went back to the Tongue,

+and there found Skeggi dead.

+

+Grettir went on to Thorkel, and in few words,

+and to the point, told how things had fallen out.

+He was not the aggressor.  He had merely defended

+himself.

+

+Thorkel was much troubled, and he told Grettir

+that he might either come on to the assize or go

+home; that this act of man-slaughter would be

+investigated at the law-gathering, and judgment given

+upon it.

+

+Grettir agreed to go on, and see how matters

+would turn out for him.

+

+

+

+

+

+.. vspace:: 4

+

+.. _`THE DOOM-DAY`:

+

+.. class:: center large bold

+

+   CHAPTER IV.

+

+

+.. class:: center medium bold

+

+   THE DOOM-DAY.

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+..

+   

+   *The Lava Plain—The Law of Man-slaughter—Grettir's

+   Sentence—The Grettir Stone*

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+That evening they arrived at Thingvalla.

+

+The great plain of Thingvalla is entirely composed

+of lava.  At some remote period before Iceland

+was colonized a beautiful snowy cone of mountain,

+called "The Broad Shield," poured forth a deluge

+of molten rock, which ran in a fiery river down a

+valley for some miles, half-choking it up, and then

+spread out over a wide plain where anciently there

+had been a great lake.  Then all cooled, but after

+the cooling, or whilst it was in process, there came

+a great crack, crack.  The great mass of lava must

+have been poured over some subterranean caverns;

+at any rate the whole plain snapped and sank down

+a good many feet, the lava becoming cracked and

+starred like glass.  Nowadays, one cannot cross the

+plain because it is all traversed with these fearful

+cracks, chasms the bottom of which is filled with

+black water.  Where the plain sank deepest there

+water settled and formed the beautiful Thingvalla

+Lake.

+

+At the side of one of the cracks where the plain

+broke off and sank is a very curious pinnacle of

+black rock, and this was called the Hanging Rock,

+as criminals were hung from it over the chasm.

+

+In one place two of the cracks unite, and there is

+a high mound of blistered lava covered with turf

+and flowers between them.  That is called the Law

+Hill, because the judge and his assessors sat there,

+and no one could get to them, nor could the accused

+get away across the chasms.

+

+Now it was the law at this time in Iceland that

+when any man had been killed his nearest relatives

+came to the assize, and the slayer appeared by

+proxy and offered blood-money—that is to say, to

+pay a fine to the relations, and so patch up the

+quarrel.  But if they refused the money then they

+were at liberty to pursue and kill him.  There were

+no police then.  If the relations wanted to have

+the criminal punished they must punish him themselves.

+

+Upon this occasion the case was discussed in

+the court on the finger of rock between the two

+chasms, the people standing on the further sides of

+these gulfs, listening, but unable to come a step

+nearer; and Thorkel appeared for Grettir and offered

+to pay the blood-money.  The relations of the dead

+Skeggi, after a little fuss, agreed to accept a certain

+sum, and Thorkel at once paid it.  But the court

+ordered that, as Grettir had acted with undue

+violence, and as there was no evidence except his word

+that Skeggi had made the first attack, he should be

+outlawed, and leave Iceland for three winters.  If

+he set his foot in Iceland till three winters had

+passed, his life was forfeit.  He was allowed a

+moderate and reasonable time for finding a ship that

+would take him out of the country.

+

+When the assize was over all rode home, and the

+way that Thorkel and Grettir went was up the

+valley that had been half-choked with the lava that

+rolled down from Broad Shield.  They came to a

+small grassy plain with a gently-sloping hill rising

+out of it, a place where games took place, the women

+sitting up the slope and watching the men below.

+Here Grettir is said to have heaved an enormous

+stone.  The stone is still shown, and I have seen it.

+I also know that Grettir never lifted it; for it has

+clearly been brought there by a glacier.  But this

+is an instance of the way in which stories get

+magnified in telling.  No doubt that Grettir did "put"

+there some big stone, and as it happened that at this

+spot there was a great rock standing by itself balanced

+on one point, in after days folks concluded that this

+must have been the stone thrown by Grettir.

+

+

+

+

+

+.. vspace:: 4

+

+.. _`THE VOYAGE`:

+

+.. class:: center large bold

+

+   CHAPTER V.

+

+

+.. class:: center medium bold

+

+   THE VOYAGE.

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+..

+   

+   *Preparations for a Voyage—His Grandfather's

+   Sword—A Bitter Jester—Vain Reproaches—Haflid's

+   Stratagem—The Tables Turned—Shipwrecked*

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+Grettir, then, was doomed by the court to leave

+his native land whilst only a boy, and remain

+in banishment for three years—that is to say, till

+he was eighteen.  He was not over sorry for this,

+as he was tired of being at home, and he wanted to

+see the world.

+

+There was a man called Haflid who had a ship in

+which he intended to sail that autumn to Norway,

+and Asmund sent to him to ask him to take Grettir

+out with him.

+

+Haflid answered that he had not heard a good

+account of the boy, and did not particularly wish

+to have him in his boat; but he would stretch a

+point, because of the regard he had for old Asmund,

+and he would take him.

+

+Grettir got ready to start; but Asmund would

+not give him much wherewith to trade when abroad,

+except some rolls of home-made wadmall, a coarse

+felty cloth, and a stock of victuals for his voyage.

+Grettir asked his father to give him some weapon;

+but the old man answered that he did not trust him

+with swords and axes, he might put them to a bad

+use, and it would be better he went without till he

+had learned to control his temper and keep a check

+on his hand.

+

+So Grettir parted from his father without much

+love on either side; and it was noticed when he

+left home that, though there were plenty of folks

+ready to bid him farewell, hardly anyone said that

+he hoped to see him come home again—a certain

+token that he was not liked by those who had seen

+most of him.  But indeed he had taken no pains to

+oblige anyone and obtain the regard and love of

+anyone.

+

+His mother was an exception.  She went along

+the road down the valley with him, wearing a long

+cloak; and when they were alone, at some distance

+from the house, she halted and drew out a sword

+from under her cloak, and handing it to Grettir,

+said: "This sword belonged to grandfather, and

+many a hard fight has it been in, and much good

+work has it done.  I give it to you, and hope it

+may stand you in good stead."

+

+Grettir was highly pleased, and told his mother

+that he would rather have the sword than anything

+else that could be given him.

+

+Haflid received Grettir in a friendly manner, and

+he went at once on board; the ship's anchor was

+heaved, and forth they went to sea.

+

+Now, directly Grettir got on board he looked

+about for a place where he could be comfortable,

+and chose to make a berth for himself under a boat

+that was slung on deck; then he put up his wadmall,

+making a sort of felt lining or wall round against

+the wind and spray, leaving open only the side

+inwards, and inside he piled his provisions and

+whatever he had; then he lay down there and did not

+stir from his snuggery.  Now, it was the custom in

+those days for every man who went in a ship to

+help in the navigation; but Grettir would not only

+do nothing, but from his den he shouted or sang

+lampoons—that is, spiteful songs, making fun of

+every man on board.  They were not good-natured

+jokes, but bitter, stinging ones.

+

+Naturally enough the other men were annoyed, and

+they were not slow to tell Grettir what they thought

+of him.  He made no other reply than a lampoon.

+

+After the ship had lost sight of land a heavy sea

+was encountered, and unfortunately the vessel was

+rather leaky and hardly seaworthy in dirty weather.

+The weather was squally and very cold, so that the

+men suffered much.  Moreover, they had to bale

+out the water from the hold, and this was laborious

+work.  They had not pumps in those days.

+

+The gale increased, and the crew and passengers

+had been engaged for several days and nights in

+baling without intermission, but Grettir would not

+help.  He lay coiled up in his wadmall under the

+boat, peering out at the men and throwing irritating

+snatches of song at them.  This exasperated them

+to such an extent that they determined to take him

+and throw him overboard.  Haflid heard what they

+said, and he went to Grettir and reproached him,

+and told him what was menaced.

+

+"Let them try to use force if they will," said

+Grettir.  "All I can say is that I sha'n't go

+overboard alone as long as my sword will bite."

+

+"How can you behave as you do?" said Haflid.

+"Keep silence at least, and do not madden the men

+with your mockery and sneers."

+

+"I cannot hold my tongue from stabbing," said Grettir.

+

+"Very well, then, stab on, but stab me."

+

+"No; you have not hurt me."

+

+"I say, stab me.  Then, if the fellows hear you

+sing or say something spiteful of me, and I disregard

+it, they will not mind so much the ill-natured things

+you say of them."

+

+Grettir considered a moment, and then, remembering

+that he had heard of something ridiculous

+that had once occurred to Haflid, he composed a

+verse about it and shouted it derisively at Haflid

+as he walked away.

+

+"Just listen to him," said Haflid to the men.

+"Now he is slandering and insulting me.  He is

+an ill-conditioned cur, so ill-conditioned that I will

+not stoop to take notice of his insolence.  And if

+you take my advice you will disregard him as I do."

+

+"Well," said the men, "if you shrug your shoulders

+and pay no regard to his bark, why should we?"

+

+So Haflid, by his tact, smoothed over this

+difficulty, and averted a danger from Grettir's head.

+

+The weather slowly began to mend, and the sun

+shone out between the clouds; but the wind was

+still strong, and the leak gained on the ship, for her

+bottom was rotten.  Now that the sun shone, the

+poor women who had been aboard and under cover

+during the gale, crawled forth and came to the side

+where the boat was, and where was a little shelter, and

+there sat sewing; whilst Grettir still lay, like a dog

+in his hutch, within.  Then the men began to laugh,

+and say that Grettir had found suitable company at

+last—he was not a man among men, but a milksop

+among women.  This was turning the tables on him,

+and this roused him.  Out he came crawling from

+his den, and ran aft to where the men were baling,

+and asked to be given the buckets.  The way in

+which it was done was for one to go down into the

+hold into the water, and fill a tub or cask and hoist

+it over his head to another man, who carried it up

+on deck and poured it over the bulwarks.  Grettir

+swung himself down into the hold, and filled and

+heaved so fast that there had to be two men set to

+carry up the baling casks, and then two more, four

+in all attending to him.  At one time he even kept

+eight going, so vigorously did he work;—but then

+he was fresh, and they exhausted.

+

+When the men saw what a strong, active fellow

+Grettir was, they praised him greatly, and Grettir,

+unaccustomed to praise, was delighted and worked

+on vigorously, and thenceforth was of the utmost

+assistance in the ship.

+

+They still had bad weather, thick mist, in which

+they drifted and lost their bearings, and one night

+unawares they ran suddenly on a rock, and the

+rotten bottom of the ship was crushed in.  They

+had the utmost difficulty in rescuing their goods

+and getting the boat ready; but fortunately they

+were able to put all the women and the loose goods

+into the boat, man her, and row off before the ship

+went to pieces.  They came to a sandy island, ran

+the boat ashore, and disembarked in the cold and

+wet and darkness.

+

+

+

+

+

+.. vspace:: 4

+

+.. _`THE RED ROVERS`:

+

+.. class:: center large bold

+

+   CHAPTER VI.

+

+

+.. class:: center medium bold

+

+   THE RED ROVERS.

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+..

+   

+   *Rescued from the Holm—The Sullen Guest—The

+   Outlawed Rovers—Yule-tide Gatherings—The

+   Suspicious Craft—Grettir Guides the Rovers—The

+   Worst Ruffians in Norway—Grettir Entertains

+   the Band—A Crew of Revellers—When the Wine

+   is in—Thorfin's Treasures—Prisoners and

+   Unarmed—Mad with Drink and Fury—One Against

+   Twelve—In Hot Pursuit—The Slaughter in the

+   Boat-shed—The Last of the Band—Wearied with

+   Slaying—Thorfin's Return—A Moment of

+   Perplexity—Better than a Dozen Men—The Gift

+   of the Sword*

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+One morning, after a night of storm on the coast

+of Norway, the servants ran into the hall of

+a wealthy bonder, named Thorfin, to tell him that

+during the night a ship had been wrecked off the

+coast, and that the crew and passengers were crowded

+on a little sandy holm, and were signalling for help.

+

+The bonder sprang up and ran down to the shore.

+He ordered out a great punt from his boat-house,

+and jumping in with his thralls, rowed to the holm

+to rescue those who were there.

+

+These were, I need not tell you, the crew and

+passengers of Haflid's merchant vessel.  Thorfin took

+the half-frozen wretches on board his boat and rowed

+them to his farm, after which he returned to the

+islet and brought away the wares.  In the meantime

+his good housewife had been lighting fires, preparing

+beds, brewing hot ale with honey to sweeten it, and

+making every preparation she could think of for the

+sufferers.

+

+Haflid and the rest of the merchants or chapmen

+who had sailed with him remained at the farm a

+week, whilst the women were recovering from the

+cold and exposure and their goods were being dried

+and sorted.  Then they departed, with many thanks

+for the hospitality shown them, on their way to

+Drontheim.

+

+Grettir, however, remained.  Thorfin, the master

+of the house, did not much like him.  He did not

+ask him to stay; but then he had not the lack of

+hospitality to bid him depart.  In the farm Grettir

+never offered to lend a hand in any of the work;

+he never joined in conversation, he sat over the fire

+warming himself, and ate and drank heartily.

+

+Thorfin was much abroad, hunting or seeing after

+the wood-cutting, and he often asked Grettir to come

+with him.  But he was granted no other answer

+than a shake of the head and a growl.  Now the

+bonder was a merry, kindly-hearted fellow, and he

+liked to have all about him cheerful.  It is no

+wonder, then, that Grettir, morose and indolent, found

+no favour with him.

+

+Yule drew near, and Thorfin busked him to depart,

+with a number of his attendants, to keep the festival

+at one of his farms distant a good day's journey.

+His wife was unable to accompany him, as his eldest

+daughter was ill and needed careful nursing.  Grettir

+he did not invite, as his sullenness would have acted

+as a damper on the joviality of the banquet.

+

+The farmer started for his house where he was

+going to spend Yule some days before.  A large

+company of guests were invited to meet him, so he

+took thirty serving-men to attend on him and them.

+

+Norway was at this time being brought into order

+by Earl Erik, who was putting down with a high

+hand the bands of rovers who had been the terror

+of the country.  He had outlawed all these men,

+and that meant that whoever killed them could not

+be fined or punished in any way for the slaying.

+Now Thorfin, the farmer with whom Grettir was

+staying, had been very active against these rovers,

+and they bore him a grudge.  Among the worst of

+them were two brothers, Thorir wi' the Paunch and

+Bad Ogmund.  They had not yet been caught, and

+they defied the power of the Earl.  They robbed

+wherever they went, burned farms over the heads

+of the sleeping inmates, and with the points of their

+spears drove the shrieking victims back into the

+flames when they attempted to escape.

+

+Christmas Eve was bright and sunny, and the

+sick girl was sufficiently recovered to be brought

+out to take the air on the sunny side of the great

+hall, leaning on her mother's arm.

+

+Grettir spent the whole day out of doors, not in

+the most amiable mood at being shut out from the

+merry-makings, and left to keep house with the

+women and eight dunderheaded churls.  He fed his

+discontent by sitting on a headland watching the

+boats glide by, as parties went to convivial

+gatherings at the houses of their friends.  The deep blue

+sea was speckled with sails, as though gulls were

+plunging in the waters.  Now a stately dragon-ship

+rolled past, her fearful carved head glittering with

+golden scales, her sails spread like wings before the

+breeze, and her banks of oars dipping into the sea

+and flashing as they rose.  Now a wherry was rowed

+by laden with cakes and ale, and the boatmen's song

+rang merrily through the crisp air.

+

+The day began to decline, and Grettir was on the

+point of returning to the farm, when the strange

+proceedings of a craft at no great distance attracted

+his attention.  He noticed that she stole along in

+the shadows of the islets, keeping out of sight as

+much as possible.  Grettir could make out of her

+just this much, that she was floating low in the

+water, and was built for speed.  As she stranded

+the rowers jumped on the beach.  Grettir counted

+them, and found they were twelve, all armed men.

+They burst into Thorfin's boat-house, thrust out his

+punt, and in its place drew in their own vessel, and

+pulled her up on the rollers.

+

+Mischief was a-brewing—that was clear.  So

+Grettir went down the hill, and sauntered up to the

+strangers, with his hands in his pockets, kicking the

+pebbles before him.

+

+"Who is your leader?" he asked curtly.

+

+"I am.  What do you want with me?" answered

+a stout coarse man—"Thorir, whom they nickname

+'wi' the Paunch.'  Here is my brother Ogmund.

+I reckon that Thorfin knows our names well enough.

+Don't you think so, brother?  We have come here

+to settle a little outstanding reckoning.  Is he at home?"

+

+"You are lucky fellows," laughed Grettir, "coming

+here in the very nick of time.  The bonder is away

+with all his able-bodied and fighting men, and won't

+be back for a couple of days.  His wife and daughter

+are, however, at the farm.  Now is your time if

+you have old scores to wipe off; for he has left all

+his things that he values unprotected, silver, clothing,

+ale, and food in abundance."

+

+Thorir listened, then turning to Ogmund he said,

+"This is as I had expected.  But what a chatterbox

+this fellow is, he lets out everything without being

+asked questions."

+

+"Every man knows the use of his tongue," said

+Grettir.  "Now, follow me, and I will do what I can

+for you."

+

+The rovers at once followed.  Then Grettir took

+fat Thorir by the hand and led him to the farm,

+talking all the way as hard as his tongue could wag.

+Now the housewife happened at the time to be in

+the hall, and hearing Grettir thus talking, she was

+filled with surprise, and called out to know whom he

+had with him.

+

+"I have brought you guests for Yule," said Grettir.

+"We shall not keep it in as dull a fashion as we

+feared.  Here come visitors uninvited, but merry,

+uncommon merry."

+

+"Who are they?" asked the housewife.

+

+"Thorir wi' the Paunch and Ogmund the Bad,

+and ten of their comrades."

+

+Then she cried out: "What have you done?  These

+are the worst ruffians in all Norway.  Is this the

+way you repay the kindness Thorfin has shown you

+in housing and keeping you here, without it's

+costing you anything?"

+

+"Stay your woman's tongue!" growled Grettir.

+"Now bestir yourself and bring out dry clothes for

+the guests."

+

+Then the housewife ran away crying, and her sick

+daughter, who saw the house invaded by ill-looking

+men all armed, hid herself.

+

+"Well," said Grettir, "as the women are too

+scared to attend on you, I will do what is necessary;

+so give me your wet clothes, and let me wipe your

+weapons and set them by the fire lest they get rusted."

+

+"You are a different fellow from all the rest in

+the house."

+

+"I do not belong to the house.  I am a stranger,

+an Icelander."

+

+"Then I don't mind taking you along with us

+when we go away."

+

+"As you will," answered the young fellow; "only

+mind, I don't behave like this to every one."

+

+Then the freebooters gave him their weapons, and he

+wiped the salt water from them, and laid them aside

+in a warm spot.  Next he removed their wet garments,

+and brought them dry suits which he routed out of

+the clothes-chests belonging to Thorfin and his men.

+

+By this time it was night.  Grettir brought in

+logs and faggots of fir branches, and made a roaring

+fire that filled the great hall with ruddy light and

+warmth.  In those days the halls were long buildings

+with a set of hearths running down the middle,

+and benches beside the fires.

+

+"Now, then, my men," said Grettir, "come to the

+table and drink, for I doubt not you are thirsty with

+long rowing."

+

+"We are ready," said they.  "But where are the cellars?"

+

+"Oh, if you please, I will bring you ale."

+

+"Certainly, you shall attend on us," said Thorir.

+

+Then Grettir went and fetched the best and

+strongest ale in Thorfin's cellars, and poured it out

+for the men.  They were very tired and thirsty,

+and they drank eagerly.  Grettir did not stint them

+in meat or drink, and at last he took his place by

+them, and recited many tales that made them laugh,

+he also sang them songs; but they were becoming

+fast too tipsy to rack their brains to find out the

+meaning in the poetry.

+

+Not one of the house-churls showed his face in

+the hall that evening; they slunk about the farm,

+in the stables and sheds, frightened and trembling.

+

+Then said Thorir: "I'll tell you what, my men.

+I like this young chap, and I doubt our finding

+another so handy and willing.  What say you all to

+our taking him into our band?"

+

+The pirates banged their drinking-horns on the

+table in token of approval.  Then Grettir stood up

+and said:

+

+"I thank you for the offer, and if you are in the

+same mind to-morrow morning when the ale is no

+longer in your heads, I will strike hands and go

+with you."

+

+"Let us drink brotherhood at once," shouted the

+rovers.

+

+"Not so," said Grettir calmly.  "I will not

+have it said that I took advantage of you when

+you were not sober.  It is said that when the wine

+is in the wit is out."

+

+They all protested that they would be of the same

+mind next morning, but Grettir stuck to his decision.

+They were now becoming so tipsy that he proposed

+they should go to bed.

+

+"But first of all," said he, "I think you will like

+to run your eyes over Thorfin's storehouse where he

+keeps all his treasures."

+

+"That we shall!" roared Thorir, staggering to his

+feet.

+

+Then Grettir took a blazing firebrand from the

+hearth, and led the way out of the hall into the

+night.

+

+The storehouse was detached from the main

+buildings.  It was very strongly built of massive

+logs, firmly mortised together.  The door also was

+very solid, and the whole stood on a strong stone

+basement, and a flight of stone steps led up to the

+door.  Adjoining the storehouse was a lean-to

+building divided off from it by a partition of planks.

+

+The sharp frosty air of night striking on the faces

+of the revellers increased their intoxication, and

+they became very riotous, staggering against each

+other, uttering howls and attempting to sing.

+

+Drawing back the bolt Grettir flung the door

+open, and showed the twelve rovers into the

+treasury; and he held the flaming torch above his head

+and showed the silver-mounted drinking-horns, the

+embroidered garments, the rich fur mantles, gold

+bracelets, and bags filled with silver coins obtained

+from England.  The drunken men dashed upon the

+spoil, knocking each other over and quarrelling for

+the goods they wanted.

+

+In the midst of this noise and tumult Grettir

+quietly extinguished the torch, stepped outside and

+ran the bolt into its place; he had shut them all—all

+twelve, into the strong-room, and not one of

+them had his weapons about him.

+

+Then Grettir ran to the farm door and shouted

+for the housewife.  But she would not answer, as she

+mistrusted him; and no wonder, for he had seemed

+to be hand and glove with the pirates.

+

+"Come, come!" shouted Grettir, "I have caught

+all twelve, and all I need now are weapons.  Call up

+the thralls and arm them.  Quick! not a moment

+must be lost."

+

+"There are plenty of weapons here," answered the

+poor woman, emerging from her place of concealment.

+"But, Grettir, I mistrust you."

+

+"Trust or no trust," said Grettir, "I must have

+weapons.  Where are the serving-men?  Here,

+Kolbein!  Swein!  Gamli!  Rolf!  Confound the rascals,

+where are they skulking?"

+

+"Over Thorfin's bed hangs a great barbed spear,"

+said the housewife.  "You will also find a sword

+and helmet and cuirass.  No lack of weapons, only

+pluck to wield them is needed."

+

+Grettir seized the casque and spear, girded on the

+sword and dashed into the yard, begging the woman

+to send the churls after him.  She called the eight

+men, and they came up timidly—that is to say, four

+appeared and took the weapons, but the other four,

+after showing their faces, ran and hid themselves

+again, they were afraid to measure swords with the

+terrible rovers.

+

+In the meantime the pirates had been trying the

+door, but it was too massive for them to break

+through, so they tore down the partitions of boards

+between the store and the lean-to room at the side.

+They were mad with drink and fury.  They broke

+down the door of the side-room easily enough, and

+came out on the platform at the head of the stone

+steps just as Grettir reached the bottom.

+

+Thorir and Ogmund were together.  In the fitful

+gleams of the moon they seemed like demons as

+they scrambled out, armed with splinters of deal

+they had broken from the planks and turned into

+weapons.  The brothers plunged down the narrow

+stairs with a howl that rang through the snow-clad

+forest for miles.  Grettir planted the boar-spear in the

+ground and caught Thorir on its point.  The sharp

+double-edged blade, three feet in length, sliced into

+him and came out between his shoulders, then tore

+into Ogmund's breast a span deep.  The yew shaft

+bent like a bow, and flipped from the ground the

+stone against which the butt-end had been planted.

+The wretched men crashed over the stair, tried to

+rise, staggered, and fell again.  Grettir trod on

+Thorir, wrenched the spear out of him, and then

+running up the steps cut down another rover as he

+came through the door.  Then the rest came out

+stumbling over each other, some armed with bits of

+broken stick, others unarmed, and as they came

+forth Grettir hewed at them with the sword, or

+thrust at them with the spear.

+

+In the meantime the churls had come up, armed

+indeed, but not knowing how to use the weapons,

+and in a condition of too great terror to use them

+to any purpose.  The pirates saw that they were

+being worsted, and their danger sobered them.  They

+went back into the room and ripped the planks till

+they had obtained serviceable pieces, and then came

+two together down the stair, warding off Grettir's

+blows with their sticks, and not attempting to strike.

+Then they forced him back and allowed space and

+time for those behind to leap down to the ground.

+If then they had combined they might have

+recovered the mastery, but they did not believe that

+they were assailed by a single enemy, they thought

+that there must have been many; consequently

+those who had leaped from the platform, instead

+of attacking Grettir from behind, ran away across

+the farmyard, and those who were warding off his

+blows, finding themselves unsupported, lost heart,

+and leaped down as well and attempted to escape.

+The yard was full of flying frightened wretches, too

+blinded by their fear to find the gate, and in the

+wildness of their terror they climbed or leaped over

+the yard wall and ran towards the boat-house.

+Grettir went after them.  They plunged into the

+dark boat-shed, and possessed themselves of the

+oars, whilst some tried to run their boat down into

+the water.  Grettir followed them in the gloom,

+smiting to right and left.  The bewildered wretches

+in the darkness hit each other, stumbled and fell in

+the boat, and some wounded went into the water.

+

+The thralls, content that the pirates had cleared

+out of the yard, did not trouble themselves to

+pursue them, but went into the farmhouse.  The good

+woman in vain urged them to go after and

+succour Grettir.  They thought they had done quite

+enough.  It is true, they had neither killed nor

+wounded anyone, but they had seen some men

+killed.  So Grettir got no help from them.  He was

+still in the boat-house, and he had this advantage:

+the boat-house was open to the air on the side that

+faced the sea, whilst the further side was closed with

+a door, consequently Grettir was himself in shadow.

+But the moon shone on the water, and he could see

+the black figures of the rovers cut sharply against

+this silver background.  So he could see where to

+strike, whilst he himself was unseen.

+

+One stroke from an oar reached him on the

+shoulder, and for the moment numbed his arm; but

+he speedily recovered sensation, and killed two more

+of the ruffians; then the remaining four made a dash

+together, past him, through the door, and separating

+into pairs, fled in opposite directions.  Grettir went

+after one of the couples and tracked them to a

+neighbouring farm, where they dashed into a granary

+and hid among the straw.  Unfortunately for them

+most of the wheat had been thrashed out, so that

+only a few bundles remained.  Grettir shut and

+bolted the door behind him, then chased the poor

+wretches like rats from corner to corner, till he had

+cut them both down.  Then he opened the door,

+and cast the corpses outside.

+

+In the meanwhile the weather was changing, the

+sky had become overcast with a thick snow fog that

+rolled up from the sea, so that Grettir, on coming

+out, saw that he must abandon the pursuit of the

+remaining two.  Moreover, his arm pained him, his

+strength was failing him, and a sense of overpowering

+fatigue stole over him.

+

+The housewife had placed a lamp in a window of

+a loft as a guide to Grettir in the fog; the stupid

+house-thralls could not be induced by her to go out

+in search of him, and she was becoming uneasy at

+his protracted absence.  The fog turned into small

+snow, thick and blinding, and Grettir struggled

+through it with difficulty, as the weariness he felt

+became almost overpowering.  At last he reached

+the farm and staggered in through the door.  He

+could hardly speak.  He went to the table, took a

+horn of mead, drank some, and then threw himself

+down among the rushes on the floor by the fire, full

+armed grasping the sword, and in a moment was

+asleep.

+

+He did not wake for twelve hours; but the

+cautious and prudent housewife had sent out the

+carles in search of the pirates.  The dead bodies

+were found, some in the yard, some in the

+boat-house; then Grettir woke and came to them and

+pointed out in what direction the only remaining

+two had run.  The snow had fallen so thick that

+their traces could not be followed, but before

+nightfall they were discovered, dead, under a rock where

+they had taken refuge; they had died of cold and

+loss of blood.  All the bodies were collected and a

+great cairn of stones was piled over them.

+

+When they had been buried, then the housewife

+made Grettir take the high seat in the hall, and

+she treated him with the utmost respect, as he deserved.

+

+Time passed, and Thorfin prepared to return home;

+he dismissed his guests, and he and his men got into

+their boat to return home.  No tidings had reached

+him of the events that had happened whilst he had

+been away.  The first thing he saw as he came

+rowing to his harbour was his punt lying stranded.

+This surprised and alarmed him, and he bade his

+men row harder.  They ran to the boat-house, and

+then saw it occupied by a vessel, on the rollers,

+which there was no mistaking; he knew it well,

+it belonged to those redoubted pirates Thorir and

+Ogmund.  For a moment he was silent with the

+terror and grief that came on him.  "The Red

+Rovers!" he said, when he recovered the stunning

+sense of alarm.  "The Red Rovers are here—they

+are on my farm.  God grant they have not hurt my

+wife and daughter!"

+

+Then he considered what was to be done, whether

+it was best to go at once to the farm, or to make a

+secret approach to it from different quarters, and

+surprise the enemy.

+

+Grettir was to blame.  He ought not to have

+allowed Thorfin to be thus thrown into uncertainty

+and distress.  He had seen the master's boat round

+the headland and enter the bay, but he would neither

+go himself to meet him on the strand, nor suffer

+anyone else to go.

+

+"I do not care even if the bonder be a bit

+disturbed at what he sees," said the young man.

+

+"Then let me go," urged the wife.

+

+"You are mistress, do as you like," said Grettir

+bluntly.

+

+So the housewife and her daughter went down

+towards the boat-house, and when Thorfin saw them

+he ran to meet them, greatly relieved but much

+perplexed, and he clasped his wife to his heart and

+said, "God be praised that you and my child are

+safe!  But tell me how matters have stood whilst I

+have been away, for I cannot understand the boat

+being where I found it."

+

+"We have been in grievous peril," answered his

+wife.  "But the shipwrecked boy whom you sheltered

+has been our protector, better than a dozen men."

+

+Then he said, "Sit down on this rock by me and

+tell me all."

+

+They took each other by the hand and sat on a

+stone; and the attendants gathered round, and the

+housewife told them the whole story from beginning

+to end.  When she spoke of the way in which the

+young Icelander had led the tipsy rovers into the

+storehouse and fastened them in, without their

+swords, the men burst into a shout of joy; and

+when her tale was concluded, their exultant cries

+rang so loud that Grettir heard them in the farmhouse.

+

+Thorfin said nothing to interrupt the thread of

+his wife's story; and after she had done he remained

+silent, rapt in thought.  No one ventured to disturb

+him.  Presently he looked up, and said quietly,

+"That is a good proverb which says, 'Never despair

+of anyone.'  Now I must speak a word with

+Grettir."

+

+Thorfin walked with his wife to the farm, and

+when he saw Grettir he held out both his hands to

+him, and thanked him.

+

+"This I say to you," said Thorfin, "which few

+would say to their best of friends—that I hope some

+day you may need my help, and then I will prove

+to you how thankful I am for what you have done.

+I can say no more."

+

+Grettir thanked him, and spent the rest of the

+winter at his house.  The story of what he had done

+spread through all the country, and was much

+praised, especially by such as had suffered from the

+violence of the Ked Rovers.  But Thorfin made to

+Grettir a present, in acknowledgment of what he

+had done; and that present was the sword that had

+hung above his bed, with which Grettir had killed

+so many of the rovers.  Now, concerning this sword

+a tale has to be told.

+

+

+

+

+

+.. vspace:: 4

+

+.. _`THE STORY OF THE SWORD`:

+

+.. class:: center large bold

+

+   CHAPTER VII.

+

+

+.. class:: center medium bold

+

+   THE STORY OF THE SWORD.

+

+..

+   

+   *The Light on the Cliff—The Grave of Karr the

+   Old—The Visit to the Ness—The Chamber of the

+   Dead—The Shape on the Throne—In the Dead Man's

+   Arms—A Fearful Wrestle—The Dead Vanquished—The

+   Dragon's Treasure—The Tale of the Sword—The

+   Two Swords of Grettir*

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+Some little while before the slaying of the Red

+Rovers, a strange event had taken place.

+

+Grettir had made the acquaintance of a man called

+Audun, who lived at a little farm at some distance

+from the house of Thorfin, and he walked over

+there occasionally to sit and talk with his friend.  As

+he returned late at night he noticed that a strange

+light used to dance at the end of a cliff that

+overhung the sea, at the end of a headland; a lonely

+desolate headland it was, without house or stall near

+it.  Grettir had never been there, and as it was so

+bare, he knew that no one lived on that headland,

+so he could not account for the light.  One day he

+said to Audun that he had seen this strange light,

+which was not steady but flickered; and he asked

+him what it meant.

+

+Audun at once became very grave, and after a

+moment's hesitation said, "You are right.  No one

+lives on that ness, but there is a great mound there,

+under which is buried Karr the Old, the forefather of

+your host Thorfin; and it is said that much treasure

+was buried with him.  That is why the ghostly light

+burns above the mound, for—you must know that

+flames dance over hidden treasure."

+

+"If treasure be hidden there, I will dig it up,"

+said Grettir.

+

+"Attempt nothing of the kind," said Audun, "or

+Thorfin will be angry.  Besides, Karr the Old is a

+dangerous fellow to have to deal with.  He walks

+at night, and haunts all that headland and has scared

+away the dwellers in the nearest farms.  No one dare

+live there because of him.  That is why the Ness is

+all desolate without houses."

+

+"I will stay the night here," said Grettir, "and

+to-morrow we will go together to the Ness, and take

+spade and pick and a rope, and I will see what can

+be found."

+

+Audun did not relish the proposal, but he did

+not like to seem behindhand with Grettir, and he

+reluctantly agreed to go with him.

+

+So next day the two went out on the Ness together.

+They passed two ruined farmhouses, the buildings

+rotting, the roofs fallen in.  Those who had lived in

+them had been driven away by the dweller in the

+old burial mound, or barrow.  The Norse name for

+these sepulchral mounds is *Haug*, pronounced almost

+like How; and where in England we have places

+with the names ending in *hoe*, there undoubtedly in

+former times were such mounds.  Thus, in Essex are

+Langenhoe and Fingringhoe, that is to say the Long

+Barrow and Fingar's How.  Also, the Hoe, the great

+walk at Plymouth above the sea, derives its name

+from some old burial mound now long ago destroyed.

+

+The Ness was a finger of land running out into

+the sea, and on it grew no trees, only a little coarse

+grass; at the end rose a great circular bell-shaped

+mound, with a ring of stones set round it, to mark

+its circumference.  Grettir began to dig at the

+summit, and he worked hard.  The day was short,

+and the sun was touching the sea as his pickaxe

+went through an oak plank, into a hollow space

+beneath, and he knew at once that he had struck

+into the chamber of the dead.  He worked with

+redoubled energy, and tore away the planks, leaving

+a black hole beneath of unknown depth, but which

+to his thinking could not be more than seven feet

+beneath him.  Then he called to Audun for the

+rope.  The end he fastened round his waist, and

+bade his friend secure the other end to a pole thrown

+across the pit mouth.  When this was done, Audun

+cautiously let Grettir down into the chamber of the

+dead.

+

+Now, you must know that in heathen times what

+was often done with old warriors was to draw up a

+boat on the shore, and to seat the dead man in the

+cabin, with his horse slain beside him, sometimes

+some of his slaves or thralls were also killed and put

+in with him, and his choicest treasures were heaped

+about him.  This men did because they thought

+that the dead man would want his weapons, his

+raiment, his ornaments, his horse and his servants

+in the spirit world.  Of late years such a mound

+has been opened in Norway, and a great ship found

+in it, well preserved, with the old dead chief's bones

+in it.  When a ship was not buried, then a chamber

+of strong planks was built, and he was put in that,

+and the earth heaped over him.  Into such a chamber

+had Grettir now dug.

+

+He soon reached the bottom, and was in darkness,

+only a little light came in from above, through the

+hole he had broken in the roof of the cabin or

+chamber.  His feet were among bones, and these he

+was quite sure were horse bones.  Then he groped

+about.

+

+As his eyes became more accustomed to the darkness,

+he discerned a figure seated in a throne.  It

+was the long-dead Karr the Old.  He was in full

+harness, with a helmet on his head with bull's horns

+sticking out, one on each side; his hands were on

+his knees, and his feet on a great chest.  Round his

+neck was a gold torque or necklet, made of bars of

+twisted gold, hooked together behind the head.

+Grettir in the dark could only just make out the

+glimmer of the gold, but it seemed to him that a

+phosphorescent light played about the face of the

+dead chief.

+

+So little light was left, that Grettir hasted to

+collect what he could.  There stood a brazen vessel

+near the chair, in which were various articles, probably

+of worth, but it was too dark for Grettir to see what

+they were.  He brought the vessel to the rope and

+fastened the end of the cord to its handle.  Then he

+went back to the old dead man and drew away a

+short sword that lay on his lap, and this he placed

+in the brass vessel.  Next he began to unhook the

+gold torque from his neck, and as he did this the

+phosphorescent flame glared strangely about the dead

+man's face.

+

+Then, all at once, as both his hands were engaged

+undoing the hook behind Karr's neck, he was clipped.

+The dead man's arms had clutched him, and with a

+roar like a bull Karr the Old stood up, holding him

+fast, and now all the light that had played over

+his features gathered into and glared out of his eyes.

+

+When Audun heard the roar, he was so frightened

+that he ran from the barrow, and did not stay his

+feet till he reached home, feeling convinced that the

+ghost or whatever it was that lived in the tomb had

+torn Grettir to pieces.

+

+Then began in the chamber of the dead a fearful

+wrestle.  Grettir was at times nigh on smothered

+by the gray beard of the dead chief, that had been

+growing, growing, in the vault, ever since he had

+been buried.

+

+How long that terrible struggle continued no one

+can tell.  Grettir had to use his utmost force to

+stand against Karr the Old.  The two wrestled up

+and down in the chamber, kicking the horse bones

+about from side to side, stumbling over the coffer,

+and the brass vessel, and the horse's skull, striking

+against the sides, and when they did this then

+masses of earth and portions of broken plank fell in

+from above.

+

+At last Karr's feet gave way under him and he

+fell, and Grettir fell over him.  Then instantly he

+laid hold of his sword, and smote off Old Karr's head

+and laid it beside his thigh.

+

+This, according to Norse belief, was the only way

+in which to prevent a dead man from walking, who

+had haunted the neighbourhood of his tomb, and in

+the Icelandic sagas we hear of other cases where the

+same proceeding was gone through.  The Norsemen

+held to something more dreadful than ghosts walking;

+they thought that some evil spirit entered into

+the bodies of the dead, that when this happened the

+dead no longer decayed, but walked, and ate, and

+drank, and fought, very much like living ruffians,

+but with redoubled strength.  Then, when this

+happened, nothing was of any avail save the digging

+up of the dead man, cutting off his head and laying

+it at his thigh.

+

+When Grettir had done this, he despoiled Karr

+the Old of his helm, his breast-plate, his torque,

+and he took the box on which the feet had rested.

+He fastened all together to the rope, and called to

+Audun to haul up.  He received no answer, so he

+swarmed up himself, and finding that his friend had

+run away he pulled up what he had tied together,

+and carried the whole lot in his arms to the house of

+Thorfin.  Thorfin and his party were at supper; and

+when Grettir came in, the bonder looked up, and

+asked why he did not keep regular hours, and be at

+the table when the meal began.  Grettir made no

+other answer than to throw all he carried down on

+the supper-table before the master.  Thorfin raised

+his eyebrows when he saw so much treasure.

+

+"Where did you get all this?" he asked.

+

+Then Grettir answered in one of his enigmatical songs:

+

+   |  "Thou who dost the wave-shine shorten,

+   |    My attempt has been to find

+   |  In the barrow what was hidden,

+   |    Deep in darkness black and blind.

+   |  Nothing of the dragon's treasure

+   |    With the dead is left behind."

+   |

+

+By the wave-shine shortener he meant Thorfin;

+the dragon's treasure meant gold, because dragons

+were thought to line their lairs with that metal.

+

+Thorfin saw that Grettir's eye looked longingly at

+the short sword that had lain on the knees of Karr.

+He said: "It was a heathen custom in old times to

+bury very much that was precious along with the

+dead.  I do not blame you for what you have done;

+but this I will say, that there is no one else about

+this place who would have ventured to attempt

+what you have done.  As for that sword on which

+you cast your eyes so longingly, it has ever been in

+our family, and I cannot part with it till you have

+shown that you are worthy to wear it."

+

+Then that sword was hung up over Thorfin's bed.

+You have heard how Grettir did show that he was

+worthy to wear it, and also how Thorfin gave it him.

+

+Now, this tale about the sword will very well

+illustrate what was said at the beginning, that the

+history of Grettir contains, in the main, truth; but

+that this substance of truth has been embroidered

+over by fancy.  What is true is, that during the

+winter in which he was with Thorfin he did dig into

+the mound in which Karr was buried, and did take

+thence his treasures and his sword.  But all the

+story of his fight with the dead man was added.

+The same story occurs in a good many other sagas,

+as in that of Hromund Greip's son, who also got a

+sword by digging into a barrow for it.  When the

+history of Grettir was told, and this adventure of his

+was related, those who told the story imported into

+it the legend of the fight of Hromund in the grave

+with the dead man, so as to make the history of

+Grettir more amusing.  As you will see by the tale,

+no one else was present when it happened, for

+Audun had run away, and it was not like Grettir to

+boast of what he had done.  This was an embellishment

+added by the story-teller, and from the storyteller

+the incident passed into the volume of the

+story-writer.

+

+Grettir had now two good swords; one long,

+which he called Jokull's Gift, that he had received

+from his mother, and this short one that he wore at

+his girdle, which he had taken out of the grave of

+Karr the Old, and which he had won fairly by his

+bravery in the defence of the house and family of

+Thorfin.

+

+

+

+

+

+.. vspace:: 4

+

+.. _`OF THE BEAR`:

+

+.. class:: center large bold

+

+   CHAPTER VIII.

+

+

+.. class:: center medium bold

+

+   OF THE BEAR.

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+..

+   

+   *Grettir goes North—Biorn the Braggart—The

+   Bear's Den—Biorn's Feat—A Hunting Party—The

+   Lost Cloak—Grettir Seeks the Bear Alone—Grettir's

+   Hardest Tussle—The Fall Over the Cliff—Thorgils

+   Acts as Peacemaker—Grettir Restrains Himself*

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+When spring came, then Grettir left his friend

+Thorfin, and went north along the Norwegian

+coast, and was everywhere well received, because

+the story of how he had killed twelve rovers, he

+being as yet but a boy, was noised through all the

+country, and every one who had anything to lose

+felt safer because that wicked gang was broken up.

+Nothing of consequence is told about him during

+that summer.  For the winter he did not return to

+Thorfin as asked, but accepted the invitation of

+another bonder, named Thorgils.

+

+Thorgils was a merry, pleasant man, and he had

+a great company in his house that winter.  Among

+his visitors was a certain Biorn, a distant cousin, a

+man whom Thorgils did not like, as he was a

+slanderous-tongued fellow, and moreover he was a

+braggart.  He was one of those persons we meet with

+not infrequently who cannot endure to hear another

+praised; who, the moment a good word is spoken

+of someone, immediately puts in a nasty, spiteful

+word, and tells an unkind story, so as to drag that

+person down in the general opinion.  At the same

+time, concerning himself he had only praiseworthy

+and wonderful feats to relate about his wit, his

+wisdom, his craft, his knowledge of the world, about

+his strength and courage.

+

+Thorgils knew how much, or rather how little,

+to believe of what Biorn said, and he did not pay

+much regard to his talk.  But now Grettir had an

+opportunity of seeing and of feeling how mistaken

+had been his conduct on board the ship upon which

+he had come to Norway, when he made lampoons on

+the sailors and chapmen, and stung them with sharp

+words.  He saw how disagreeable a fellow Biorn

+was, how much he was disliked, and by some

+despised; and he kept very greatly to himself and

+out of Biorn's way.  He did not wish to quarrel

+with him, because he was the relative of his host,

+and he was afraid that his anger would get the better

+of him if he did come to words with the braggart.

+

+Grettir had grown a great deal since he left

+Iceland, and he was now a strapping fellow, broad

+built but not short.  He was not handsome, but his

+face was intelligent.

+

+It fell out that a bear gave much trouble that

+winter to Thorgils and the neighbouring farmers.

+It was so strong and so daring that no folds were

+secure against it, and Thorgils and the other farmers

+endured severe losses through the depredations of

+Bruin.

+

+Before Yule, a party was formed to go in search

+of and kill the bear, but all that was done was to

+find the lair.

+

+The bear had taken up his abode in the face of a

+tremendous cliff that overhung the sea.  There was

+but one path up to the cave, and that was so narrow

+that only one man could creep along it at a time.

+Moreover, if his foot slipped he would be flung over

+the edge upon the rocks or skerries below against

+which the waves dashed.

+

+"When the den of the bear had been discovered,"

+Biorn said, "That is the main thing.  Now I know

+where the rogue lies, I'll settle with him, trust me.

+I've been the death of scores of bears.  My only

+dread is lest he be afraid of me, and will not

+come on."

+

+And, actually, Biorn went out on several moonlit

+nights to watch for the bear.  He saw that the only

+way to deal with him would be to stop the track

+from the den, and fight him as he attempted to

+come away.  He took his short sword and great

+shield with him covered with ox-hide, and one night

+he laid himself down on the path of the bear, and

+put his shield over him.  He thought that Bruin

+would come smelling at the great hide-covered

+shield, and then all at once he (Biorn) would spring

+up and drive his sword into the heart of the bear.

+That was his plan—and not a bad plan—only,

+unfortunately for Biorn, the bear did not come out for

+a long time.  He had got an inkling that a man was

+watching for him, so he was shy, and whilst he

+waited before venturing forth, Biorn, who had

+been drinking pretty freely that evening, went to sleep.

+

+Presently the bear came out, crept cautiously down

+the narrow track, snuffing about, and when he came

+to Biorn, he plucked with his claws at the shield,

+and with one wrench had it off and tumbled it

+down the cliff.

+

+Biorn woke with a start, rose to his knees, saw

+the huge bear before him, and in a moment turned

+tail, and ran as hard as he could run to Thorgils'

+house, and was too scared to be able to boast that

+he had killed or wounded the bear.

+

+Next morning his shield was found where the

+bear had thrown it, and much fun did this adventure

+of the braggart occasion.  This made him very

+irritable and more spiteful than ever.

+

+Thorgils now said that really something must be

+done to rid the neighbourhood of the bear, so a

+party of eight set out well armed with spears; of

+this party were Biorn and Grettir.  They reached the

+point where the track to the den ran up the cliff to

+the lair, and one man after another tried it.  But

+there was no getting at the bear; for as soon as a

+man came near the beast put his great forepaws

+forth and caught and snapped the spear-heads or

+beat them down.  As already said, only one could

+crawl up at a time.

+

+Grettir had gone out that day in a fur coat that

+his friend Thorfin had given him, and which he

+greatly valued.  When the onslaught against the

+bear began, he took off his fur coat, and folded it,

+and put it on a stone.  Biorn saw this, and, when

+none observed, he took the fur coat and threw it

+into the cave of the bear.  Grettir did not see what

+had been done till the party, disappointed with

+their want of success, made ready to depart, when

+he missed it, and then some suspicion entered his

+head as to what had been done with it, and by

+whom, but he said nothing.

+

+As they walked home, Biorn began to taunt

+Grettir with having done nothing all day.  He

+could kill robbers who were unarmed and were

+drunk, perhaps asleep, but a bear was too serious an

+adversary for him.

+

+Grettir said nothing, but as his gaiter thong

+became broken, he stopped and stooped to mend it.

+Thorgils asked if they should wait for him.  Grettir

+declined.

+

+"Oh," said Biorn, "it is all nonsense.  It is a

+pretence.  He means to have all the glory of

+fighting the bear alone when we have gone on."

+

+He said the truth, but he had no idea when he

+spoke that it was the truth.

+

+Grettir tarried till the party had crossed a hill

+and was out of sight, then he turned and went back

+to the bear's den.  He slipped his hand through the

+loop at the end of the handle of his short sword

+that he had taken from the grave of Karr the Old,

+and let it hang on his wrist, but he held the long

+sword, Jokull's gift, by the pommel.  His plan was

+to use the long sword if needed, but if the bear

+came to close quarters he would throw it down and

+grasp the short one without having to put his hand

+to his girdle for it.  Very cautiously he crept along

+the path.  Bruin saw him, and was now angry and

+hungry, and came down to meet him.  The bear

+was somewhat above him; Grettir halted, and the

+bear stood up growling on his hind-legs.

+

+At once the long sword was whirled and fell on

+the right wrist above the paw, and cut it off.  The

+bear immediately fell down on all-fours; but the

+amputated paw was on the side away from the wall of

+rock, and when he went down on the stump he was

+overbalanced, and came down with his whole weight

+on Grettir.

+

+Grettir let fall his long sword at once, and with

+both hands grasped the brute's ears, and held his

+head off lest he should get a bite at him.  Grettir,

+in after years, was wont to say that this was the

+hardest tussle he had in his life—it was even worse

+than anything he had to do with the rovers.  For if

+the beast had but been able to nip him on the

+breast, or shoulder, or face with his great fangs, all

+would have been up with him.  Moreover, the ears

+were so smooth that he had to do his utmost not to

+let them slip.  Grettir had the wit to drag back the

+brute's head to the rock, and by so doing the bear

+could not use his only uninjured fore-leg, armed

+with terrible claws, which would have ripped

+Grettir's clothes and flesh.

+

+In the struggle the two went over the edge, and

+for a moment Grettir thought, as they spun in the

+air, that he was lost.  But the bear was heavier than

+the lad, consequently he fell crash on the rocks at the

+bottom first, and Grettir on him, breaking Grettir's

+fall by his great body.  The bear's back was broken.

+

+Then Grettir got up, shook himself, left the bear,

+went up the path and found his fur coat torn to

+tatters, and he put it about him, recovered also his

+long sword, and took the cut-off paw of the bear.

+

+He now went back to Thorgils' house, and when

+he came into the hall where the fires were blazing,

+every one laughed to see him in his tattered coat;

+but when he gave the paw of the bear to Thorgils

+the general merriment exchanged to surprise.  Biorn,

+however, could not contain himself for vexation,

+and launched forth some coarse jest that made

+Grettir's blood tingle in his veins.

+

+"Do not listen to him," said Thorgils.  "You are

+a brave fellow, and there are not many your like."  Then

+turning to Biorn, he said, "Kinsman, I advise

+and warn you to keep a civil tongue in your head,

+or you will come to rue it, and have to be taught

+better manners."

+

+"Oh, if I am to learn manners from Grettir, that

+is sending me to a cub indeed!"

+

+"I want to know," said Grettir, "whether you

+threw my fur coat into the den?"

+

+"I am not afraid of saying that I did."

+

+"Will you give me another in its place?"

+

+"I have not the smallest intention of doing charity

+to beggars."

+

+The braggart knew that Grettir was restraining

+himself because he did not wish to quarrel with his

+host's kinsman, and he took advantage of his

+knowledge.  But Thorgils was greatly distressed and

+ashamed, and he said to Grettir:

+

+"Pay no attention to his words.  He has insulted

+you, and I will pay you a fine in compensation

+for his insult, that it may be buried and forgotten."

+

+That was customary then.  When one had hurt

+another in body or in honour by blow or foul word,

+he was bound to pay a sum of money; if he did not

+then the man injured was required by the laws of

+honour to revenge the injury.

+

+But when Biorn heard this proposal, he shouted

+out that he would not suffer the matter to be so

+compromised; he was not ashamed of his words.

+Thorgils drew Grettir aside, and said to him that

+his kinsman was a badly-behaved, brutal fellow,

+but that he hoped Grettir would not take up the

+quarrel in his house; and Grettir promised him

+solemnly that he would not attempt to take revenge

+for the rudeness of Biorn so long as they were both

+inmates of his house.

+

+"As for what may happen between you later,"

+said Thorgils, "I wash my hands of responsibility.

+If Biorn is offensive to those who have never hurt

+him, he must take the consequences."

+

+So matters remained; only that Biorn, presuming

+on his position, became daily more arrogant, intolerable,

+and abusive, so that Grettir had to exercise

+daily self-restraint to keep his hands off him.  And

+glad he was when spring came, that he might get

+away to another part of Norway.

+

+As for Biorn, he went in the summer to England

+in a ship that belonged to Thorgils, trading there

+for Thorgils and for himself.  Consequently, all that

+summer he and Grettir did not meet.

+

+

+

+

+

+.. vspace:: 4

+

+.. _`THE SLAYING OF BIORN`:

+

+.. class:: center large bold

+

+   CHAPTER IX.

+

+

+.. class:: center medium bold

+

+   THE SLAYING OF BIORN.

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+..

+   

+   *The Meeting on the Island—Biorn's Death—Thorfin

+   Comes to Grettir's Aid—Grettir's Life in

+   Danger—Hiarandi's Revenge—A Doomed Man*

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+Grettir left Thorgils very good friends, and he

+went with some merchants to the north, but

+when the summer was over he came back south, and

+arrived at a little island in the entrance of the

+Drontheim firth.  His intention was to see Earl Sweyn,

+and perhaps take service under him; but if so,

+things fell out other than he had reckoned.  For, as

+he was in this island, there came in a large merchant

+vessel from England, and Grettir and those with him

+at once went to see the shipmen, and among them

+was Biorn.  The ship was, in fact, that of Thorgils,

+and it was laden with commodities bought in England,

+or obtained by exchange for the wool, and furs,

+and women's embroidery sent out in the spring by

+Thorgils.

+

+Directly Biorn saw Grettir he turned red, and

+pretended not to recognize him; but Grettir went

+to him at once and said:

+

+"Now has come the time when we two can settle

+our differences."

+

+"Oh," said Biorn, "that is soon done.  I don't

+object to paying a trifle."

+

+"The time for paying is over," said Grettir.

+"Thorgils offered an indemnity for your insolence,

+and you refused to consent to it."

+

+Then Biorn saw that there was no help for him

+but that he must fight.  So he girded him for the

+conflict, and he and Grettir went down on the sand,

+and they fought.

+

+The fight did not last long.  Grettir's sword cut

+him that he fell and died.

+

+When the news reached Thorgils, he got ready,

+and came by boat as fast as he could to see the earl

+at Drontheim.  He found the earl very angry, but

+he said to him:

+

+"I am a kinsman of the fallen man, and I know

+that he treated Grettir with intolerable insolence,

+and that he refused every compromise.  Then

+remember what a benefit has been done to the

+country by Grettir, who ridded it of the Red Rovers,

+Thorir wi' the Paunch and Ogmund the Bad."

+

+Thorfin also came to Drontheim when he heard

+of the straits into which Grettir had come through

+killing Biorn.  The earl called a council on the

+matter, and said he would not come to a decision

+till he had heard what Biorn's brother Hiarandi had

+to say on the matter.  Hiarandi was a violent man,

+and he was very wroth.  He would hear of no

+patching up of the matter, and he vowed he would

+not, as he expressed it, "bring his brother into his

+purse."  As already said, it was customary when a

+man had been killed to offer a sum of money to the

+next of kin, and if he accepted the money the

+quarrel was at an end.  When we now speak of

+"pocketing an injury," reference is made to this

+same ancient usage, by which every offence was

+estimated at so much money, and if the wronged

+man took money for the offence committed against

+him, he was said *to pocket it*.  When the earl went

+into the matter, and heard how Grettir had been

+wronged and outraged by Biorn, he gave his

+decision that Grettir had not acted contrary to law,

+and that Biorn had justly forfeited his life.  Thorfin

+offered the sum of money which the earl considered

+was sufficient to atone to the relations for the death

+of Biorn, but Hiarandi refused absolutely to touch it.

+

+Then Thorfin knew that Grettir's life was in

+danger, for Hiarandi would certainly try to take it;

+so he begged his kinsman Arinbiorn to go about

+with Grettir, and keep on the look-out against the

+mischief that threatened.

+

+Now it fell out one day that Grettir and

+Arinbiorn were walking down a street in Drontheim

+when their way led before a narrow lane opening

+into it.  They did not see any danger in the way,

+and were unaware of this lane.  But just as they

+had passed it a man jumped out from behind, in the

+shadow, swinging an axe, and he struck at Grettir

+between the shoulder-blades.  Fortunately,

+Arinbiorn had looked round at the lane, and he saw the

+man leap out, so he suddenly dragged Grettir forward

+with such a jerk that Grettir fell on his knee.

+This saved his life, for the axe came on his shoulder-blade,

+made a gash that cut to his armpit, and then

+the axe buried itself in the roadway.  Instantly

+Grettir started to his feet, turned round, and with

+his short sword smote in the very nick of time as

+the man, who was Hiarandi, was pulling up his axe

+to cut at Grettir again.  Grettir's sword fell on his

+upper arm near the shoulder, and cut it off.  Then

+out rushed some servants of Hiarandi on Arinbiorn

+and Grettir, who set their backs against a house-wall

+and defended themselves with such valour that

+they killed or put to flight all who had assailed

+them.

+

+Now, this had been a base and cowardly attempt

+on the life of Grettir, and Hiarandi richly deserved

+his fate.  But the earl was exceedingly angry when

+he heard the news, and he called a council together.

+Thorfin and Grettir attended, and the earl angrily

+charged Grettir with having committed great

+violence, and being the cause of the death of Hiarandi

+and some of his servants.

+

+Grettir acknowledged this; but showed his wound,

+and stated how he had been attacked from behind;

+how his life had been saved by the promptitude of

+Arinbiorn, and how he had but defended himself

+against enemies who sought his life.

+

+"I wish you had been killed," said the earl, "and

+then there would have been an end to these disorders."

+

+"You would not have a man not raise his hands

+to save his head?" said Grettir.

+

+"I see one thing," exclaimed the earl.  "Ill luck

+attends you, and you are doomed to commit

+violences wherever you are."

+

+The end of it was that Earl Sweyn said he would

+not have Grettir to live in Norway any longer, lest

+he should be the cause of fresh troubles.  But he

+remained over the third winter, and next spring

+sailed for Iceland, the time of his outlawing being

+ended.

+

+

+

+

+

+.. vspace:: 4

+

+.. _`OF GRETTIR'S RETURN`:

+

+.. class:: center large bold

+

+   CHAPTER X.

+

+

+.. class:: center medium bold

+

+   OF GRETTIR'S RETURN.

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+..

+   

+   *Iceland Once More—Life's Bitter Lessons—Grettir

+   Pays Audun a Visit—Some Icelandic Terms—Byres

+   and Sels—A Chief's Hall—The Return of

+   Audun—Grettir's Second Wrestle with Audun—Bard

+   Interposes—The Cousins Reconciled*

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+When Grettir came back to Biarg, he found his

+father so old and infirm as to be no more

+able to stir abroad, and Atli managed the farm for

+him along with Illugi, Grettir's youngest brother,

+now grown up to be a big boy.  Grettir was now

+aged eighteen, but he looked and was a man.  Illugi

+was about fifteen, a gentle, pleasant boy.  He and

+the kindly, careful Atli were as unlike Grettir as

+well could be; they avoided quarrels, they had a

+civil word for every one, and took pains to make

+themselves agreeable, whether to guests in their

+house, or when staying anywhere, to their hosts.

+Grettir never troubled himself to be courteous or

+to be obliging to anyone.  Now that he was back

+from Norway he was rather disposed to think much

+of himself as a man more brave and audacious than

+his fellows, for, had he not killed twelve rovers,

+broken into a barrow, slain a bear, and been the

+death of one man in a duel, and another who had

+attempted to assassinate him?  Atli did not much

+like his manner, and cautioned him not to be

+overbearing whilst at home, lest he should involve

+himself in fresh troubles.  But words were wasted on

+Grettir.  He was not the fellow to listen to advice,

+but one of those men who must learn the bitter

+lessons of life by personal experience.  It is so with

+men always.  Some, who are thoughtful, see what

+God's law is which is impressed on all society, and

+listen to what others have found out as the lessons

+taught them by their lives, so they are able to go

+out equipped against the trials and difficulties of

+life.  But others will neither look nor listen, and

+such have to go through every sort of adversity, till

+they have learned the great truths of social life, and

+perhaps they only acquire them when it is too late

+to put them in practice.

+

+It is with laws and courtesies of life as with the

+three R's.  A man will fare badly who cannot read,

+write, and cipher.  If he learns these accomplishments

+as a child, he does well; he is furnished for

+the struggle of life, and starts on the same footing

+as other men; but if as a child he is morose and

+indifferent, and refuses to learn, then all through

+his life he is met with difficulties, owing to his

+ignorance, and he finds that he must learn to read,

+write, and do sums; and he has to acquire these in

+after years with much less ease than he might have

+learnt as a child, and after he has lost many chances

+of getting on which might have been seized, had he

+known these things before.

+

+Grettir's temper on his return may be judged by

+one incident that happened almost directly.  He

+had not forgotten his struggle on the ice with his

+cousin Audun, and he was resolved to have another

+trial of strength with him.  So he had not been

+home many days before he rode over the hill to

+Audunstead in his best harness, and with a beautiful

+saddle on his horse that had been given him by

+Thorfin.  The time was that of hay, and he saw the

+field round Audun's farm full of rich grass, ready to

+be cut.  He took the bridle off his horse and turned

+it into Audun's meadow.  This was not out of

+thoughtlessness, but out of insolence, and was

+intended to exasperate Audun.  In Iceland grass grows

+very little, and only fit to be cut for hay round the

+farms in what is called the *tun*, where it is richly

+dressed with stable-dung.  Consequently hay is very

+scarce and very precious.  The grass never grows

+much longer than one's fingers, and so even in the

+tun it is not plentiful.  He knocked at the door of

+the farm and asked for his cousin, and was told that

+Audun had gone to the highland *sel* to fetch curds,

+and would be back later.  The *sel* was a farm on

+the highland, only occupied in summer, when the

+cattle were driven to the moors and hills to feed on

+the grass there, and to save that in the lowlands

+against winter.

+

+Here a word or two must be said about Icelandic

+names of places and people.  When Iceland was

+colonized, those who first settled in the land and

+built farms, called the places after their own names

+in a great many cases; they called them so-and-so's

+*stead*, or so-and-so's *by* or farm.  A *by* is the Scotch

+byre, and in Icelandic is *bœr*, pronounced exactly

+like the Scotch word.  Wherever, in the north and

+east of England, Norse settlers came, there we find

+names of places ending in the same way, and we

+know that these were farms and dwellings of old

+Norse settlers.  Thus in Northumberland, Yorkshire,

+and Lincolnshire, are plenty of Norse place-names.

+Near Thirsk is Thirkelby or Thorkel's-byre, near

+Ripon is Enderby or Andrew's-byre.  Not only so,

+but where there are high hills there we find also

+*sels*, that is summer-farms, like the Alps to which

+the cattle are driven in Switzerland.  Next as to

+the names of people.  What is a little puzzling to

+remember is the number of persons whose names begin

+with Thor.  Thor, the god of thunder, was regarded

+with the highest reverence by the Icelanders; they

+thought of him even more than they did of Odin,

+the chief god of all, who had one eye, and his one

+fiery eye was the sun.  Thor was called the Redbeard,

+and the aurora borealis was thought to be his

+waving red-beard in the sky.  The thunderbolt they

+regarded as his hammer.  To show their respect for

+him, children were named after him: Thor-grim

+means Thor's wrath; Thor-kel, Thor's kettle, in

+which the sacrificial meat was cooked in offering to

+Thor; Thor-gil was Thor's boy or servant; Thor-hall

+was Thor's flint spear-head, and so on.  The

+Northumbrian king, St. Osmund, takes his name

+from the Hand of God, and the name is the same

+as Asmund, the father of Grettir.  Oswald means the

+elect of the god; in Icelandic the name would be

+Aswald.

+

+When Grettir found that Audun was from home,

+he went into the hall and lay down on the bench

+nearest the door.  The hall was dark.

+

+The halls of the Icelandic chiefs were like bodies

+of churches, and were divided into a nave with side

+aisles; and were lighted by windows in a clere-story

+that were covered with the skin of the lining of a

+sheep's stomach, to let in light and keep out cold,

+because they had no glass.  In the side aisles were

+the beds of those who lived in the house, some with

+doors and shutters, which could be fastened from

+within; and a man in danger of his life would so

+sleep.  He would go to bed, and then close himself

+in and lock the shutters, that no one could get at

+him when he was asleep.  The fires and benches

+and tables were in the nave, or middle of the great

+hall.  Over the partitions for the beds were hung

+shields and swords and spears, and on grand

+occasions hangings were put up all along the sides,

+hiding the beds and berths in the side aisles.  The

+arrangement in an Icelandic house at the present

+day is much the same, only on a very much reduced

+scale.  The people live and eat and sleep in the

+same room, like the saloon-cabin of a ship, with the

+berths round the walls.

+

+Audun arrived in the afternoon with a horse that

+carried curds in skins on its back; that is to say,

+skins were made into bottles, as is still common in

+Palestine.  When he saw that a horse with a saddle

+on it was wandering about in his meadow, trampling

+down the grass and eating it, he was very vexed;

+and throwing one bottle of curd over his back, and

+hanging another in front on his breast to counterbalance

+it, he ran into the house to ask who had

+done this.

+

+The hall was dusky, and Audun's eyes were

+accustomed to the bright summer-light.  As he entered

+Grettir put out his foot; Audun did not see it, and

+stumbled over it, fell on the skin of curds and burst

+it.  Then he jumped up, very angry, and asked who

+had played him this scurvy trick.  Grettir named

+himself, and said he had come over about that

+matter of the wrestle on the ice.  Audun, still very

+irate, all at once stooped, picked up the burst skin,

+and dashed it in Grettir's face, smothering him with

+curds.  Then he threw down the other curd-bottle,

+and began to wrestle with Grettir.  They swung up

+and down the hall, kicking over the benches, now

+upon the floor, then on the stone-paved fire-hearth

+in the midst; then they crashed against the walls

+and pillars of the bed-chambers, and as they did so

+the shields and weapons hung over them clashed

+like bells.  Some frightened servant-maids came in,

+and ran out again in alarm, calling for aid.

+

+Audun felt now that Grettir had outgrown him

+in strength, but he would not give in; then they

+slipped on the curd and both fell, parted for a

+moment, rose, and flew at each other once more.

+Again, up and down, banging, stumbling, writhing

+in each other's arms, twisting legs round each other,

+to try to trip each other up, and ever Grettir

+bearing Audun backwards, but never wholly mastering

+him.  Audun could not trust his cousin, for though

+they were akin, and though he had not really done

+him an injury, there was no telling to what a pitch

+Grettir's blood might mount and blind him; so as

+they wrestled, Audun took care to twist the short

+sword out of Grettir's belt and throw it away.  As,

+to do this, he had to disengage his hand from

+Grettir's shoulder, he lost an advantage.  Grettir

+managed to trip him, and throw him flat on his back.

+

+At that moment, fortunately, a man, big, wearing

+a red kirtle, and in full harness, entered the hall and

+asked what was the meaning of the noise and fight?

+As he did not receive an immediate answer, he came

+to the rescue of Audun, and drew Grettir from him.

+

+"We are only in play with each other," said Grettir.

+

+"Rather rough play," said the man, "and likely

+to end in tears rather than laughter."

+

+"Who are you that interfere?" asked Grettir.

+

+"My name is Bard."

+

+Then Audun scrambled to his feet.

+

+"What is the reason of this rough play?" asked Bard.

+

+Then Grettir answered, by singing:

+

+   |  "Prithee, Audun, will you say

+   |  How, upon the ice one day,

+   |  You to throttle did essay?

+   |  Now, for that I this have done,

+   |  On Audun honour I have won;

+   |  Curds and wrestle make good fun."

+   |

+

+"Oh, I see," said Bard; "fighting out an old

+grudge.  I have nothing to say against that.  Now,

+shake hands, and be loving cousins again."

+

+Audun held out his hand, and Grettir agreed to

+let the matter end thus.  But he was dissatisfied,

+and ever after bore Bard a grudge.  However, he

+never again wrestled with Audun, and remained on

+good terms with him.

+

+

+

+

+

+.. vspace:: 4

+

+.. _`THE HORSE-FIGHT`:

+

+.. class:: center large bold

+

+   CHAPTER XI.

+

+

+.. class:: center medium bold

+

+   THE HORSE-FIGHT.

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+..

+   

+   *Atli's Roan—The Coming Fight—Unfair

+   Play—Grettir Retaliation—Smouldering Fire*

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+One of the rude and cruel sports that amused the

+Icelanders in summer time was horse-fighting.

+A smooth piece of turf was chosen, and was staked

+round.  Into this inclosure two or sometimes more

+horses were introduced, and a man attended each,

+who urged on his own horse, armed with a goad.

+By means of these goads the horses were stung to

+madness, and attacked each other, biting each other

+savagely.  Now, Atli had a beautiful roan, with a

+black mane, which he and his old father were very

+proud of.  Lower down the valley, near the sea,

+was a farm called Mais, in which lived a bonder

+named Kormak, and his brother; they had in their

+house a man called Odd the Foundling, a sly,

+captious fellow, who, like Grettir, made verses; but his

+verses were not generally thought to be so good as

+those of Grettir.  On the opposite side of the river

+is a hot-spring; it is still hot, but not so hot as it

+was in those days, when it boiled up and poured

+forth a cloud of steam, and ran in a scalding rill

+down to the river.  There was a convenient level

+place near the river for a horse-fight, and it stood

+above the water on one side rather steeply, so that

+it needed only fencing on three sides.  Kormak had

+a brown horse that fought well, and it was resolved

+that autumn to have a fight between the horse of

+Kormak and the roan of Atli.  Odd was to goad on

+Kormak's brown, and Grettir offered himself to his

+brother to run with the roan.  Atli did not much

+like the proposal, as he feared Grettir's temper; but

+he could not well decline his offer, so he said, "I

+will consent, brother; only I pray you, be peaceable,

+for we have to do with overbearing men, and it will

+be very unfortunate if a broil should come of this."

+

+"If they begin, I shall not run away," said Grettir.

+

+"Not if they begin; but be very careful not to

+provoke a quarrel."

+

+"Quarrels come and are not made," said Grettir.

+

+"That I do not hold," answered Atli.

+

+The day of the horse-fight arrived, and the horses

+were led to the place of contest.  They had been

+fed up and groomed for the occasion, and each had

+a band round his middle of colour, by which he who

+went with the horse could hold, and the goad of each

+was tied with a tuft of feathers at the head, stained

+the same colour as the belt about the horse.

+

+The two horses were introduced within the inclosure,

+and were soon goaded into anger, and began

+to plunge, and snort, and snap at each other.  The

+by-standers outside the railing cheered and shouted,

+and the horses seemed to understand that they were

+to do their best; so they pranced about each other,

+struck at each other, and tried to get round each

+other so as to bite the flank.  At one moment the

+roan bit the side of the brown, and held.  Odd ran

+his goad into the horse of Grettir to make it let

+go;—this was against the rules; he did it to save his

+own horse from a terrible wound.  Grettir saw what

+he did, but he said nothing.  Now the horses bore

+towards the river, and were rearing and plunging close

+to the edge, and the two men had much ado to hold

+on.  Then Odd took the opportunity when Grettir's

+back was turned to drive at him with his goad

+between the shoulders, where was the great scar still

+red, and only just fully healed, that he had received

+from the axe of Hiarandi.  It was a cruel blow, and

+this also was against all rule of fair play.

+

+At that moment the roan reared, and instantly

+Grettir ran under him, and struck Odd with such a

+blow that he reeled back towards the water edge,

+and in so doing dragged the brown horse he was

+holding over the edge, and both went down into the

+water together.  The river was very full with the

+melted snows, and Odd was brought ashore with

+difficulty.  It was found that three of his ribs were

+broken; but whether with the blow dealt by Grettir,

+or by his fall on the rock, or by the hoof of the horse

+as it fell and struggled in the river, cannot be said;

+but the party of Kormak, of course, charged Grettir

+with having broken Odd's ribs with his stick, and

+they flew to arms, and threatened the party from

+Biarg.  However, the people of the nearest vales

+and firths interfered, and no bloodshed ensued.  But

+the men of Mais and of Biarg separated bearing

+each other much ill-will, each charging the other

+with having broken the laws of the sport.

+

+Atli did not say what he felt, he was greatly

+annoyed; but Grettir was less careful of his words, he

+said that the matter was by no means ended, and

+that he hoped there would be a meeting between

+the men of Mais and the men of Biarg, and then—it

+would not be a fight of horses, but of men; not a

+biting of horses, but of sharp blades.

+

+

+

+

+

+.. vspace:: 4

+

+.. _`OF THE FIGHT AT THE NECK`:

+

+.. class:: center large bold

+

+   CHAPTER XII.

+

+

+.. class:: center medium bold

+

+   OF THE FIGHT AT THE NECK.

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+..

+   

+   *The Desolate Moor—Grettir challenges Kormak—Oxmain

+   comes on the Scene—Slow-coach taunts Grettir—Grettir's

+   Vexation*

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+The next fiord on the west of that into which the

+river that flowed past Biarg poured was called

+the Ramsfirth, and at the head of it lived Grettir's

+married sister.

+

+In the following summer, that is in 1014, Grettir

+paid his sister a visit; he had with him two servant-men

+from Biarg, and he spent three days and nights

+at his sister's.  Whilst there, news reached him that

+Kormak, who had been away from Mais for a week

+or two, was on his road home, and who was now

+staying at a house called Tongue.  Grettir at once

+made ready to depart, and his brother-in-law sent

+two men with him, for it was not safe that Grettir

+should have only two churls with him, as there was

+ill blood between him and Kormak about that affair

+of the horse-fight.

+

+A high, long shoulder of desolate moor lies

+between the Ramsfirth and the Westriver-dale, in

+which is a confluent of the river that flows past

+Biarg.  This shoulder rises to the north into a great

+hump, called Burfell, and on the saddle is a little

+lake.  A very fine view is obtained from this shoulder

+of moor over the northern immense bay of Hunafloi,

+towards the glaciers and mountains of that curious

+excrescence of land that lies on the north-west of

+Iceland.  I know exactly the road taken by Grettir on

+this occasion, for I have ridden over it.  Along the top

+of this shoulder the rocks are scraped by glaciers,

+that must at one time have occupied the whole

+centre of the island, and have slowly slidden down

+into the firths on all sides.  Here, what is curious

+is, that the rocks are furrowed, just as if carved with

+a graving tool, in lines from south to north, showing

+the direction from which the glaciers slipped down.

+Now, on the slope of this bit of upland is a great

+stone poised on a point, which I have seen.  Grettir

+came to this stone, and spent a long time in trying

+to upset it.  It is called Grettir's-heave to this day.

+The men who were with him rather wondered at

+him why he wasted time over this, instead of pushing

+on.  But his sharp eye had noticed the party of

+Kormak leaving Tongue, and he was bent on an

+encounter.  He thought that if Odd had seen him

+going over the hill he would make a lampoon about

+him running away from his sister's house the moment

+he heard that danger was threatening.  So he

+determined to tarry till Kormak came up and fight

+him.  He had not long to wait, for presently over

+the top of the hill came Kormak with Odd and some

+others.  Grettir at once rode to meet them, and

+said, "Now we have our weapons on both sides, let

+us fight like men of good birth, and not with sticks

+as churls."

+

+Then Kormak turned to his men and bade them

+accept the challenge and fight.

+

+Accordingly they ran at one another and fought.

+Grettir bade his two serving-men stand behind his

+back and defend that, and he, sweeping his

+longsword from left to right, went forward against

+Kormak.  Thus they fought for a while, and some

+were wounded on both sides.

+

+Now it so happened that at a rich farm in the

+Ramsfirth-dale lived a well-to-do, and very strong

+man, called Thorbiorn—that is, Thor's Bear—nicknamed

+Oxmain.  He had ridden that day over

+Burfell-heath, with a party, and was now returning.

+As he came along he heard shouts and the clashing

+of arms, so he quickened his pace, and presently

+came in sight of the fighters.  He at once ordered

+his men to dash in between the combatants.  But

+by this time the passions of those engaged were so

+furious that they would not be separated.  Grettir

+sweeping his long-sword about him strode

+forward, and the men of Kormak fell back before him.

+Down went two of those who were with Kormak,

+and one servant of Atli, Grettir's brother, was killed.

+

+.. _`GRETTIR CHALLENGES KORMAK AND HIS PARTY`:

+

+.. figure:: images/img-116.jpg

+   :figclass: white-space-pre-line

+   :align: center

+   :alt: GRETTIR CHALLENGES KORMAK AND HIS PARTY.

+

+   GRETTIR CHALLENGES KORMAK AND HIS PARTY.

+

+Then Thorbiorn Oxmain raised his great voice

+and roared out, that he and his party would take

+sides against the first man who dealt another blow.

+Grettir saw that it would hardly do if Thorbiorn

+Oxmain brought all his force against him, so he gave

+up the battle; but they did not part till every one

+of those engaged was wounded, and two were killed

+on one side, and one on the other.  Grettir was ill

+pleased that the affray had ended in this manner,

+and he felt resentment against Oxmain for his

+interference.  Unfortunately, Oxmain's brother, who went

+by the name of the Slow-coach, made fun of the

+matter, and laughed about Grettir sneaking away

+from the fight directly he saw that he was getting

+the worst of it.  Whatever he said was reported at

+Biarg, and, as may well be imagined, did not

+improve Grettir's temper, or liking for Oxmain and

+Slow-coach.  Nothing further occurred between him

+and Kormak, probably he and Kormak were content

+with the trial of strength that had taken place, and

+were disinclined to renew a profitless contest.

+

+Atli took no notice of the loss of his house-churl;

+he desired peace, and not a stirring afresh of the

+fires of discord.  To his peaceable behaviour it was

+doubtless due that the quarrel with Kormak came

+to an end.  But the vexation felt by Grettir against

+Oxmain for his meddlesomeness, and against Slow-coach

+for his gibes, rankled in his breast.

+

+

+

+

+

+.. vspace:: 4

+

+.. _`HOW GRETTIR AND AUDUN MADE FRIENDS`:

+

+.. class:: center large bold

+

+   CHAPTER XIII.

+

+

+.. class:: center medium bold

+

+   HOW GRETTIR AND AUDUN MADE FRIENDS.

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+..

+   

+   *Audun's Pedigree—His relation to

+   Grettir—Grettir's-heaves—In Willowdale—The

+   Place called Tongue—A very strange Tale*

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+Grettir remained through the autumn at Biarg,

+after the skirmish at the Neck, till September,

+and then he thought he would ride away east and

+see Audun again, with whom he had had that little

+ruffle that was almost a quarrel, and which was

+fortunately interrupted by the entrance of Bard.

+Audun was a cousin, though not a near one, and

+Grettir had no desire that any bad blood should

+exist between kinsfolk.  Audun belonged to what

+was called the Madpate family; for it had had in it

+at least two who had been so odd in their ways that

+folk said they were not quite right in their minds.

+The relationship will easily be understood by a look

+at the pedigree.  It will be remembered that old

+Onund Treefoot, who had settled in Iceland, had to

+wife secondly Thordis, an Icelandic woman, and his

+son by her was Thorgrim Grizzlepate, and this

+Thorgrim bought the estate and house of Biarg about the

+year 935.  Onund Treefoot died in or about 920, and

+then his widow Thordis married again a man called

+Audun Skokull, and they had a son who was called

+Asgeir, who settled in Willowdale, and either went

+off his head or proved so queer in his ways that

+folks called him Madpate.  This Madpate married

+and had a son Audun, and a daughter Thurid who

+married away west into a very good family; and

+she had a son called Thorstein Kuggson, of whom

+we shall hear more presently.  Audun of Willowdale's

+son was Madpate the Second, and the lad

+Audun who wrestled with Grettir and burst the

+bottle of curds was the son of this Madpate the

+Second.  Consequently the relationship to Grettir

+was through Grettir's great-grandmother, and Audun

+belonged to a generation younger than that of Grettir,

+because Grettir was the son of Asmund's old age.

+Moreover, Asmund's father Thorgrim had married

+somewhat late in life, whereas all the Madpate

+family had dashed into marriage at a very early

+age.  Thus it came about that Grettir's great-grandmother

+was Audun's great-great-grandmother, and

+that, nevertheless, Audun was somewhat older than

+Grettir.

+

+Grettir rode straight up over the hill behind his

+house.  Now this hill like the Neck, already

+described, is rather curious, for on it are a number

+of rocks that have been deposited by glaciers, and

+not only so, but they have been dragged along by ice,

+scratching the rocks over which they were driven

+forward, and so these beds of rock are rubbed and

+scored with lines made by the stones forced over

+them by ice.  Above Biarg there is one large stone

+that has scratched a deep furrow in the bed of rock

+and then has stopped at the end of the furrow it had

+itself scored.  This remarkable phenomenon tells us

+of a time when the whole of the centre of Iceland

+was covered with glaciers, like the centre of Greenland

+now.  These glaciers slided down the slopes of

+the hills, and were thrust along to the sea, where

+they broke off and floated away as icebergs.

+

+Nowadays folk in Iceland do not understand these

+odd stones perched in queer places, which were

+deposited by the ancient glaciers, and they call them

+Grettir-taks or Grettir's-heaves.  So the farmer at

+Biarg told me that the curious stone at the end of

+the furrow in the bed of rock on top of the hill was a

+Grettir-tak; it had been rubbed along the rock and

+left where it stands by Grettir.  But I knew better.

+I knew that it was put there by an ancient glacier

+ages before Grettir was born, and before Iceland was

+discovered by the Norsemen.  I have no doubt that

+in Grettir's time this stone was said to have been

+put there by some troll.  Afterwards, when people

+ceased to believe in trolls, they said it was put there

+by Grettir.

+

+Grettir's ride led him by a pretty little blue lake

+that lies folded in between high hills and has a

+stream flowing from it into a very large lake near

+Hop.  But he did not follow the stream down; he

+crossed another hill, not very steep and high, and

+reached his cousin's house at Audun stead in

+Willowdale.  Now this valley took its name from the woods

+of willows that grew in it when first settled, but

+at the present day none remain; all have in course

+of time been burnt for fuel, and except for scanty

+grass the Willowdale is very dreary-looking.  We

+may be sure that Iceland presented a much more

+smiling and green appearance eight hundred or a

+thousand years ago than it does at present.

+

+When Grettir came to Willowdale, Audun received

+him in a friendly manner, and Grettir made

+him a present of a handsome axe he had.  He

+remained with him some little while, and they talked

+over old tales of Onund Treefoot and his doings, and

+every shadow of rivalry and anger disappeared, so

+that they parted at length in the best of tempers

+and as true and affectionate cousins.

+

+Audun would have desired to keep Grettir there

+longer, but Grettir would not stay.  He desired to

+get on to the head of Waterdale, where lived an

+uncle of his called Jokull, his mother's brother, at

+a place called Tongue.

+

+So he rode away over the moor, and reached

+Tongue.  Here a stream comes rushing through a

+gorge in a series of waterfalls, and meets another

+stream that comes down a valley called the Valley

+of Shadows further east.

+

+Tongue is so called because it lies on a grassy

+slope exactly in the tongue of land between these

+two streams.  There is now a good farm there and

+a church, and there I stayed a few days.  At the

+back of Tongue the hill rises rapidly to a fell called

+Tongue-heath.  This hill was covered with snow

+when Grettir arrived.  This uncle Jokull was glad

+to see him.

+

+He was a rough and violent man, very big and

+strong; and it was clear to everyone that his

+nephew took after his mother's family more than

+his father's, for there was a strong likeness both in

+build and face and in character between Jokull and

+Grettir.

+

+He received Grettir heartily in his rough, blunt

+way, and bade him stay there as long as he liked.

+Jokull had been a seafaring man, and had made

+much by his merchant trips.  He would probably

+have been a richer and more respected man had he

+not been so violent and overbearing and ready to

+pick quarrels.

+

+Now Grettir had not been at Tongue three days

+before he heard a very strange tale.  Jokull's mouth

+was full of it, and with good reason, for the events

+had taken place not an hour's ride distant.  It was

+a tale about the nearest farm in the Valley of

+Shadows, a farm called Thorhall's-stead, which was

+reported to be haunted; and so serious had affairs

+become there that no servants would remain, and

+the farmer and his family had been driven from

+house and home by the hauntings last winter, and

+had come and lodged with Jokull at Tongue, and

+he had entertained them for some two or three

+months.  Now this was not a case of mere fancy

+and fantastic fear.  It was something very real and

+very marvellous.  But it is a long story, and must

+be consigned to another chapter.

+

+

+

+

+

+.. vspace:: 4

+

+.. _`THE VALE OF SHADOWS`:

+

+.. class:: center large bold

+

+   CHAPTER XIV.

+

+

+.. class:: center medium bold

+

+   THE VALE OF SHADOWS.

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+..

+   

+   *A Turning-point in Grettir's Life—The Farm in

+   the Valley—The haunted Sheep-walks—A

+   strange-looking Fellow—"Here is my Hand"—Glam

+   keeps Faith—Glam is missing—Following the Red

+   Track—The Ghost of Glam—Glam's Successor—Thorgaut

+   is Missing—From Bad to Worse—Fate of the old

+   Serving-man—Thorhall's Perplexity—Grettir offers Aid*

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+We have come now to an incident which formed

+a turning-point in Grettir's life.  It is a very

+mysterious and inexplicable story, not one that can

+be put aside as we have that of his fight in the tomb

+with Karr the Old.  This is a story even more gruesome.

+It relates to an event that so shook Grettir's

+nerves that he never after could endure to be alone

+in the dark, and would risk all kinds of dangers to

+escape solitude.  How much of truth lies under this

+strange narrative we cannot now say, but that something

+really did take place is certain from the effect

+it had on Grettir ever after.

+

+The richest valley for grass in all this quarter of

+Iceland, and the most peopled, is the Waterdale.

+On the east rises a mountain ridge of precipitous

+basaltic cliffs, down which leap waterfalls from the

+snows above.  The river that flows through this

+valley is fed by two main streams that unite at the

+farm called Tongue.  The stream on the east rises

+a long way inland in a mass of lava, and flows

+through a valley so narrow and so gloomy that it

+goes by the name of the Valley of Shadows.  The high

+ranges of moor and waste to the south shut off the

+southern sun, and the lofty banks of mountain to

+east and west so close it in that it gets no sun

+morning or evening.

+

+A little way up this valley—not far, and not where

+it is most gloomy—are now the scanty ruins of a

+farm called Thorhall's-stead.  Above this the valley

+so contracts and the hills are so steep that it is only

+with great difficulty that a horse can be led along.

+This I know very well; for in crossing an avalanche

+slide my horse and I were almost precipitated into

+the torrent below.  Further up the valley stands a

+tongue of high land with a waterfall on one side and

+the ravine on the other, and here at one time some

+robbers had their fortress who were the terror of the

+neighbourhood.  No trace of their fortress remains

+at present, but it was to find this place that I

+explored the valley.

+

+In the farm that is now but a heap of ruins lived

+a bonder named Thorhall and his wife.  He was not

+a man of much consideration in the district, for

+he was planted on cold, poor land, and his wealth

+was but small.  Moreover, he had no servants;

+and the reason was that his sheep-walks were

+haunted.

+

+Not a herdsman would remain with him.  He

+offered high wages, he threatened, he entreated, all

+in vain.  One shepherd after another left his service,

+and things came to such a pass that he determined

+to have the advice of the law-man or chief judge at

+the next annual assize.

+

+He saddled his horses and rode to Thingvalla.

+Skapti was the name of the judge then, a man with

+a long head, and deemed the best of men for giving

+counsel.  Thorhall told him his trouble.

+

+"I can help you," said Skapti.  "There is a

+shepherd who has been with me, a rude, strange man,

+but afraid of neither man nor hobgoblin, and strong

+as a bull; but he is not very clear in his intellect."

+

+"That does not matter," said Thorhall, "so long

+as he can mind sheep."

+

+"You may trust him for that," said Skapti.  "He

+is a Swede, and his name is Glam."

+

+Towards the end of the assize two gray horses

+belonging to Thorhall slipped their hobbles and

+strayed; so, as he had no serving-man, he went

+after them himself, and on his way met a strange-looking

+fellow, driving before him an ass laden with

+faggots.  The man was tall and stalwart; his face

+attracted Torhall's attention, for the eyes were ashen

+gray and staring.  The powerful jaw was furnished

+with white protruding teeth, and about his low brow

+hung bunches of coarse wolf-gray hair.

+

+"Pray, what are you called?" asked Thorhall, for

+he suspected that this was the man Skapti had

+spoken about.

+

+"Glam, at your service."

+

+"Do you like your present duties—wood-cutting?"

+asked the farmer.

+

+"No, I do not.  I am properly a shepherd."

+

+"Then, will you come with me?  Skapti has

+spoken of you and offered you to me."

+

+"What are the drawbacks to your service?" asked

+Glam cautiously.

+

+"None, save that my sheep-walks are haunted."

+

+"Oh! is that all?  Ghosts won't scare me.  Here

+is my hand.  I will come to you before winter."

+

+They separated, and soon after the farmer found

+his horses; they had got into a little wood, and were

+nibbling the willow tops.  He went home, having

+thanked Skapti.

+

+Summer passed, then autumn, and nothing further

+was heard of Glam.  The winter storms began to

+bluster up the valley from the cold Polar Sea, driving

+the flying snowflakes and heaping them in drifts at

+every turn of the vale.  Ice formed in the shallows

+of the river, and the streams which in summer

+trickled down the sides were now turned to icicles.

+I was there the very end of June, and then the

+whole of the mountain flank to the west was covered

+with frozen streams spread like a net of icicle over

+the black and red striped bare rock.

+

+One gusty night a violent blow at the door startled

+all in the farm.  In another moment Glam, tall and

+wild, stood in the hall glowering out of his gray

+staring eyes, his hair matted with frost, his teeth

+rattling and snapping with cold, his face blood-red

+in the glare of the fire that glowed in the centre of

+the hall.

+

+He was well received by Thorhall, but the housewife

+did not like the man's looks, and did not welcome

+him with much heartiness.  Time passed, and

+the shepherd was on the moors every day with the

+flock; his loud and deep-toned voice was often borne

+down on the wind as he shouted to the sheep,

+driving them to fold.  His presence always produced

+a chill in the house, and when he spoke it sent

+a thrill through the women, who did not like him.

+

+Christmas-eve was raw and windy; masses of

+gray vapour rolled up from the Arctic Ocean, and

+hung in piles about the mountain tops.  Now and

+then a scud of frozen fog, covering bar and beam

+with feathery hoar-frost, swept up the glen.  As the

+day declined snow began to fall in large flakes.

+

+When the wind lulled there could be heard the

+shout of Glam high up on the hillside.  Darkness

+closed in, and with the darkness the snow fell thicker.

+There was a church then at Thorhall's farm; there

+is none there now, since the valley has been

+abandoned from its cold and ill name.

+

+The lights were kindled in the church, and every

+snowflake as it sailed down past the open door burned

+like a golden feather in the light.

+

+When the service was over, and the farmer and

+his party returned to the house, Glam had not come

+home.  This was strange; as he could not live

+abroad in the cold, and the sheep would also require

+shelter.  Thorhall was uneasy and proposed a search,

+but no one would go with him; and no wonder, it

+was not a night for a dog to be out in, and the

+tracks would all be buried in snow.  So the family

+sat up all night listening, trembling and anxious.

+

+Day broke at last faintly in the south over the

+great white masses of mountains.  Now a party

+was formed to search for the missing man.  A sharp

+climb brought them to the top of the moor above

+Tongue.  Here and there a sheep was found shivering

+under a rock or half buried in a snowdrift, but

+of Glam—not a sign.

+

+Presently the whole party was called together

+about a spot on the hilltop where the snow was

+trampled and kicked about, and it was clear that

+some desperate struggle had taken place there.

+There the snow was also dabbled with frozen blood.

+A red track led further up the mountain side, and

+the searchers were following it when a boy uttered

+a shriek of fear.  In looking behind a rock he

+had come on the corpse of the shepherd lying on

+its back with the arms extended.  The body was

+taken up and carried to the edge of the gorge, and

+was there buried under a pile of stones, heaped over

+it to the height of about six feet.  *How* Glam had

+died, *by whom* killed, no one knew, nor could they

+make a guess.

+

+Two nights after this one of the thralls who had

+gone for the cows burst into the hall with a face

+blank from terror; he staggered to a seat and

+fainted.  On recovering his senses, in a broken voice

+he assured those who were round him that he had

+seen Glam walking past him, with huge strides, as

+he left the stable door.  The shepherd had turned

+his head and looked at him fixedly from his great

+gray staring eyes.  On the following day a stable

+lad was found in a fit under a wall, and he never

+after recovered his senses.  It was thought he must

+have seen something that had scared him.  Next,

+some of the women, declared that they had seen

+Glam looking in on them through a window of

+the dairy.  In the dusk Thorhall himself met the

+dead man, who stood and glowered at him, but

+made no attempt to injure his master, and uttered

+not a word.  The haunting did not end thus.

+Nightly a heavy tread was heard round the house,

+and a hand groping along the walls, and sometimes

+a hand came in at the windows, a great coarse hand,

+that in the red light from the fire seemed as though

+steeped in blood.

+

+When the spring came round the disturbances

+lessened, and as the sun obtained full power, ceased

+altogether.

+

+During the course of the summer a Norwegian

+vessel came into the fiord; Thorhall went on board

+and found there a man named Thorgaut, who had

+come out in search of work.  Thorhall engaged him

+as a shepherd, but not without honestly telling him

+his trouble, and what there was uncanny about his

+sheep-walks, and how Glam had fared.  The man

+did not regard this, he laughed, and promised to be

+with Thorhall at the appointed season.

+

+Accordingly he arrived in autumn, and he soon

+established himself as a favourite in the house; he

+romped with the children, helped his fellow-servants,

+and was as much liked as his predecessor had been

+detested.  He was such a merry careless fellow that

+he did not think anything of the risks that lay

+before him, and joked about them.

+

+When winter set in strange sights and sounds

+began to alarm the folk at the farm, but Thorgaut

+was not troubled; he slept too soundly at night

+to be disturbed by the heavy tread round the house.

+

+On the day before Yule, as was his wont, Thorgaut

+drove out the sheep to pasture.  Thorhall was

+uneasy.  He said to him: "I pray you be careful,

+and do not go near the barrow under which Glam

+was laid."

+

+"Don't fear for me," laughed Thorgaut, "I shall

+be back in time for supper, and shall attend you to

+church."

+

+Night settled in, but no Thorgaut arrived.  There

+was little mirth at table when the supper was

+brought in.  All were anxious and fearful.

+

+The wind was cold and wetting.  Blocks of ice

+were driving about in the bay, grinding against

+each other, and the sound could be heard far up the

+valley.  Aloft, the aurora flames were lighting up

+the heavens with an arch of fire.  Again this

+Christmas night the dwellers in the farm sat up

+and did not go to bed, waiting for the return of

+Thorgaut, but he did not arrive.

+

+Next morning he was sought, and was found

+lying dead across the barrow of Glam, with his

+spine and one leg and one arm broken.  He was

+brought home and laid in the churchyard.

+

+Matters now rapidly became worse.  Outbuildings

+were broken into of a night, and their woodwork

+was rent and shattered; the house door was violently

+shaken, and great pieces of it were torn away; the

+gables of the house were also pulled furiously to

+and fro.

+

+Now it fell out that one morning the only man

+who remained in the service of the family went out

+early.  Not another servant dared to remain in the

+place, and this man remained because he had been

+with Thorhall and with his father, and he could not

+make up his mind to desert his master in his need.

+About an hour after he had gone out Thorhall's

+wife took her milking cans and went to the cow-house

+that she might milk the cows, as she had now

+not a maid in the house, and had to do everything

+herself.  On reaching the door of the cow-house she

+heard a terrible sound from within, the bellowing of

+the cattle, and the deep bell-notes of an unearthly

+voice.  She was so frightened that she dropped her

+pails and ran back to the house and called her

+husband.  Thorhall was in bed, but he rose

+instantly, caught up a weapon, and hastened to the

+cow-house.

+

+On opening the door he found all the cattle loose

+and goring each other.  Slung across the stone that

+separated their stalls was the old serving-man,

+perfectly dead, with his back broken.  He had,

+apparently, been tossed by the cows, and had fallen on

+this stone backwards.

+

+Neither Thorhall nor his wife explained his death

+in this way; they thought that Glam must have

+been there, have driven the cattle wild, and that

+just as he had broken the back of Thorgaut, so had

+he now broken that of the poor old serving-man.

+

+It was impossible for the bonder to remain longer

+in that place; he and his wife therefore removed

+down to Tongue, which lies at the junction of the

+two rivers, and there things were quiet.  There he

+was hospitably received by Jokull.  Thorhall was

+able to persuade some of his runaway servants to

+come back to him, but no man all that winter

+would go near the moor where was the barrow of

+the shepherd Glam.

+

+Not till the summer returned, and the sun had

+dispelled the darkness, did Thorhall venture back to the

+Vale of Shadows.  In the meanwhile his daughter's

+health had given way under the repeated alarms of

+the winter; she became paler every day; with the

+autumn flowers she faded, and was laid in the

+churchyard before the first snowflakes fell.  What

+was Thorhall to do through the winter?  He knew

+that it was not possible for him to secure servants

+if he remained on his own farm; besides, he did not

+know what loss might come to his stock.  Then, he

+could not spend the whole winter at Tongue, for

+that was another bonder's house, and though the

+farmer there had kindly received him and

+entertained him for three months the winter before, he

+could not ask him to give him houseroom to

+himself, his cattle, and servants for a whole long

+winter.

+

+So he was in the greatest possible perplexity

+what to do.  Help came to him from an unexpected

+quarter.

+

+Grettir had heard the story of the hauntings,

+and he rode to Thorhall's farm and asked if he

+might be accommodated there for the night.  He

+said that it was his great desire to encounter Glam.

+

+Thorhall was surprised, but not exactly pleased,

+for he thought that the family at Biarg would

+attribute the wrong to him were anything to happen

+to Grettir.

+

+Grettir put his horse into the stable, and retired

+for the night to one of the beds in the hall and

+slept soundly.

+

+

+

+

+

+.. vspace:: 4

+

+.. _`HOW GRETTIR FOUGHT WITH GLAM`:

+

+.. class:: center large bold

+

+   CHAPTER XV.

+

+

+.. class:: center medium bold

+

+   HOW GRETTIR FOUGHT WITH GLAM.

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+..

+   

+   *Grettir awaits Glam—The Sound of Feet—Glam breaks

+   into the Hall—A Strange Figure—Grettir seizes

+   Glam—Grettir's Last Chance—Glam's Curse—The End

+   of Glam—Was it True?*

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+Next morning Grettir went with Thorhall to

+the stable for his horse.  The strong wooden

+door was shivered and driven in.  They stepped

+across it; Grettir called to his horse, but there was

+no responsive whinny.  Grettir dashed into the

+stall and found his horse dead; its neck was

+broken.

+

+"Now," said Thorhall, "I will give you a horse in

+exchange for that you have lost.  You had better

+ride home to Biarg at once."

+

+"Not at all.  My horse has been killed, and I

+must avenge it."  So Grettir remained.

+

+Night set in.  Grettir ate a hearty supper, and

+was right merry.  But not so Thorhall, who had

+his misgivings.  At bed-time the latter crept into a

+locked bedstead beside the hall; but Grettir said he

+would not go into a bed, he would lie by the fire in

+the hall.  So he wrapped himself up in a long fur

+cloak and flung himself on a bench, with his feet

+against the posts of the high seat.  The fur cloak

+was over his head, and he kept an opening through

+which he could look out.

+

+There was a fire burning on the hearth, a smouldering

+heap of glowing embers, and by the red light

+Grettir looked up at the rafters of the blackened

+roof.  The smoke escaped by a *louvre* in the middle.

+The wind whistled mournfully.  The windows high

+up were covered with parchment, and admitted

+now and then a sickly yellow glare from the full

+moon, which, however, shone in through the smoke

+hole, silvering the rising smoke.  A dog began to

+bark, then bay at the moon.  Then the cat, which

+had been sitting demurely watching the fire, stood

+up with raised back and bristling tail, and darted

+behind some chests.  The hall-door was in a sad

+plight.  It had been so torn by Glam that it had

+to be patched up with wattles.  Soothingly the river

+prattled over its shingly bed as it swept round the

+knoll on which stood the farm.  Grettir heard the

+breathing of the sleeping women in the adjoining

+chamber, and the sigh of the housewife as she turned

+in her bed.

+

+Then suddenly he heard something that shook all

+the sleep out of him, had any been stealing over his

+eyes.  He heard a heavy tread, beneath which the

+snow crackled.  Every footfall went straight to

+Grettir's heart.  A crash on the turf overhead.

+The strange visitant had scrambled on the roof, and

+was walking over that.  The roofs of the houses in

+Iceland are of turf.  For a moment the chimney

+gap was completely darkened—the monster was

+looking down it—the flash of the red fire illumined

+the horrible face with its lack-lustre eyes.  Then

+the moon shone in again, and the heavy tramp of

+Glam was heard as he walked to the other end of

+the hall.  A thud—he had leaped down.

+

+Then Grettir heard his steps passing to the back of

+the house, then the snapping of wood showed that

+Glam was destroying some of the outhouse doors.

+Presently the tread was heard again approaching

+the house, and this time the main entrance.  Grettir

+thought he could distinguish a pair of great hands

+thrust in over the broken door.  In another moment

+he heard a loud snap—a long plank had been torn

+out of place, and the light of the moon shone in

+where the gap had been made.  Then Glam began

+to unrip the wattles.

+

+There was a cross-beam to the door, acting as bolt.

+Against the gray light Grettir saw a huge black arm

+thrust in trying to remove the bar.  It was done,

+and then all the broken door was driven in and

+went down on the floor in shivers.  Now Grettir

+could see a tall dark figure, almost naked, with wild

+locks of hair about the head standing in the

+doorway.  That was but for a minute, and then Glam

+came in stealthily; he entered the hall and was

+illumined by the firelight.  The figure Grettir now

+saw was unlike anything he had seen before.  A few

+rags hung from the shoulders and waist, the long

+wolf-gray hair was matted.  The eyes were staring

+and strange.  Grettir could hear Thorhall within his

+locked bed trembling and breathing fast.

+

+Presently Glam's eyes rested on the shaggy bundle

+by the high seat.  He stepped towards it, and Grettir

+felt him groping about him.  Then Glam laid hold

+of one end of the fur cloak and began to pull at it.

+The cloak did not come away.  Another jerk.  Grettir

+kept his feet firmly pressed against the posts, so that

+the fur was not pulled away.  Glam seemed puzzled;

+he went to the other end of the bundle and began

+to pull at that.  Grettir held to the bench, so that

+he was not moved himself, but the fur cloak was

+torn in half, and the strange visitant staggered back

+holding the portion in his hand wonderingly before

+his eyes.  Before he could recover from his surprise,

+Grettir started to his feet, bent his body, flung his

+arms round Glam, and driving his head into the

+breast of the visitor, tried to bend him backward and

+so snap his spine.  This was in vain, the cold hands

+grasped Grettir's arms and tore them from their hold.

+Grettir clasped them again about his body, and then

+Glam threw his also round Grettir, and they began

+to wrestle.  Grettir saw that Glam was trying to

+drag him to the door, and he was sure that if he

+were got outside he would be at a disadvantage, and

+Glam would break his back.  He therefore made a

+desperate effort not to be drawn forth.  He clung

+to benches and posts, but the posts gave way, and

+the benches were torn from their places.

+

+At each moment he was being dragged nearer

+to the door.  Sharply twisting himself loose, Grettir

+flung his arms round a beam of the roof, for the hall

+was low.  He was dragged off his feet at once.

+Glam clenched him about the waist, and tore at him

+to get him loose.  Every tendon in Grettir's breast

+was strained; still he held on.  The nails of Glam

+cut into his side like knives, then his hands gave

+way.  He could endure the strain no longer, and

+Glam drew him towards the doorway, in so doing

+trampling over the broken fragments of the door,

+and the wattles that lay about.  Grettir knew that

+the last chance was come for saving himself.  Here,

+in the hall, he could hold to posts and beams, and

+so make some resistance; but outside he would have

+nothing to cling to, and strong though he was, his

+strength did not equal that of his opponent.

+

+Now the door-posts were of stone, and the beam

+that had served as bolt went across the door, slid

+into a hollow on one side cut in the door-post, and

+was pulled across and fitted into another hollow in

+the other post.  As the wrestlers neared the opening,

+Grettir planted both his feet against the stone

+posts, one against each, and put his arms round

+Glam.  He had the enemy now at an advantage;

+but then, he merely held him, and could not hold him

+so for ever.  He called to Thorhall, but Thorhall was

+too greatly frightened to leave his place of refuge.

+

+"Now," thought Grettir, "if I can but break his

+back!" Then drawing Glam to him by the middle,

+he put his head beneath the chin of his opponent

+and forced back the head.  If he could only drive the

+head far enough back he would break his neck.

+

+At that moment one or both of the door-posts

+gave way; down crashed the gable-trees, ripping

+beams and rafters from their places, frozen clods of

+turf rattled from the roof and thumped into the snow.

+

+Glam fell on his back outside the door, and Grettir

+on top of him.  The moon was, as I said before, at

+her full; large white clouds chased each other across

+the sky.  Grettir's strength was failing him, his hands

+quivered in the snow, and he knew that he could

+not support himself from dropping flat on the

+mysterious and dreadful visitant, eye to eye, lip

+to lip.

+

+Then Glam said: "You have done ill matching

+yourself with me; now know that never shall you be

+stronger than you are to-day, and that, to your

+dying day, whenever you are in the dark you will

+see my eyes staring at you, so that for very horror

+you will not dare to be alone."

+

+At this moment Grettir saw his short sword in

+the snow, it had slipped from his belt as he fell.

+He put out his hand at once, clutched the handle,

+and with a blow cut off Glam's head, and at once

+laid it beside his thigh.

+

+Thorhall came out at this juncture, his face

+blanched; but when he saw how the fray had

+ended, he joyfully assisted Grettir to roll the dead

+man to the top of a pile of faggots that had been

+collected for winter fuel.  Fire was applied, and

+soon far down the Waterdale the flames of the pyre

+startled folks, and made them wonder what new

+horror was being enacted in the Vale of Shadows.

+

+Next day the charred bones were conveyed a

+long way—some hours' ride—into the great desert

+in the interior, and in one of the most lonely spots

+there a cairn or pile of stones was heaped over them.

+I have seen this mound, which is still pointed out

+as that under which the redoubted Glam lies.

+

+And now we may well ask, what truth is there

+in the story?  That there is a basis of truth can

+hardly be denied.  The facts have been embellished,

+worked up, but not invented.  The only probable

+explanation of the story is this.

+

+As already said, further up the valley, in a spot

+difficult to be reached, stood the old fortress of some

+robbers, with many caves in the sandstone about it

+very convenient for shelter.  Now, it is not

+improbable that some madman may have taken refuge in

+this safe retreat, and may have come out at night

+in search of food, and carried off the sheep of

+Thorhall.  It may be that Glam caught him attempting

+to steal a sheep, and fought with him, and was

+killed, and that in like manner Thorgaut was killed.

+Then when people saw a great wild man wandering

+about they thought it was Glam, whereas it was

+the man who had haunted the region before Glam

+came there, and had killed Glam.  This is the

+simplest and easiest explanation of this wild and

+fearful tale.

+

+

+

+

+

+.. vspace:: 4

+

+.. _`HOW GRETTIR SAILED TO NORWAY`:

+

+.. class:: center large bold

+

+   CHAPTER XVI.

+

+

+.. class:: center medium bold

+

+   HOW GRETTIR SAILED TO NORWAY.

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+..

+   

+   *Olaf the Saint—Slowcoach with the Nimble

+   Tongue—Slowcoach insults Grettir—Ill Words—Death

+   of Slowcoach—In Search of Luck*

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+Early in the spring of the year 1015, news

+reached Iceland of a change of rulers in

+Norway.  Olaf Harald's son, commonly known as Olaf

+the Saint, had come to be King of Norway; Earl

+Sweyn had been defeated in battle and driven out of

+the country.  Now Grettir was remotely connected

+with the king, that is to say, his father's grandfather

+was brother to the grandfather of Asta, Olaf's

+mother.  The cousinship was somewhat distant; but

+in those days folk held to their kin more than they

+do now.  Grettir thought that a good chance had

+opened to him for doing well in Norway, so he

+resolved to leave Iceland, and enter the service of

+his relative, the king.  There was a ship bound for

+Norway lying in Eyjafiord, and Grettir engaged a

+berth in her, and made ready for the voyage.

+

+Now his father Asmund was very old and feeble,

+and was well nigh bedridden.  He had given over

+the entire management of the farm to his eldest son

+Atli, and to young Illugi, who was a few years

+younger than Grettir.  Atli was everywhere liked,

+he was such a prudent, peaceable, and kindly man.

+

+Grettir's ill-luck still followed him; for, as it

+chanced, Thorbiorn, the Slowcoach, the relation of

+Thorbiorn Oxmain, had resolved to go to Norway

+also, and in the same ship.  Now the Slowcoach

+may have been overslow in his movements, but

+he was overnimble with his tongue, and he was

+strongly advised either not to go in the same boat

+with Grettir, or, if he did, to mind his words.

+

+Such advice was thrown away on the Slowcoach,

+who, instead of practising caution, in order to show

+himself off, began to brag of his strength, and to say

+scurvy things of Grettir, which were duly reported

+by tale-bearers to Grettir.  Consequently, when

+Grettir arrived in the Eyjafiord with his goods, he

+was not very amiably disposed towards the

+Slowcoach.  However Atli had impressed on him the

+necessity of controlling himself, and Grettir was

+resolved not to quarrel with the man unless he

+could not help it.

+

+At the side of the shore, those who were about to

+sail had run up booths and cabins for themselves

+and their stores.  Many of those going in the boat

+were chapmen, and they took with them goods with

+which to traffic in Norway.

+

+Just as the vessel was ready, and about to sail

+next day, Slowcoach arrived, slow as usual, and after

+every one else was ready, and their goods on board.

+As it was the last evening on shore, all the

+merchants and seamen were sitting about their booths,

+when Thorbiorn Slowcoach arrived, and rode along

+the lane between the wooden cabins.  The men

+shouted to him to know if he had any news to

+tell them.

+

+Thorbiorn's eye caught that of Grettir, who was

+sitting on a bench, and he answered, "I don't hear

+any news, except that the old idiot Asmund of

+Biarg is dead."

+

+This was not true; the old man was not dead, but

+very ill.  Some of those who heard him said, "That

+is sad news indeed, for he was a worthy and

+honourable old man, and he could ill be spared."

+

+"I don't know that," said Thorbiorn with a

+scornful laugh.

+

+"But how did he die?  What did he die of?"

+

+"Die of?" repeated the Slowcoach loud enough to

+be heard by Grettir.  "Smothered like a dog in the

+poky little kennel they call their hall at Biarg.  As

+for any loss in him, it is news to me that the world

+is not well rid of dotards."

+

+"These are ill words," said those who heard him.

+"No good man will speak slightingly of old and

+blameless chiefs.  Besides, such words as these

+Grettir will not endure."

+

+"Grettir!" scoffed Thorbiorn.  "Before I face him

+I must see him use his weapons better than he did

+last summer, when engaged with Kormak.  Then I

+put my elbow between them, and Grettir was but

+too ready to accept the interference.  I never saw a

+man before so shake in his shoes."

+

+Thereat Grettir stood up, and controlling himself,

+said, "If I have any faculty of foresight, Slowcoach,

+I see that you will not be smothered with smoke

+like a dog.  You should have done other than speak

+foul words of very aged men.  Gray hairs deserve

+respect."

+

+"I don't think more of your foresight than I do

+of the wisdom of your old fool of a father," said

+Thorbiorn.

+

+The end was that they fought.  The insult was

+too gross to be endured, and Grettir felt it

+incumbent on him to strike for his father's honour.  The

+fight did not last long; the Slowcoach was slow in

+his fighting, slow of hand, only not slow of tongue,

+and Grettir's sharp sword wounded him to death.

+

+Slowcoach was buried in the nearest churchyard;

+and the chapmen gave Grettir credit for having

+restrained himself as long as possible, and allowed

+that, according to the ideas of the time, he was

+justified in fighting and killing the Slowcoach for his

+spiteful and strife-provoking words.  But Grettir

+was not pleased, he regretted the contest, because

+he knew that it left occasion of strife behind, which

+might occasion Atli trouble.  Thorbiorn Oxmain

+would, lie feared, be sure to take up the quarrel, and

+then Atli would have to pay a heavy fine in silver

+to atone for the death.

+

+The vessel set sail, and reached the south of

+Norway.  There Grettir took ship in a trading keel, to

+go north to Drontheim, because he heard that the

+king was there, and his heart beat high with hopes

+that Olaf would acknowledge him as a cousin, and

+would take him into his body-guard, and treat him

+with honour; and that so, though he had had

+ill-luck in Iceland, good luck might attend him in

+Norway.

+

+

+

+

+

+.. vspace:: 4

+

+.. _`THE HOSTEL-BURNING`:

+

+.. class:: center large bold

+

+   CHAPTER XVII.

+

+

+.. class:: center medium bold

+

+   THE HOSTEL BURNING.

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+..

+   

+   *Aground in the Fiord—The Light over the Water—Grettir

+   Swims Across—The Fight for Fire—The Burned Hostel—At

+   Drontheim*

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+There lived a man named Thorir at Garth in

+Iceland who had spent the summer in Norway

+when Olaf returned from England, and he had stood

+in great favour with the king.  He had two sons,

+and at this time both were well-grown men.

+

+Thorir left Norway for Iceland, where he broke up

+his ship, not intending again to go a seafaring.

+But when he heard the tidings that Olaf was king

+over the whole of Norway, then he deemed it would

+be well for his sons to go there and pay their respects

+to the king, and remind him of his old friendship

+for their father.

+

+On reaching Norway much about the same time

+as had Grettir, they took a long rowing-boat, and

+skirted the coast on their way north to Drontheim.

+They preceded Grettir by a few days.  On reaching

+a fine fiord, in which there was shelter from the gales

+that began to bluster violently with the approach of

+winter, the sons of Thorir ran in their boat, and as

+there was a large wooden hostelry there built for the

+shelter of weather-bound travellers, they took refuge

+in it, and spent their days in hunting and their

+nights in revelry.

+

+Now it so fell out that Grettir's merchant ship

+came into this same fiord one evening and ran

+aground on the opposite shore to that on which was

+the hostel.  The night was bitterly cold; storms of

+snow drove over the country, whitening the

+mountains.  The men from the ship were worn out

+and numbed with cold, and they had no means of

+kindling a fire.  Then, all at once, they saw a light

+spring up on the opposite side of the firth, twinkling

+cheerfully between the trees.  This was a sight

+to make them more eager for a fire, and they began

+to wish that some one of their number would swim

+across and bring over a light.

+

+"In the good old times there must have been men

+who would have thought nothing of swimming across

+the streak of water at night," said Grettir.

+

+"No comfort to us to know that," said one of the

+crew.  "It does not concern us what may have been

+in the past, we are shivering in the present.  Why

+do you not get us fire?"

+

+Grettir hesitated.  The night was very like that

+on which he had fought with Glam: the same full

+moon, with snow-laden clouds rolling over its face

+for a while obscuring it, and then the full glare falling

+over the face of earth again; and, unaccountably, a

+sense of doubt and depression had come over him,

+as though that evil adversary were now about to

+revenge his downfall upon him.  He looked round

+suddenly, for he thought that the fearful eyes were

+staring at him from out of the black shadows of the

+fir-wood.

+

+The rest of the crew united in urging him, and at

+length, reluctantly, Grettir yielded.  He flung his

+clothes off, and prepared himself to swim.  He had

+on him a fur cape, and a pair of wadmal breeches.

+He took up an iron pot, and jumped into the sea

+and swam safely across.

+

+On reaching the further shore, he shook the water

+off him, but before long his trousers froze like boards,

+and the water formed in icicles about the cape.

+Grettir ascended through the pine-wood towards the

+light, and on reaching the hostel from which it

+proceeded, walked in without speaking to anyone, and

+striding up to the fire, stooped and began to scrape

+the red-hot embers into his iron pot.  The hall was

+full of revellers, and these revellers were the sons of

+Thorir and their boat's crew.  They were already

+more than half intoxicated, and when they saw a

+wild-looking man enter the hall, half naked and

+hung with icicles, they thought he must be a troll

+or mountain-spirit.

+

+At once every one caught up the first weapon to

+hand, and rushed to the attack.  Grettir defended

+himself with a fire-brand plucked from the hearth;

+the sons of Thorir stumbled over the fire, and the

+embers were strewn about over the floor that was

+covered with fresh straw.

+

+In a few moments the hall was filled with flame

+and smoke, and Grettir took advantage of the

+confusion to effect his escape.  He ran down to the

+shore, plunged into the sea and swam across.

+

+He found his companions waiting for him behind

+a rock, with a pile of dry wood which they had

+collected during his absence.  The cinders were

+blown upon, and twigs applied, till a blaze was

+produced, and before long the whole party sat

+rubbing their almost frozen hands over a cheerful

+fire.

+

+Next morning the merchants recognized the fiord,

+and, remembering that a hostel stood on the further

+side, they crossed the water to see it, when—what

+was their dismay to find of it only a heap of smoking

+embers!  From under some of the charred timber

+were thrust scorched human limbs.  The chapmen,

+in alarm and horror, turned upon Grettir and

+charged him with having maliciously burned the

+house with all its inmates.

+

+"See, now," said Grettir, "I had a thought that

+this expedition would not bring luck.  I would I

+had not taken the trouble to get fire for such a set

+of thankless churls."

+

+The ship's crew raked out the embers, pulled aside

+the smoking rafters, in their search for the bodies.

+Some of these were not so disfigured but that they

+could recognize them.  Moreover, they knew the ship

+that lay at anchor under the lee, hard by, and they

+saw that Grettir had brought the sons of Thorir to

+an untimely end.  The indignation of the merchants

+became so vehement, and their fear so great that they

+might be implicated in the matter, that they drove

+Grettir from their company, and refused to receive

+him into their vessel for the remainder of their

+voyage.  Grettir, in sullen wrath, would say no

+word of self-defence; he had to make his way on

+foot to Drontheim, where he resolved to lay the

+whole matter before the king.

+

+The vessel reached Drontheim before him, and

+the news of the hostel burning roused universal

+indignation against Grettir.

+

+

+

+

+

+.. vspace:: 4

+

+.. _`THE ORDEAL BY FIRE`:

+

+.. class:: center large bold

+

+   CHAPTER XVIII.

+

+

+.. class:: center medium bold

+

+   THE ORDEAL BY FIRE.

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+..

+   

+   *Grettir tells his Story—Preparing for the Ordeal—The

+   Procession—Attacked by the Mob—The King

+   Intervenes—Wicked or Unlucky*

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+One day, as King Olaf sat in audience in his great

+hall, Grettir strode in, and going before his

+seat, greeted the king.  Olaf looked at him and said:

+

+"Are you Grettir the Strong?"

+

+He answered: "That is my name, and I have

+come hither, kinsman, to get a fair hearing, and to

+clear myself of the charge of having burned men

+maliciously.  Of that I am guiltless."

+

+King Olaf replied: "I heartily trust that what

+you say is true, and that you will be able to rid

+yourself of a charge so bad."

+

+Grettir replied that he was ready to do whatsoever

+the king desired, in order to prove his innocence.

+

+Then said the king to him, "Tell me the whole

+story, that I may be able to judge."

+

+Grettir answered by relating the circumstances.

+He had simply taken fire from the hearth, when he

+was fallen upon by those who were drinking, and

+who were too tipsy to understand his explanation.

+He went away with the red-hot embers, and did not

+set fire to anything, but the drunken men kicked the

+glowing coals about amidst the straw.

+

+The king remained silent some moments, and then

+he said: "There are no witnesses either on your behalf

+or against you.  No man was by who is not dead.

+God and his angels alone know whether you speak

+the truth or not, therefore I must refer you to the

+judgment of God."

+

+"What must I do?" asked Grettir.

+

+"You will have to go through the ordeal of fire,"

+said the king.

+

+"What is that?" asked the young man.

+

+"You must lift bars of red-hot iron, and walk

+with bare feet on ploughshares heated red in a

+furnace."

+

+"And what if I am burnt?"

+

+"Then will you be adjudged guilty."

+

+Grettir shrugged his shoulders: "If it must be

+so, let it be at once; but whether I be burnt or not,

+I declare that I am clear of all intent to hurt those

+men."

+

+"You cannot undergo the ordeal now," said the

+king.  "You would be burned to a certainty.  You

+must go through preparation first."

+

+"What preparation?"

+

+"A week of fasting and prayer," was the reply.

+

+Then Grettir was taken away and put in ward,

+and fed with bread and water for a week, and the

+bishop visited him and taught him to pray that if

+he were innocent, God would reveal his innocence

+by enabling him to pass unscathed through the

+ordeal.

+

+The day came, and Drontheim was thronged with

+people from all the country round, to see the

+Icelander of whom such tales were told.  A procession

+was formed; first went the king's body-guard

+followed by the king himself, wearing his crown,

+then came the bishop, the choir, and the clergy, and

+last of all Grettir, his wild red hair flying loose in

+the breeze, his arms folded, and his eyes wandering

+over the sea of heads that filled the square before

+the cathedral doors.  The crowd pressed in closer

+and closer.  Opinions differed as to whether he

+were guilty or not.  Among the mob was a

+young man of dark complexion, who made a great

+noise, shouldering his way to the front, and shouting.

+

+"Look at the fellow!" he exclaimed.  "This is the

+man who, in cold blood, burnt down a house over

+helpless men, and now he is to be given u chance of

+escape."

+

+"But he says he is guiltless," argued one in the

+crowd.

+

+"Guiltless!" exclaimed the youth.  "If one of us

+had done the deed, should we have been trifled

+with?  The king wants him for his body-guard,

+because he is so strong."

+

+"He should be given a chance of clearing

+himself," said one who stood near.

+

+"Yes—of course—because he is a kinsman of the

+king.  So the irons have been painted red, to look

+as if hot.  I know how the trick is done.  But he

+shall not escape me."

+

+Thereupon the young man sprang at Grettir and

+drove his nails into his face so that they drew blood;

+at the same time he poured forth against him a

+stream of insulting names.

+

+This was more than the Icelander could bear; he

+caught the young man, as a cat catches a mouse,

+held him aloft, shook him, and then threw him

+away, when he fell on the ground and was stunned.

+It was feared he might be killed.  This act gave

+occasion to a general uproar; the mob wanted to

+lay hands on Grettir; some threw stones, others

+assaulted him with sticks; but he, planting his

+back against the church wall, turned up his sleeves,

+guarded off the blows, shouting to his assailants to

+come on.  Not a man came within his reach but

+was sent reeling back or was felled to the ground.

+In the meantime the king and the bishop were in

+the choir waiting.  The red-hot ploughshares which

+had been laid on the pavement were gradually

+cooling, but no Grettir appeared.

+

+.. _`GRETTIR DEFENDS HIMSELF FROM THE MOB`:

+

+.. figure:: images/img-165.jpg

+   :figclass: white-space-pre-line

+   :align: center

+   :alt: GRETTIR DEFENDS HIMSELF FROM THE MOB.

+

+   GRETTIR DEFENDS HIMSELF FROM THE MOB.

+

+At last the sounds of the uproar reached the

+king's ear, and he sent out to know the occasion.

+His messenger returned a moment after to report

+that the Icelander was fighting the whole town and

+had knocked down and well nigh killed several

+persons.  The king thereupon sprang from his throne,

+hastened down the nave, and came out of the

+great western door when the conflict was at its

+height.

+

+"Oh, sire," exclaimed Grettir, "see how I can

+fight the rascals!" and at the word he knocked a

+man over at the king's feet.

+

+With difficulty the tumult was arrested, and

+Grettir separated from the combatants; and then

+he wanted to go with the king and try the ordeal

+of fire.

+

+"Not so," answered Olaf, "you have already

+incurred sin.  It is possible that some of those you

+have knocked down may never recover, so that their

+blood will lie at your door."

+

+"What is to be done?" asked Grettir.

+

+The king considered.

+

+"I see you are a very wicked or at all events a

+very unlucky man.  When you were here before

+you were the occasion of several deaths.  I do not

+desire to keep you in Norway, but as winter has set

+in you may tarry here till next spring, and then

+you shall be outlawed and return to Iceland."

+

+

+

+

+

+.. vspace:: 4

+

+.. _`THE WINTER IN NORWAY`:

+

+.. class:: center large bold

+

+   CHAPTER XIX.

+

+

+.. class:: center medium bold

+

+   THE WINTER IN NORWAY.

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+..

+   

+   *At Einar's Farm—The Bearsarks—A Visit from

+   Snœkoll—The Bearsark's Demand—Grettir

+   Temporizes—The Bearsark has a Fit—Death

+   of Snœkoll—Dromund's History—Grettir's

+   Arms—A Pair of Tongs*

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+King Olaf had decided that Grettir must

+leave Norway and return to Iceland.  If he

+was not a guilty man he was a most unfortunate

+one.  Now, the Norse race, whether in Denmark,

+Norway, Sweden, or Iceland, believed in luck.  They

+said that certain men were born to ill-luck, and

+such men they avoided, because they feared lest the

+ill-luck that clung to them might attach itself

+to, and involve those who came in contact with them.

+

+It was not possible for Grettir to return that year

+to Iceland, for all the ships bound for his native

+land had sailed before winter set in, so King Olaf

+agreed to allow him to remain in the kingdom

+through the winter, but bound him to depart on the

+first opportunity next year.

+

+Somewhat sad at heart with disappointment, and

+with the impression that perhaps Olaf the king was

+right, and that ill-luck really did weigh on him,

+Grettir left the court, and went at Yule to the

+house of a bonder or yeoman called Einar, and

+remained with him awhile.  The farm was in a

+lonely place in a fiord opening back to the snowy

+mountains.  Einar was a kindly man, hospitable,

+and he did his best to make Grettir's stay with him

+pleasant.  He had a daughter, a fair, beautiful girl,

+with blue eyes, and hair like amber silk, and her

+name was Gyrid.  Perhaps the beautiful Gyrid was

+one attraction to Grettir, but if so he never spoke

+what was on his heart, because he knew it would

+be useless.  He was an unlucky man; he had made

+himself a name, indeed, as one of great daring, but

+he had won for himself neither home, nor riches,

+nor favour.

+

+Now it fell out that at this time there were some

+savage ruffians in the country who were called

+Bearsarks.  They were outlaws in most cases, and

+they lived in secret dens in the dense forests, whence

+they issued and swooped down on the farms, and

+there challenged the bonders to fight with them, or

+to give up to them whatever they needed.  These

+ruffians wore bear-skins drawn over their bodies,

+and they thrust their heads through the jaws of the

+beasts, so that they presented a hideous and

+frightening appearance.  Then they worked themselves

+into paroxysms of rage, when they were like madmen;

+they rolled their eyes, they roared and howled

+like wild beasts, and foam formed on their mouths

+and dropped on the ground.  They were wont also,

+when these fits came on them, to bite the edges of

+their shields, and with their fangs they were known

+to have dinted the metal quite deep.  Some folks

+even said they had bitten pieces out of solid shields.

+It was usually supposed that these Bearsarks were

+possessed by evil spirits, and it is probable that in

+many cases they were really mad—mad through

+having given way to their violent passions, till they

+knew no law, and thought to carry everything

+before them by their violence.  It was even at one

+time thought by the superstitious that they could

+change their shapes, and run about at will in the

+forms of bears or wolves; but this idea grew out of

+the fact of their clothing themselves in bear or wolf

+skins, and drawing the skull of the beast over their

+heads as a rude helmet, and looking out through

+the open jaws that thus formed a visor.

+

+One day, just after Yule, to the terror and dismay

+of Einar, one of the most redoubtable of these

+Bearsarks, a fellow called Snœkoll, came thundering up

+to his door on a huge black horse, followed by three

+or four others on foot, all clothed in skins; but

+Snœkoll, instead of wearing the bear's skin over

+his head, had on a helmet with great tusks of a

+boar protruding from it, and a boar's head drawn

+over the metal.

+

+It is worth remark that the crests worn later by

+knights, and which we have still on our plate and

+on harness, are derived from similar adornments

+to helmets.  Some warriors put wings of eagles on

+their head-pieces, others put the paws of bears or

+representations of lions.  These were badges of their

+prowess, or marks whereby they might be known.

+

+Snœkoll struck the door of the farmhouse with

+his spear, and roared to the owner to come forth.

+At once Einar and Grettir issued from the hall, and

+Einar in great trepidation asked the Bearsark what

+he wanted.

+

+"What do I want?" shouted Snœkoll.  "I want

+one of two things.  Either that you give me up your

+beautiful daughter to be my wife, and with her

+five-score bags of silver, or else that you fight me here.

+If you kill me, then luck is yours.  If I kill you,

+then I shall carry off your daughter and all that

+you possess."

+

+Einar turned to Grettir and asked him in a

+whisper what he was to do.  He himself was an old

+man whose fighting days were over, and he had no

+chance against this savage.

+

+Grettir answered that he had better consult his

+honour and the happiness of Gyrid, and not give

+way to a bully.  The Bearsark sat on his horse

+rolling his eyes from one to another.  He had a

+great iron-rimmed shield before him.

+

+Then he bellowed forth: "Come!  I am not going

+to wait here whilst you consider matters.  Make

+your selection of the two alternatives at once.

+What is that great lout at your side whispering?

+Does he want to play a little game of who is master

+along with me?"

+

+"For my part," said Grettir, "the farmer and I

+are about in equal predicament; he is too old to

+fight, and I am unskilled in arms."

+

+"I see!  I see!" roared Snœkoll.  "You are both

+trembling in your shoes.  Wait till my fit is on

+me, and then you will shake indeed."

+

+"Let us see how you look in your Bearsark fit,"

+said Grettir.

+

+Then Snœkoll waxed wroth, and worked himself

+up into one of the fits of madness.  There can be

+no doubt that in some cases this was all bluster and

+sham.  But in many cases these fellows really roused

+themselves into perfect frenzies of madness in which

+they did not know what they did.

+

+Now Snœkoll began to bellow like a bull, and to

+roll his eyes, and he put the edge of the great

+shield in his mouth and bit at it, and blew foam

+from his lips that rolled down the face of the shield.

+Grettir fixed his eyes steadily on him, and put his

+hands into his pockets.  Snœkoll rocked himself on

+his horse, and his companions began also to bellow,

+and stir themselves up into madness.  Grettir, with

+his eye fixed steadily on the ruffian, drew little by

+little nearer to him; but as he had no weapon, and

+held his hands confined, Snœkoll, if he did observe

+him, disregarded him.  When Grettir stood close

+beside him and looked up at the red glaring eyes,

+the foaming lips of Snœkoll, and heard his howls

+and the crunching of his great teeth against the

+strong oak and iron of the shield, he suddenly

+laughed, lifted his foot, caught the bottom of the

+shield a sudden kick upwards, and the shield with

+the violence of the upward shock broke Snœkoll's

+jaw.  Instantly the Bearsark stopped his bellows,

+let fall the shield, and before he could draw his

+sword Grettir caught his helmet by the great boar

+tusks, gave them a twist, and rolled Snœkoll down

+off his horse on the ground, knelt on him, and with

+the ruffian's own sword dealt him his death-blow.

+

+When the others saw the fall of their chief they

+ceased their antics, turned and ran away to hide in

+the woods.

+

+The bonder, Einar, thanked Grettir for his

+assistance, and the lovely Gyrid gave him also her

+grateful acknowledgments and a sweet smile; but

+Grettir knew that a portionless unlucky man like

+himself could not aspire to her hand, and feeling

+that he was daily becoming more attached to her,

+he deemed it right at once to leave, and he went

+away to a place called Tunsberg, where lived his

+half-brother, Thorstein Dromund.

+

+Now, to understand the relationship of Dromund

+to Grettir, you must know that his father, Asmund,

+had been twice married.  He had been in Norway

+when a young man with a merchant ship, and he

+had also gone with his wares to England and

+France, and had gained great wealth; and as he

+had many relations in Norway he was well received

+there in winter, when he came back from his

+merchant trips.  On one of these occasions he had met

+a damsel called Ranveig, whose father and mother

+were dead.  She was of good birth, and was wealthy.

+Asmund asked for her hand and married her, and

+settled on the lands that belonged to her in Norway.

+They had a son called Thorstein, who, because he

+was rather slow of speech and manner, was

+nicknamed Dromund; but as we meet with other

+Thorsteins in this story, to prevent confusion we will

+speak of him as Dromund.

+

+After a while Asmund's wife Ranveig died, and

+then her relatives insisted on taking away all her

+lands and possessions and keeping them in trust for

+little Dromund.  Asmund did not care to quarrel

+with them, so he left Dromund with his late wife's

+relatives and went home to Iceland, where, after a

+few years, he married Asdis, and by her became the

+father of Atli, Grettir, and Illugi, and of two

+daughters, one of whom he named after his first wife.

+

+Dromund grew up in Norway on his estates at

+Tunsberg, and became a man of wealth and renown,

+a quiet man, but one who held his own, and was

+generally respected.

+

+Now Grettir went to him, and his half-brother

+received him very affectionately, and insisted on

+his remaining with him all the rest of the winter

+till it was time for him to sail to Iceland.

+

+One little incident is mentioned concerning that

+time that deserves to be recorded.

+

+Grettir slept in the same apartment as did his

+brother.

+

+One morning Dromund awoke early, and he saw

+how that Grettir's arms were out of bed, and he

+wondered at their size.

+

+Presently Grettir awoke, and then Dromund said

+to him: "Grettir, I have been amused with looking

+at your bare arms.  What muscles you have got!

+I never saw the like."

+

+"I need strong muscles to do what I have to do."

+

+"True enough, brother," said Dromund.  "But I

+could wish there were a little more luck as well as

+muscle attached to those bones."

+

+"Let me look at your arms," said Grettir.

+

+Then Dromund put his arms out of bed, and

+when he saw them Grettir burst out laughing, for

+they were so thin and scraggy.

+

+"Upon my word, brother, I never saw such a

+wretched pair of tongs in my life," he said.

+

+"They may be a pair of tongs, old boy," answered

+Dromund, "but they are tongs that shall ever be

+extended to help you when in need.  And," added

+Dromund in a lower tone, "if it should ever befall

+you that your ill-luck should overmaster you, and

+you not die in your bed; then, Grettir, I promise

+you, if I am alive, that I shall not let this pair of

+tongs rest till, with them, I have avenged you."

+

+No more is related of their talk together.  The

+spring wore on, and in summer Grettir took ship.

+

+The brothers parted with much affection, and

+they never again saw each other's face.

+

+

+

+

+

+.. vspace:: 4

+

+.. _`OF WHAT BEFELL AT BIARG`:

+

+.. class:: center large bold

+

+   CHAPTER XX.

+

+

+.. class:: center medium bold

+

+   OF WHAT BEFELL AT BIARG.

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+..

+   

+   *Thorbiorn's Servant—Ali at Biarg—Seeking a

+   Quarrel—A Fair Answer—Atli's Dilemma—Thorbiorn's

+   Revenge—The Slaying of Atli—Atli's Grave*

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+Whilst Grettir was in Norway, that ill-luck

+which pursued him did not fail to touch and

+trouble his Icelandic home as well.

+

+It will be remembered that Grettir had been

+forced to fight the Slowcoach, and had killed him.

+Now the cousin of this man was Thorbiorn Oxmain,

+who lived in the Ramsfirth.  This Thorbiorn had

+got a serving-man named Ali, a somewhat lazy man,

+strong, but unruly.  As he did his work badly, and

+was slow about it, his master rebuked him, and when

+rebukes failed, he threatened him.  Threats also

+proved unavailing, so Thorbiorn one day took the stick

+to his back, and beat him till he danced.  After this

+Ali would remain no longer in his service; he ran

+away, crossed the ridge to the Midfiord, and came

+to Biarg, where he presented himself before Atli,

+who asked him what he wanted.

+

+The fellow said that he was in quest of service.

+

+"But," said Atli, "you are, I understand, one of

+Thorbiorn's workmen."

+

+"I was so, but I have left his service because I

+was badly treated.  He beat me till I was black

+and blue; no one can remain with him, he is so

+rough with his men, and he exacts of them too much

+work.  I have come here because I hear that you

+treat your servants well."

+

+Atli replied: "I have hands enough, you had

+better go back to Thorbiorn, for I do not want you."

+

+"I will never go back to him, that I declare,"

+said the churl.  "If you turn me away, I have

+nowhere to which I can go."

+

+So he remained for a few nights at Biarg; and

+Atli did not like to turn him out of the house.  Then

+one day he went to work with Atli's men, and

+worked hard and well, for he was a powerful man.

+So time passed.  Atli did not agree to pay him any

+wage, and he did not send him away.  He did not

+feel best pleased at having the man there, but he

+was too kind-hearted to drive him away.

+

+Not only did he remain there and work well, but

+he showed himself ready to turn his hand to anything,

+and was the most useful man about the place.

+

+Now Thorbiorn heard that his churl was at Biarg.

+The death of Slowcoach had rankled in his breast.

+He had felt that it was his duty to take up the case

+and demand recompense, yet he had not done so;

+now he was angered that Atli had opened his doors

+to his runaway servant.  He had covenanted with

+the man for a year, but the fellow was so disagreeable

+that he would have gladly dispensed with his

+service; but that Atli should have received him,

+and that the man should be making himself useful

+at Biarg,—that made him very angry indeed.

+

+So he mounted his horse and rode to Biarg, attended

+by two men, and called out Atli to talk with him.

+

+Atli came forth and welcomed him.

+

+Then Thorbiorn said: "You are determined to

+pick up fresh occasion of quarrel, and stir ill-will

+between us.  Why have you enticed away my

+servant?  You had no right to behave thus to me."

+

+Atli replied quietly: "You are mistaken.  I did

+not entice him away.  The fellow came to me.  I

+did not know for certain that he was your servant,

+nor did I know for how long he was engaged to you.

+Show me that I have done wrong and I will make

+reparation.  If he is yours, reclaim him, I will not

+keep him.  At the same time I do not like to shut

+him out of my house."

+

+"I claim the man," said Thorbiorn; "I forbid him

+to do a stroke of work here.  I expect him returned

+to me."

+

+"Nay," said Atli, "take the man, you are welcome

+to him; but I cannot bind him hand and foot and

+convey him to your house.  If you can get him to

+go with you, well and good, I will not detain him."

+

+Atli had answered fairly, but this did not satisfy

+Thorbiorn; he knew that he could not drag the man

+back to his farm, nor could he persuade him to

+follow, so he rode home in a mighty bad temper,

+his heart boiling with anger against Atli.  And now

+he thought that he would at one and the same time

+punish Atli for taking away his servant, and wipe

+out the wrong of the slaying of the Slowcoach.

+

+In the evening when the men came in from work,

+Atli said that Thorbiorn had been there and had

+reclaimed his churl, and Atli bade the fellow depart

+and go back to his master.

+

+Then the man said: "That's a true proverb, He

+who is most praised is found most faulty at the test.

+I came to you because I heard so much good of you,

+and now that I have toiled for you without wages

+all the early summer, as I have worked for none

+else, you want to kick me out of doors as winter

+draws on.  I will not go.  You will have to beat

+me as Thorbiorn beat me to make me leave this

+house, and then, even, I am not sure but that I

+shall remain in spite of being beaten."

+

+Atli did not know exactly what to do.  He did

+not wish to ill-treat the fellow, and yet without

+ill-treatment there was no getting rid of him.  So he

+let him remain on.

+

+One day a warm wet rainy mist covered the land,

+the hills were enveloped in cloud; Atli sent out

+some of his men to mow at a distance where there

+was some grass, and others he sent out fishing.  He

+remained at home himself with only two or three men.

+

+That day Thorbiorn rode over the ridge that

+divided the dales, with a helmet on his head, a

+sword at his side, and a barbed spear in his hand.

+He came to Biarg, and no one noticed his approach.

+He went to the main door, and knocked at it.  Then

+he drew back behind the buildings, so that no one

+might see him from the door.  In Iceland the walls

+of a house between the gables are buttressed with

+turf—thick walls or buttresses that project several

+feet, and are about six or nine feet thick.  Such

+buttresses stood one on each side of the hall door

+at Biarg, and behind one of these Thorbiorn

+concealed himself.

+

+When he had knocked at the door, a woman came

+to it, unbarred and looked up and down the terrace

+or platform on which the house was built, but saw

+no one.  Thorbiorn peeped from behind the wall of

+turf and caught a glimpse of her, and then backed

+again into his hiding-place.  The woman then

+returned into the house, and told Atli that there

+was no one outside.

+

+She had hardly spoken before Thorbiorn knocked

+again.  Then Atli jumped up and said: "There must

+be someone there, and I will go and see myself who

+it is."

+

+Then he went forth and looked out of the door,

+but saw no one, as Thorbiorn had again retreated

+behind the bank of turf.  The water was streaming

+down, so Atli did not go from under cover, but laid

+a hand on each of the door-posts, and looked up and

+down the valley.

+

+Just as he was looking away from where Thorbiorn

+was concealed, that man suddenly swung himself

+round the bank of turf, and with all his might

+drove the spear against Atli, using both his hands.

+The spear entered him below the ribs, and ran right

+through him.  Atli uttered no cry, and fell forward

+over the threshold.  At that the women rushed

+forth, and they took Atli up, but he was dead.

+

+Then Thorbiorn, who had run to his horse, which

+was tied up behind the house, rode out on the

+terrace, and halting before the door proclaimed that

+he had done this deed.

+

+Now this was a formality which, according to

+Icelandic law, made his act to be not regarded as a

+murder.  A murder by law was the slaying of a

+man by one who concealed his name.

+

+Then Thorbiorn rode home.

+

+The goodwife, Asdis, sent for her men, and Atli's

+body was laid out, and he was buried beside his

+father, old Asmund, who had died during the winter.

+There was a church in those days at Biarg, but there

+is none there now.  When I was there I asked of the

+farmer now living in Biarg where was the old

+churchyard, but its site was lost; so I could not tell

+where were the graves of Atli the kind-hearted,

+honourable man, and the rest of the family.

+

+Great was the lamentation through the district

+at the death of one so loved and respected, and hard

+things were said of Thorbiorn for what he had done.

+

+

+

+

+

+.. vspace:: 4

+

+.. _`THE RETURN OF GRETTIR`:

+

+.. class:: center large bold

+

+   CHAPTER XXI.

+

+

+.. class:: center medium bold

+

+   THE RETURN OF GRETTIR.

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+..

+   

+   *An Old Charge—Trial in Absence—Three Messengers

+   of Ill—Grettir and his Mother—Grettir goes to

+   Revenge Atli*

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+That same summer news reached Iceland of the

+burning of the hostel by Grettir.  When Thorir

+of Garth heard of the death of his sons he was

+furious.  He rode to the great annual assize at

+Thingvalla, with a large retinue, and charged Grettir

+with having killed his boys maliciously; and he

+demanded that for this offence Grettir should be

+outlawed.

+

+Then Skapti the judge said: "If things are as

+reported, then surely Grettir has committed an evil

+deed; but we have only heard one side of the story,

+and we only know of what has happened at third

+hand, by report; there are two ways of telling every

+story.  Let us wait till Grettir returns to Iceland.

+There will be time enough for this action to be

+taken.  I will not give my word that Grettir is guilty

+till we have heard what he has to say for himself."

+

+But Thorir was such a powerful chieftain that he

+overbore all resistance.  It was said that he could

+not lawfully take action against a man in his

+absence; but this was overridden by Thorir, who by

+packing the court was able to carry out what he

+wanted.  Moreover, owing to the death of Atli there

+was no one to oppose him vigorously.

+

+He pushed on matters so hard that nought could

+avail to acquit Grettir, and he was proclaimed an

+outlaw throughout the whole of Iceland, and Thorir

+also put a price on his head of many ounces of silver,

+which he said he would pay to that man who would

+kill him in Norway or Iceland, or wherever he might

+find him.

+

+Towards the close of the summer Grettir arrived

+in a vessel off the mouth of the White-river, an exile

+from Norway.

+

+It was a still summer night when the ship

+dropped anchor.  A boat came from the shore, and

+was rowed to the ship.  Grettir stood watching it

+from the bows, leaning on his sword.  As it touched

+the side of the ship, he called, "What news do you

+bring?"

+

+"Are you Grettir, Asmund's son?" asked a man

+rising in the boat.

+

+"I am," replied Grettir.

+

+"Then we bear you ill news: your father is dead."

+

+Another man stood up in the boat, and said:

+"Grettir, he was an old man, and you can hardly

+have expected to hear that he was still alive.  But

+what I have to say concerns you as closely, and is

+unexpected.  Your brother Atli has been slain by

+Thorbiorn Oxmain."

+

+Then a third man rose and said: "But these tidings

+concern others first and you secondly.  What I

+have to say concerns you mainly.  You have been

+made an outlaw throughout the length and breadth

+of the land, and a price is set on your head."

+

+It is said that Grettir did not change colour, nor

+did a muscle in his whole body quiver; but he lifted

+up his voice and sang this strain—

+

+   |  "All at once are showered

+   |  Round me, the Rhymer,

+   |  Tidings sad—my exile,

+   |  Father's loss and brother's,

+   |  Branching boughs of battle!

+   |  Many a blue-blade-breaker

+   |  Shall suffer for my sorrow."

+   |

+

+The branching bough of battle is a periphrasis for

+a man, so also is a blue-blade-breaker; and it is the

+use of such periphrases that constituted poetry to

+Icelandic ideas.  One night Grettir swam ashore.

+He thought that his enemies would be awaiting him,

+and should he venture to land in a boat would fall

+on him in overwhelming numbers; so he took to

+the water and swam to a point at some distance.

+Then he took a horse that he found in a farm near

+where he came ashore, and he rode across country to

+the Middle-firth, and reached home in two days.  He

+reached Biarg during the night when all were asleep;

+so instead of disturbing the household, he opened a

+private door, stepped into the hall, stole up to his

+mother's bed, and threw his arms round her neck.

+

+She started up, and asked who was there.  When

+he told her, she clasped him to her heart, and laid

+her head, sobbing, on his breast, saying.  "Oh, my

+son!  I am bereaved of my children!  Atli, my

+eldest, has been foully murdered, and you are

+outlawed; only Illugi remains."

+

+Grettir remained at home a few days in close

+concealment.  Even the men of the farm were not

+suffered to know that he was there.  He heard the

+story of how Thorbiorn Oxmain had basely and in

+cowardly manner slain his brother, when Atli was

+unarmed; and Grettir considered that it was his duty

+to avenge his death.

+

+

+

+

+

+.. vspace:: 4

+

+.. _`THE SLAYING OF OXMAIN`:

+

+.. class:: center large bold

+

+   CHAPTER XXII

+

+

+.. class:: center medium bold

+

+   THE SLAYING OF OXMAIN.

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+..

+   

+   *By the Boiling Spring—Grettir

+   knocks the Nail from his Spear—Oxmain places his

+   Son in Ambush—The Fight with Oxmain—Grettir's

+   Spear-head—The Law concerning Manslaying—A

+   Rising Black Cloud*

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+One fine day, soon after his return, Grettir

+mounted a horse, and without an attendant

+rode over the hill to the Ramsfirth, and came down

+to Thorod's-stead.  This is still a good farm, the

+best on the fiord, and it is by far the best built pile

+of buildings thereabouts.  It faces the south and is

+banked up with turf to the north, to shelter it

+against the cold and furious gales from the Polar

+Sea.  The soil is comparatively rich there, and there

+are tracts of good grass land on the slope of the

+hill by the side of the inlet of sea.  The farm

+buildings consists at present of a set of wooden

+gable ends painted red, and the roofs are all of turf,

+where the buttercups grow and shine luxuriantly.

+

+Grettir rode up to the farmhouse, about noon, and

+knocked at the door.  Some women came out and

+welcomed him; they did not know who he was,

+or they would have been more sparing in their

+welcome.  He asked after Thorbiorn, and was told

+that he was gone to the meadow, a little way further

+down the firth, where he had gone to bind hay, and

+that he had taken with him his son, called Arnor,

+who was a boy of sixteen.

+

+When Grettir heard this, he said farewell to the

+women, and turned his horse's head to ride down

+the fiord towards a boiling spring that bubbles up

+out of the rock, throwing up a cloud of steam, and

+running in a scalding rill into the sea.  Now the

+rock is perhaps warm there, or the warm water helps

+vegetation; certain it is that thereabouts the grass

+grows thickly, and there it was that Thorbiorn was

+making his bundles of hay.  As Grettir rode along

+near the water, below the field, Thorbiorn saw him.

+He had just made up one bundle of hay, and he was

+engaged on another.  He had set his shield and

+sword against the load, and his lad Arnor had a

+hand-axe beside him.

+

+Thorbiorn looked hard at Grettir as he came along,

+and he said to the boy: "There is a fellow riding this

+way.  I wonder who he is, and whether he wants us.

+Leave tying up the hay, and let us find out what his

+errand is."

+

+Then Grettir leaped off his horse; he had a helmet

+on his head, and was girt with the short sword, and

+he bore a great spear in his hand that had a long

+sharp blade but no barbs.  The socket was inlaid

+with silver, and a nail went through the socket

+fastening it on to the staff of the spear.  He sat

+down on a stone, and knocked the nail out.  His

+reason was that he intended to throw the spear at

+Thorbiorn, and if he missed him, he thought the

+spear-head and the haft would come apart, and would

+be of no use to Thorbiorn to fling back at him.

+

+Oxmain said to his son: "I verily believe that is

+Grettir, Asmund's son, he is so big; I know no one

+else so big.  He has got occasion enough against us,

+and if he is come here it is not with peaceable

+intentions.  Now we must manage cunningly.  I

+do not know that he has seen you; so you hide

+behind the bundle of hay, and lie hid till you see

+him engaged with me.  Then you steal up noiselessly

+behind with your axe, and strike him one blow with

+all your might between the shoulder-blades.  When

+I see you coming up, I will fight the more furiously

+so as to draw off his attention, that he may not be

+able to look round.  Have no fear, he cannot hurt

+you, as his back will be turned to you.  Get close

+enough to make sure, and you will kill him with one

+blow."

+

+Now Grettir came uphill into the field, and when

+he came within a spear-throw of them, he cast his

+spear at Thorbiorn; but the head was looser on the

+shaft than he had expected it would be, and it

+became detached in its flight, and fell off and

+dropped into a marshy place and sank, and the shaft

+flew on but a little way and then fell harmlessly to

+the ground.

+

+Then Thorbiorn took his shield, put it before him,

+drew his sword and ran against Grettir and engaged

+him.  Grettir had, as already said, the short sword

+that he had taken out of the barrow, and with that

+he warded off the blows of Thorbiorn and smote at

+him.  Oxmain was a very strong man, and his

+shield was covered with well-tanned hide stretched

+over oak, and the blade of Grettir fell on it, hacked

+into it, and sometimes caught so that he could not at

+once withdraw it.  Thorbiorn now began to deal more

+furious blows.  Now just as Grettir was wrenching his

+sword away from the shield, into which it had bitten

+deep, he saw someone close behind him with an axe

+raised.  Instantly he tore out his sword and smote

+back over his head to protect his back from his

+assailant behind, and the blow came on Arnor just

+as he was on the point of driving his axe in between

+the shoulders of Grettir, so that he staggered back,

+mortally wounded.  Thorbiorn, whose eye was on

+his son, retreated a step, lost his presence of mind for

+a moment, and thereupon down came Grettir's sword

+on his shield and split it in half.  Grettir pursued

+his advantage, pressed on him, and struck him down

+at his feet, dead at a blow.

+

+Then he went in search of his silver-inlaid

+spear-head, but could not find it.  So he mounted his

+horse again, rode on to the nearest farmhouse, and

+there told what he had done.  Many, many years

+after, about 1250, the spear-head was found in the

+marsh.  When I was in Iceland I also obtained a

+very similar spear-head, only not silver-inlaid, that

+was found in the volcanic sand; it had probably been

+lost in a very similar manner.

+

+It seems to us in these civilized times very horrible

+this continual slaying that took place in Iceland;

+but we must remember that, as already said, there

+were in those days not a single policeman, soldier,

+or officer of justice in the island.  When a trial took

+place, the prosecutor was the person aggrieved, or

+the nearest akin.  The court pronounced sentence,

+and then the prosecutor was required to carry out

+what the law had ordered.  He was to be constable

+and executioner.  Now the law, or custom which

+was the same as law, for there was no written code,

+was that when one man had been killed, the next of

+kin was bound to prosecute the slayer and obtain

+from him money compensation, or outlawry, or else

+he might kill the slayer himself, or one of his kin.

+This latter provision seems to us outrageous, that

+because A kills B, therefore that C, who is B's

+brother, may kill D, who is brother to A.  But so the

+law or custom stood and was recognized as binding,

+and not to carry out the law or custom was regarded

+as dishonourable.  It must be remembered that

+Iceland was colonized about A.D. 900, and that Grettir

+was born only about 97 years after, and that

+Christianity was adopted in 1000; that is to say, it

+was sanctioned by law, but no one was forced to

+become a Christian unless he liked.  Also, that there

+was no government in the island, no central authority,

+and that the colonists lived much as do the first

+settlers now in a new colony which is not under the

+crown, or like the diggers at the gold mines.

+

+When Grettir had slain Thorbiorn Oxmain, he went

+home to Biarg and told his mother, who said it was

+well that Atli's blood was wiped out by the death of

+the man who had so basely and in such cowardly

+fashion slain him; but she said she foresaw more

+trouble coming like a rising black cloud, and that

+this would make it more difficult for Grettir to get

+relief from his outlawry.

+

+

+

+

+

+.. vspace:: 4

+

+.. _`AT LEARWOOD`:

+

+.. class:: center large bold

+

+   CHAPTER XXIII.

+

+

+.. class:: center medium bold

+

+   AT LEARWOOD.

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+..

+   

+   *At Hvamsfiord—Iceland Scenery—An Iceland

+   Paradise—One Lucky Chance—Kuggson's Story—Onund's

+   Voyage—In Search of Uninhabited Land—The

+   Landing—Eric's Gift—A Cold Back!—Better than

+   Nothing—An Oversight—Death of Onund—Planning

+   a Murder—Killing the Curd Bottle—The Churl's

+   Axe—The Red Stream—Hard Times—The "Wooden-tub"—The

+   Stranded Whale—The Fight over the Whale—Retreat

+   of the Coldbackers—Before the Assize—The Judgment—An

+   Evil Act—Ill-luck follows Ill*

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+After the slaying of Thorbiorn Oxmain, Grettir

+would not remain at home, lest trouble should

+come on his mother; so he rode across the Neck first

+of all to his brother-in-law, at Melar, at the head of

+the Ramsfirth, to ask his advice.  His brother-in-law

+there was called Gamli; he was not very rich or

+powerful, and he represented to Grettir that it would

+never do for him to remain in such near proximity

+to Thorod's-stead, in the same valley, at the head of

+the same firth.  This Grettir acknowledged, so he

+stayed there but a few days, and then rode over the

+high table-land to the Lax, or Salmon-dale, where

+was the watershed, and the river of the salmon

+ran west into Hvamsfiord.  One of the most interesting

+and best written of the Icelandic sagas relates

+to the history of this valley.  The Hvamsfiord is by

+nature wonderfully protected against western storms,

+for the entrance is almost blocked to the west by a

+countless multitude of islands, of which only one is

+moderately large, and to the north-west is not only

+a grassy promontory, but also a natural breakwater

+of three long narrow islands.

+

+Outside the cluster of islands are eddies and

+whirlpools, and the passage between them is not

+always safe; but when a vessel has passed through

+between the islets it enters as into a wide beautiful

+inland lake, the shape of which is that of a boot,

+with the sole to the east and the toe turned up

+north.  Moreover, along the north side of this

+sheltered firth are high and steep hills that

+screen from the water all gales sweeping from the

+Pole; and in the glens and under the crags of these

+hills exposed to the south are beautiful woods of

+birch.

+

+Formerly in Iceland the woods were much more

+extensive than they are now; for the old settlers

+found in them plenty of fuel, and the birch-trees

+grew to a fair size.  Now, alas, with fatal want of

+consideration, the trees have been so cut down that

+the woods are rare and the trees are small.  There

+is hardly a birch-tree whose top one cannot touch

+when riding through a wood on a little pony no

+bigger than a Shetlander.

+

+Exactly at the toe of the boot is a rich grassy

+basin, where two streams flow into the fiord, and

+here is a beautiful view from the water.  One sees

+in front the green basin, and above it rise the

+mountains to Skeggoxl, a cone covered with eternal snows

+and with glaciers streaming down its flanks.  Here, in

+a sweet sheltered nook, basking in the sun, in spring

+with the river-side and the marshes blazing with

+immense marigolds, and with the short grass slopes

+speckled with blue tiny gentianella, is the farm, and

+near it the wooden church of Hvam.  In another

+part of the basin is a settlement called Asgard, the

+"Home of the gods;" for those who settled there first

+thought the spot so delightful, so warm, that they

+named it after the sunny land of fable, where it

+was said that their ancestors, the hero-gods of the

+northern race, had lived in the east before ever they

+crossed Russia and settled in Norway.  Asgard to

+their minds was Paradise.

+

+Paradise in Iceland is not a paradise elsewhere;

+nevertheless, to one who has travelled over barren

+hills and between glaciers, this warm nook with its

+green grass and woods of glistening birch was a place

+of inexpressible charm.  Now, just to the east, where

+would come the ball of the toe, looking across the

+end of this still blue lake-like fiord, up the valleys

+to the snows of Skeggoxl, is the farm of Learwood,

+in a grassy flat by the water, backed by birchwood

+and hills, and screened from the east as well as from

+the north winds.  Here lived Thorstein Kuggson.

+Kuggson's mother was the daughter of Asgeir, the

+father of Audun of Willowdale, with whom Grettir

+had a tussle on the ice, and whom he afterwards

+upset with his foot when he was carrying curds.

+Kuggson through his father was related to the

+influential and wealthy family in the Laxdale, whose

+history is well known through the noble saga that

+relates the story of that valley.

+

+Grettir spent the autumn with his relative

+Kuggson.  Now, whilst he was there he fell to talking

+one day with Kuggson about his trial of strength

+with Audun, and Grettir said how glad he was that

+nothing had come of it.  It was said that he was

+a man of ill-luck; yet luck had befriended him on

+that occasion in sending Bard to interrupt the

+struggle before both lost their tempers and the

+quarrel became serious.

+

+Then said Kuggson: "You remind me of the story

+of Bottle-back, which, of course, you know."

+

+"It is many years since I have heard the tale,"

+answered Grettir; "for, indeed, I can be little at

+home now, and am out of the way of hearing stories

+of one's forefathers.  Tell me the tale."

+

+Then Kuggson told Grettir

+

+.. vspace:: 3

+

+.. class:: center bold

+

+   The Story of Bottle-Back

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+"You know very surely, Grettir, that your

+great-grandfather was Onund Treefoot.  He was so called

+because in the great battle of Haf's fiord, fought

+against King Harald, he had one of his legs cut off

+below the knee.  You have been told how that

+Onund had first to wife Asa, and that he settled at

+Cold-back; and he had by his first wife two sons,

+Thorgeir and Ufeig, who was also called Grettir,

+and it is after him that you are named.  Onund's

+second wife was the mother of Thorgrim Grizzlepate,

+your grandfather.

+

+"The story I am going to tell you relates to

+Thorgeir, the eldest son of Onund, and how he got the

+name of Bottle-back.  You might think he acquired

+the designation from a rounded back.  It was not

+so, he had a back as straight as yours.

+

+"But to understand the story of how he got the

+name, I must go back to the time when Onund,

+your great-grandfather, came to Iceland.  That was

+in the year of Christ 900; he was unable to remain

+any longer in Norway, because the king, Harald, was

+in such enmity with him.  So he resolved that he

+would come to Iceland and seek there a new home.

+Now this was somewhat late, for the colonization

+of this island had begun some five or six and twenty

+years before, and there had come out great numbers

+of Norwegian chiefs, who fled from the rapacity and

+the vengeance of King Harald Fairhair, who

+outlawed every man who took up arms against him."

+

+But the story shall be told not in Kuggson's

+words, but in mine.

+

+Onund sailed to Iceland from Norway in the

+summer of A.D. 900, and he had a hard voyage and

+baffling winds from the south that drove him far

+away to the north into the Polar Sea, till he came

+near the pack-ice; and then there came a change, and

+he made south, and after much beating about, for

+he had lost his reckoning, he made land, and found

+that he had come upon the north coast of Iceland,

+and those who knew the looks of the land said he

+was off the Strand Bay.  To the west rose the rocks

+and glaciers of the Drang Jokull, and to the east

+the long promontory that separated the Hunafloi

+from Skagafiord.

+

+Presently a ten-oared boat put off from shore,

+rowed by six men, and approached Onund's vessel,

+and the men in the boat hailed the vessel and asked

+whose it was.  Onund gave his name and inquired

+to whom the men belonged.  They said they were

+servant men belonging to a farm at Drangar, just

+under the mighty field of glacier of Drang Jokull.

+Onund asked if all the land was taken up by settlers,

+and the men answered that along the north coast all

+such land as was worth anything was taken already,

+and that most was also settled to the south.

+

+Then Onund consulted with his shipmates what

+was to be done, whether coast along the north

+protuberance of Iceland in search of uninhabited land,

+or go into the great bay and see whether any chance

+opened for them there.  They had arrived so late

+in Iceland after the main rush of settlers that they

+could not expect to get any really favourable quarters.

+The men advised against exploring the north,

+exposed to the cold gales from the Polar Sea, where

+the fiords would be blocked with ice half the year;

+and thought there would be no harm trying what

+they could find further south.

+

+So Onund turned his vessel in towards the head

+of the splendid bay Hunafloi; but seeing a creek that

+seemed fairly sheltered, having on the north some

+quaint spikes of rock, and a great mountain to the

+south like a horn, and finding that this fiord gave

+a turn northwards under the shelter of the mountains,

+the men with Onund's consent ran in there,

+and having anchored the vessel, entered a boat and

+rowed ashore.  On reaching the strand they were

+met by men who asked them who they were and

+what they did there.  Onund said he had come

+with peaceable intentions, and then he was told that

+all that fiord was occupied, and that the owner of

+the land was Eric Trap, a wealthy man.  Eric came

+to the beach and hospitably invited Onund and his

+ship's crew to his house.  There Onund told him his

+difficulty.  He had come to Iceland too late, and

+he feared that he would be able nowhere to find

+unclaimed lands.

+

+Eric considered a while, and then said there was

+more land that he had claimed than he could well

+keep in hand, and that he would be pleased to

+accommodate a man of such noble family and character

+as was Onund.  Onund pressed him to receive

+payment for the land, but this Eric generously refused.

+When he had come there, said Eric, the country had

+been unpeopled, and he had just claimed what he

+liked, and had claimed more than he wanted.  Now

+he desired to have neighbours, and if Onund would

+be friendly none would be better pleased than

+himself to have him near.

+

+This gratifying offer satisfied Onund, but, as the

+saying is, 'Don't look a gift-horse in the mouth,' he

+did not at once close with the offer, but asked to be

+allowed to see the land Eric was so ready to part

+with.

+

+Accordingly he rode with Eric along the coast,

+passed the headland where was the horn-shaped

+mountain, and came upon a fiord where some boiling

+springs poured up in the sea out of its depths; the

+mountains on the north came down so abruptly to

+the water's edge that the only habitable ground lay

+at the head of the firth and on the south side, having

+a northern aspect.  Moreover there was a lofty range

+to the south, so that in winter the sun would never

+light up this firth.  Onund did not much like it, he

+thought that Eric had offered him the place because

+he did not care for it himself; so he went across the

+mountain range and down into the little bay south

+of it.  As they rode it was over snow, a long

+descent of wintry mountain, till they reached a valley

+in which was a hot spring, a little lake, and some

+grass.  The situation was somewhat more inviting

+than that Onund had already seen, but it was not

+very attractive, and looking back on the long dreary

+slope of snow he said, "A cold back! a cold back!

+I would like to have had one warmer."  "That is not

+easily acquired," answered Eric.  "Further south there

+is no fiord for many miles till you come to one

+occupied by a man called Biarni.  That I can tell

+you is a fertile settlement, there are woods and

+pastures, and hot springs and good anchorage; but

+that is not my land to give you."

+

+Then Onund sang a stave:

+

+   |  "All across life's strands do run,

+   |  I who many war-wagers won,

+   |  Meadows green and pastures fair

+   |  Once were mine, and woods to spare.

+   |  Left behind, I rid the steed

+   |  That o'er wave, with wind doth speed.[#]

+   |  Cold—cold, icy back behind,

+   |  This is what alone I find,

+   |  Hard the lot that fate doth yield

+   |  To the bearer of the shield."

+

+.. vspace:: 1

+

+.. class:: noindent small

+

+[#] *i.e.* a ship.

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+Eric answered, "Many men have lost everything

+in Norway, and have got nothing in exchange.

+Cold may be the back against which to lean; but

+better cold back than none at all."

+

+This was true.  Onund had not received Eric's

+offer graciously; but he now accepted it, and he

+called the second bay he saw—that into which he

+had descended over snow—Coldback, and that

+remains the name to this day.

+

+Eric behaved very nobly; he gave up to Onund

+the whole tract of land from the Horn-headland to

+the limit where Biarni's land began.  He received

+the whole of Reykjafiord, Fishless Creek, and

+Coldback Bay.

+

+Then Onund built himself a house at Coldback;

+and there was no difficulty about wood, for the

+Gulfstream flowed up past the great north-west

+promontory of Iceland, curled round into Hunafloi, and

+deposited a quantity of American timber as drift

+all along that coast.  Indeed, the drift was so

+abundant that neither Eric nor Onund made any

+agreement about it.  Now, as it happened in the sequel,

+this was an oversight.

+

+Onund prospered at Coldback, and even set up

+for himself a second farm at the head of the firth to

+the north, called Reykja-firth, from the boiling

+springs that puffed and bubbled up in the sea

+at the entrance; and a hot spring is in

+Icelandic—Reykr.

+

+Now, a few years after Onund had settled in

+Iceland, his good wife Asa died.  He had by her

+two sons—the elder was called Thorgeir, and the

+younger Ufeig Grettir.  After a while Onund went

+courting a woman called Thordis, in Middle-firth,

+and he married her, and by her had a son called

+Thorgrim; he grew to be a big man, very strong,

+wise, and a capital man at husbandry.  When he

+was twenty-five years old his hair grew gray, and

+so he went by the name of Thorgrim Grizzle-pate,

+and he was the grandfather of Grettir.  After the

+death of Onund, his widow married, as already

+said, Audun of Willowdale, and their son was

+Asgeir, the father of Grettir's cousin Audun, with

+whom he had that affray on the ice, and then with

+the bottle of curds.

+

+When Onund was a very old man, then he died

+in his bed, and he was buried under a great mound,

+which you may see at Coldback if you go there.  It

+is called Old Treefoot's cairn.  When he was dead,

+then Thorgrim Grizzlepate and his half-brothers,

+Thorgeir and Ufeig Grettir, lived together on the

+best of terms at Coldback, and managed the property

+between them.

+

+In time Eric Trap of Arness died also, and left

+his lands to his son Flossi.  He had remained in

+friendship with Onund all his life; but Flossi, his

+son, was a grasping man, and he was often heard to

+grumble about the Coldback family, and say that

+they were squatters on his father's land, and had no

+title to show for the land they held.  Thorgrim

+Grizzlepate and his half-brothers did not wish to

+quarrel with Flossi, so they kept out of his company;

+and when there were sports of hurling, and wrestling,

+and horse-fighting, strayed away, so as not to be

+involved in a quarrel with him.

+

+Now, Thorgeir was the eldest of the three

+brothers at Coldback, and he was mightily fond of

+fishing.  This was known to Flossi, and he made a

+plot for slaying him; for he was envious of the

+brothers, and wanted to get back all their lands into

+his own possession.  He had got a house-churl

+called Finn, and he and Finn had some talk together.

+The end of this talk was that Finn started secretly

+for Coldback armed with a hatchet, and he hid

+himself in the boat-house at Coldback.

+

+Early in the morning Thorgeir got ready to

+go out fishing, for the weather was good, the sea

+calm and was alive with fish.  His nets were in the

+boat, and before sunrise he left his bed and dressed,

+and went to the boat-house to start on his excursion.

+He had not the smallest suspicion of mischief, and

+as he was like to be on the water for a long time, he

+flung a great leather bottle of curds over his back.

+As already said, these leather bottles were no other

+than the hides of goats or sheep, sewn up and

+converted into receptacles for liquid.

+

+So Thorgeir went to the boat-house with the

+bottle of curd over his back, opened the door, and

+went in.  He did not look round, he had no suspicion

+of evil, and he did not see Finn lurking in the

+dark corner.  It was, moreover, very dark in the

+boat-house.  Thorgeir stooped to get hold of the

+boat and thrust her out, when all at once out from

+the dark corner leaped the churl, and brought the

+axe down on Thorgeir's back.  The blow made the

+bottle squeak, and all the curds gushed out.  That

+was enough for Finn.  He made sure he had killed

+Thorgeir, so he ran away as fast as he could back to

+Arness, burst into the house, and shouted to his

+master "I have killed him!  I have killed him!  And

+he squeaked!  he squeaked!"

+

+"Let me look at the axe," said Flossi.  Then, when

+he had the axe in his hand he turned it about and

+laughed, and said, "Verily, I did not think that

+Thorgeir had milk in his veins instead of blood.

+That accounts for it, that you have been able to

+slay him."

+

+This affair was a subject of much comment, and

+much laughter did it provoke.  Thorgeir had not

+received the smallest wound, only his bottle was split,

+and ever after he went by the name of Bottle-back.

+

+But a song was made about this event which was

+never forgotten.  It runs thus:—

+

+   |    "Of the days of old

+   |    Great tales are told

+   |  How heroes went forth to fight,

+   |    Their shields, for show

+   |    Were whitened as snow,

+   |  And their weapons were burnished bright

+   |    The battle began,

+   |    In the weapon-clang,

+   |  The red blood flowed apace

+   |    In rivers shed

+   |    It dyed red

+   |  The shields o'er all their face.

+   |    But nowaday

+   |    We tune our lay

+   |  To tell a different story.

+   |    The churls who fight

+   |    Bring axes white,

+   |  With curds and whey made gory."

+   |

+

+When Kuggson ceased, Grettir laughed heartily.

+"Ah!" said he, "that cannot be said now, for indeed

+there flows much blood."

+

+"You speak the truth," answered Kuggson; "and

+I wish that this red stream flowed less abundantly."

+

+"That may be," said Grettir; "but I would fain

+hear the rest of the story.  I have not heard it told

+me for a long time; and, indeed, to speak the truth,

+much of it I have clean forgotten, though I did hear

+it when I was a boy at home."

+

+"If you will hear what follows, it must be as a

+new story," said Kuggson.  Again I will tell it in

+my own words.

+

+.. vspace:: 3

+

+.. class:: center bold

+

+   The Story of the Stranded Whale

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+Hard times came to Iceland, such as had not been

+known since it was settled, for the timber that had

+been thrown up by the sea came to an end, or very

+nearly so.  There had been great accumulations,

+and these were exhausted, and for some reason or

+other that cannot now be explained the Gulf-stream

+ceased to carry on its current the amount of timber

+it had formerly, the wreckage of the forests on the

+Mississippi, swept down into the great Mexican

+Gulf, and thence washed out over the vast Atlantic,

+borne on the warm stream to the north, to give fuel

+to those lands which were by nature unprovided

+with trees.  At this time the axe was laid against

+the largest and finest birch that grew in the forests

+in Iceland.  But none of that timber was big and

+good enough for building purposes.

+

+This deficiency in drift-wood continued for many

+seasons, and if men required building timber they

+were constrained to send to Norway for it.  Now,

+it happened that about this time a great merchant

+vessel was wrecked in the fiord in the lap of which

+was Arness, where lived Flossi, and he took four or

+five of the chapmen to his house, and lodged them

+there well and hospitably, and the other wrecked

+men were quartered in other farmhouses near.  All

+winter the men were engaged in building a new ship

+out of the wreck and what other timber they could

+get; but they were not skilful over their work, and

+they built a badly-proportioned vessel, over small at

+the stem and stern and over big amidships; and

+this vessel was much laughed at, and men called it

+the Wooden-tub, and that bay where Flossi lived

+was ever after called Wooden-tub Bay, because this

+broad-beamed, comical vessel was built there.[#]

+

+

+[#] It is still so called, Trèkyllis-víc.

+

+

+Now, it fell out that at the spring equinox there

+was a great storm from the north, and it lasted a

+week.  The waves came in huge rollers against the

+cliffs, and spouted like geysers into the air, and all

+the air was in a haze with spray, and was full of the

+noise of the sea.  Those who lived on the coast were

+not sorry for the storm, because they hoped it would

+blow in drift-wood and other spoils of the deep upon

+the shores; and sure enough, when it abated, a man

+who lived out on Reykja-ness came and told Flossi

+that there was a great whale washed ashore there.

+Then Flossi sent word to all the farms round to the

+north.  But hard-by where the whale had come

+ashore lived a farmer named Einar, who was a

+tenant under the brothers at Coldback, so he took a

+boat and rowed off to Coldback, and told them about

+the monster that was stranded.

+

+When Thorgrim and his brothers Thorgeir and

+Ufeig heard this, they got ready at once, and were

+twelve in a ten-oared boat, with axes and knives for

+cutting up the whale.  Another boat put off from

+another of their farms, with six men in it, and others

+were sure to come as soon as they could get ready.

+

+In the meantime, Flossi and all his company,

+his kindred, servants, and tenants, had hurried to

+the spot, and were already engaged in cutting up

+the whale, when round the ness came the boat of

+the brothers.  Now, the shore where the whale was

+cast up belonged to the brothers, and they called out

+to Flossi to assert their right to whatever was found

+on the strand.  Flossi answered that if they had

+any right to the drift they must show their claim.

+They had, he said, been allowed by his father to

+squat on his land, but his father had never given over

+to them all his rights, certainly not the lordship

+over the strand, and claim to flotsam and jetsam.

+Whilst the dispute continued, up came other boats

+of the Coldback party, and then a long boat, that

+contained a fellow called Swan, who lived in

+Biornfiord, to the south of Coldback, a very warm friend

+of the brothers, and a plucky, resolute man.

+

+Thorgrim was hesitating what to do, when Swan

+told him it would be mean to allow himself to be

+robbed.  Moreover, this assault on his rights, if not

+resisted would establish a precedent, and Flossi

+would claim everything found on their strand, even

+at their very doors.

+

+So a fight began.  The Coldback men came

+ashore, and Thorgeir Bottle-back mounted the carcase

+of the whale, to drive off the servants of Flossi.

+Among these was Finn; he was near the head of

+the whale, and stood in a foothold he had cut for

+himself.  Then Thorgeir Bottle-back said, "Ah!  I

+owe you a stroke of the axe, which has not been

+repaid as yet," and he smote at him, and felled him.

+

+Flossi egged on his men, and a desperate fight

+ensued; some fought on the body of the whale, some

+about it.  There were hardly any present who had

+other weapons save choppers and axes, and they

+hewed at each other with these.  But some had no

+other weapons than the ribs of the whale, and it is

+even said that some of the churls flourished great

+strips of blubber, with which they banged each other

+about, nearly smothering each other in oil, but not

+doing much harm.

+

+The battle was going ill with Flossi, when there

+arrived a contingent of men from Drangar, with

+many boats, and gave help to Flossi, and then those

+of Coldback were borne back overpowered; but they

+did not retreat till they had loaded their boats.

+Swan shouted to the Coldbackers to get on board as

+quickly as they could, for he saw more men coming

+against them from the north.  Flossi received a wound,

+but Ufeig, one of the three brothers, was dealt his

+death-wound before he could get into the boat, and

+he fell on the strand.  Thorgeir Bottle-back at once

+leaped out of the vessel, ran to his brother, heaved

+him up in his arms and plunged back through the

+surf with him, and lifted him into the boat, where

+he died.  It is told that in this battle one man was

+beaten to death by the rib of a whale, and that was

+one of the chapmen of the wrecked vessel.

+

+After this, the matter was brought before the

+assize, for the question of the right to the shore had

+to be decided one way or the other.  And it was

+decided in this manner: Flossi was condemned

+to outlawry for his high-handed proceeding, and

+because of the death of Ufeig Grettir; but the

+question of the rights was thus settled by the judge,

+Thorkel Moon.  He said, "I cannot see that the

+claim made by the Coldback men is established, for

+no money passed between Onund and Eric.  I know

+this about the land that was possessed by my

+grandfather Ingolf, and which is now my own.  He

+received it from Steinver the Old; but then he gave

+her a mottled cloak, and that was a pledge of sale;

+and this has never been contested.  In the matter

+of the lands inhabited by the Coldback men, as far

+as I can learn, not even a straw was given in

+exchange.  However, it is proved that they have held

+the land, and have taken the drift for a long time;

+and that the original owner, Eric, did not dispute their

+doing so.  I therefore decide that a compromise shall

+hold good.  The Coldback brothers must surrender

+all the Reykja-firth, and content themselves with the

+land south of that.  And I also decide that they shall

+exercise full and undisputed rights to the land, to

+all that grows on it, to the sea and what it throws

+up, along that bit of strand that remains to them."

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+Now when Kuggson had finished this story, then

+Grettir said, "You have not told how my grandfather

+and great-uncle parted."

+

+"No," said Kuggson.  "There is not much to tell

+about that.  The two brothers agreed to separate,

+as your grandfather wanted to marry in the Middlefirth.

+Bottle-back remained at Coldback."

+

+"Now that you have spoken so much about Coldback,"

+said Grettir, "I will tell you something,

+though it is to my discredit."

+

+"Say on," answered Kuggson.  "Men are generally

+more ready to boast than to discredit themselves."

+

+"When I was a little boy," said Grettir, "my

+father suffered from a cold back and great pains in

+it, in winter, and he only got ease when it was

+rubbed with a hot flannel.  I was a bad, idle boy,

+and I was set in winter to rub his cold back.  This

+I resented.  I thought it was a work fit only for

+servants, and one day when my father had made me

+rub his old back till I was tired, then he said to me,

+'You are growing slack; rub harder, that I may feel

+your hand.'  'Do you so want to feel my hand,

+father,' I said.  Then I saw a wool-comb hard by

+that the women had used for carding wool, and I

+caught it and rubbed down my father's back with

+that—so that he shrieked with pain, and I made the

+blood flow.  It was a wicked act.  I think of it now

+the old man is dead, and I am sorry."

+

+"Yes," said Kuggson, "it was an evil act.  Men

+say that you are an unlucky man.  Now, I do not

+wonder at your ill-luck, for none ever raised his

+hand against his father but there followed him ill

+in consequence of so doing all his days."

+

+

+

+

+

+.. vspace:: 4

+

+.. _`THE FOSTER-BROTHERS`:

+

+.. class:: center large bold

+

+   CHAPTER XXIV.

+

+

+.. class:: center medium bold

+

+   THE FOSTER-BROTHERS.

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+..

+   

+   *Grettir's Promise—The Yule Ox—Holding the Boat—A

+   Hard Pull—Grettir and the Ox—Thorgeir's Hatred—The

+   Concealed Axe—Evil Sport—An Iceland Moor*

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+Now, the kinsmen of Oxmain heard where Grettir

+was, so they resolved to form a party, and fall

+upon him at Learwood.  But Grettir's brother-in-law

+was aware of this and forewarned Grettir, so he

+went away to the north, and he followed Gilsfiord

+till he reached Reyk-knolls, where was a pleasant

+farm near the sea, where also were a great number

+of ever-boiling springs, that poured and squirted and

+fizzed out of mounds of red-clay.  Here lived a man

+called Thorgils Arison, and he asked this man if he

+would give him shelter through the winter.

+

+Arison said that he would.  "But," said he, "there

+is only plain fare in my house."

+

+"I am not choice as to my food, so long as I have

+a roof over my head," answered Grettir.

+

+"There is one matter further," said Arison.

+"Somehow or other I get men come to me and offer

+to become my guests who cannot settle elsewhere,

+and I get a rough lot at times.  That comes of

+being too good-hearted to bid them pack.  Even now

+I have two such good-for-naughts guesting with me,

+two foster-brothers, Thorgeir and Thormod; rough,

+unkempt men, of bad tempers both, and I wot not

+how you will agree together.  You may come and

+put your head within my doors if you will, but on

+one condition, that there be no fighting and

+knocking about of my other guests."

+

+Grettir answered that he would not be the first

+to raise strife, and that if the foster-brothers

+provoked him beyond endurance he would go elsewhere,

+and not give his host annoyance by a brawl in his

+house.

+

+With this promise Arison was content.

+

+Thorgils Arison was a firm man, and he told the

+foster-brothers that he would have no disturbance

+whilst they were with him, and they also promised

+to be orderly.  Thorgeir did not like Grettir.  He

+scowled at him and contradicted him, but did not

+pursue his rudeness beyond bounds; and when

+Grettir was ruffled, a word from the master of the

+house served to appease the rising blood.

+

+So the early winter wore away.

+

+Now, the good man, Thorgils Arison, owned a

+cluster of islands in the firth that are called Olaf's

+Isles; they lie a good sea-mile and a half beyond the

+ness.  On them grass grows, and there the bonder

+kept his cattle to fatten in autumn.  Now, there was

+an ox on one of these isles that Arison said he must

+have home before the snows and storms of winter

+came on, as he intended to kill the beast for the

+feastings of Yule.  So the foster-brothers and

+Grettir volunteered to go out to the island, and fetch

+the ox home.

+

+They went down to the sea and got out a ten-oared

+boat, and there were but these three to man

+it.  The weather was cold, and the wind was

+shifting from the north and not settled.  They rowed

+hard, and reached the island; but the sea was

+running and foaming over the shore, and they saw it

+would be no easy matter to get the ox on board

+with such a surf.  So the brothers told Grettir he

+must hold the boat, whilst they got the ox in.  He

+agreed, and went into the water, and stood

+amidships on the side out to sea, and thrust the boat

+towards the shore, whilst the brothers laboured to

+get the ox in.  Thorgeir took up the ox by the hind

+legs, and Thormod by the fore legs, as the beast

+refused to be driven on board, and so they carried the

+animal into the boat; but Grettir, who held the

+craft, had the sea up to his shoulder-blades, and he

+held her perfectly fast.

+

+When the ox was hove in, Grettir let go and

+got into the boat.  Thormod took oar in the bows,

+Thorgeir amidships, and Grettir aft, and so they

+made out into the open bay.  As they came out from

+the lee of the island the squall caught them, the

+waves leaped and foamed, and Thorgeir shouted

+"Now then, stern!  Have you gone to sleep?  Why

+are you lagging?"

+

+Grettir answered, "The stern will not lag when

+the rowing afore is good."

+

+Thereupon Thorgeir fell to rowing so furiously that

+both the tholes were broken.  So he called to Grettir,

+"Row on steadily whilst I mend the thole-pins."

+

+Then Grettir rowed so mightily, whilst Thorgeir

+was engaged mending the pins, that he wore through

+the oars, and when Thorgeir was ready they snapped

+like matches.

+

+"Better row with less haste and more caution,"

+growled Thormod.

+

+Then Grettir stooped and picked out of the bottom

+of the boat two unshapen oar-beams that lay there;

+but as they were too big to go between the

+thole-pins, he bored large holes in the gunwales, and

+thrust the oars through, and rowed thus so mightily

+that every rib and plank of the boat creaked,

+and the foster-brothers were in fear lest with his

+rowing he would tear the craft to pieces.  However,

+they reached the shore in safety.

+

+Then Grettir asked whether the brothers would

+rather haul up the boat, or go home with the ox.

+They preferred to haul the boat ashore, and found

+that it was hung with icicles, for the water had frozen

+on the sides; but Grettir led home the ox, which

+was very fat, and very unwilling to be dragged

+along, so that Grettir became impatient.

+

+When the foster-brothers had finished bailing out

+the boat, and had put her under cover, they went up

+to the house, and on reaching it Thorgeir inquired

+after Grettir, but Arisen the bonder said he had not

+seen him or the ox.  Then he sent out men in quest

+of him, for he supposed something must have befallen

+him; and when they came to where the land dipped

+towards the sea they saw a strange object indeed

+coming towards them, and did not know at first

+whether what they saw was a human being or a troll.[#]  On

+approaching nearer they saw that this strange

+object was Grettir, who was carrying the ox on his

+back, and striding up the hill with the beast, which had

+the head hanging over his shoulder, the tongue out,

+and was lowing plaintively.  The sight was infinitely

+comical, and the men who saw it burst out laughing,

+and this made Grettir also laugh, so that he dropped the ox.

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+.. class:: noindent small

+

+[#] A troll is a mountain demon or giant.

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+Now, it must be known that this story is not

+manifestly absurd, for the Icelandic cattle are very

+small, like Brittany cows, and bear the same relation

+to a good English ox that a pony does to a horse.

+Nevertheless the feat was only such as a strong man

+could have accomplished.  It had taken the two

+brothers to carry the ox down into the boat, and

+here was Grettir alone carrying him up hill.

+

+This deed of Grettir was much talked of, and this

+made Thorgeir, the elder of the foster-brothers, very

+jealous of Grettir, and he hated him, and sought to

+do him an injury.  One day after Yule, Grettir

+went down to the bath that was made by turning a

+stream of hot water from one of the natural boiling

+springs into a walled basin into which also cold

+water could be turned from a rill.  In former times

+the Icelanders were very particular about bathing,

+and were a clean people.  At the present day they

+never bathe at all, and such of the old baths as

+remain are out of order and full of grass and mud.

+

+Thorgeir said to his brother, "Let us go now and

+try how Grettir will start, if I set upon him as he

+comes away from his bath."

+

+"I do not like this," answered Thormod; "you will

+vex our host, and get no advantage over Grettir."

+

+"I will try what I can do," said the elder; and he

+took his axe, hid it under his cloak, and went down

+towards the bathing-place.

+

+When he had reached it he said, "Grettir, there

+is a talk that you have boasted that no man could

+make you take to your heels."

+

+"I never said that," answered Grettir, "but

+anyhow you are not the man to make me run."

+

+Then Thorgier swung up his axe and would have

+cut at Grettir; but Grettir suspected that the man

+meant mischief, and he was ready, so that the

+instant he drew out the axe and swung it, Grettir

+clashed forward at him, struck him in the chest and

+sent him staggering back, so that he sprawled his

+length on the ground.

+

+Then Thorgeir shouted to his brother, "Why do

+you stand by and let this savage kill me?"

+

+Thormod then laid hold of Grettir, and endeavoured

+to drag him away, but his strength was not sufficient

+to effect this.

+

+At that moment up came Arison, the bonder, and

+he bade them be quiet and have nought to do with Grettir.

+

+So the brothers stood up, and Thorgeir pretended

+it was all sport, that he had only proposed giving

+Grettir a fright; but the bonder hardly believed

+him.  As for the younger of the brothers, it was

+well seen that he had been drawn into the matter

+against his will.  So the winter passed, and peace

+was kept.  This little struggle with Grettir had

+shown Thorgeir that it would be ill for him to have

+dealings with a man so prompt and strong as Grettir,

+and he controlled himself and did not seek to pick

+a quarrel with him any more.  At the same time he

+did not like him any better.  Thorgils Arison got

+great credit, when it was reported that throughout

+an entire winter he had maintained such turbulent

+men as the foster-brothers and Grettir under his

+roof without their having fought.[#]

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+.. class:: noindent small

+

+[#] There is an entire saga relating to the history

+of these brothers, called the

+Foster-Brothers' Saga.

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+But when spring came then they went away, all

+of them, away over the heaths and moors of the

+interior.

+

+When we say that Grettir was on the heaths and

+moors, it must not be supposed that the region so

+called was at all like the moors of Scotland or

+England.  The heaths and moors of Iceland are

+upland desert regions with only here and there a

+scanty growth of vegetation, a little whortleberry,

+no heath at all, but vast tracts of broken stone and

+mud and black sand, with perhaps here and there

+an occasional hill of yellow sandstone.  Most of the

+rock is perfectly black, and breaks into pieces with

+sharp angles.  What is called Icelandic moss is a

+black lichen that grows on the stones, and there is

+a very little gray moss to be seen.  Where there is

+a burn or a stream a little grass may grow, but the

+amount is small indeed.

+

+

+

+

+

+.. vspace:: 4

+

+.. _`HOW GRETTIR WAS WELL NIGH HUNG`:

+

+.. class:: center large bold

+

+   CHAPTER XXV.

+

+

+.. class:: center medium bold

+

+   HOW GRETTIR WAS WELL-NIGH HUNG.

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+..

+   

+   *The Law-man's Judgment—Snorri's Compromise—The

+   Compromise Declined—Grettir Helps Himself—The

+   Spy—Thirty to One—An Undesirable Prisoner—The

+   Gallows for Grettir—Thorbiorg Saves Grettir—Grettir

+   Conquers Himself*

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+Now, after the slaying of Thorbiorn Oxmain, his

+kinsman Thorod took the matter up, and rode

+to the great assize with a large train of men.

+

+The relatives of Grettir also appeared at the

+assize, and they took advice of Skapti, the

+law-man; and he said that Atli was slain a week before

+the sentence of outlawry was pronounced against

+Grettir, that Thorbiorn Oxmain was guilty of that,

+and his relatives must pay a heavy fine for the

+murder.  But he said that Grettir was an

+outlaw when he slew Thorbiorn.  Now being an

+outlaw he was outside the cognizance of the law, he

+was as one not a native of the country, as one over

+whom the law had no longer jurisdiction; that,

+therefore, his slaying of Thorbiorn could not count

+as expiation of the slaying of Atli; that,

+moreover, no suit against an outlawed man could

+stand—it was illegal: that the only way in which Grettir

+could be brought into court was by the removal of

+the sentence of outlawry, when at once he could be

+prosecuted.

+

+Thorod was disconcerted at this; for he could not

+bring an action against Grettir, and the Biarg people

+did now bring an action against him for the slaying

+of Atli, and the court gave sentence that he should

+pay down two hundred ounces of silver as blood fine

+for Atli.

+

+Now, at this court, Snorri the judge proposed a

+compromise.  He suggested that the fine should be

+let drop, and that Grettir should be held scatheless,

+that the outlawry should be set aside, and the

+slaying of Thorbiorn be put against the slaying of

+Atli, and so reconciliation be made.

+

+Thorod did not at all want to pay down two

+hundred ounces of silver, and the Biarg family were

+very willing to have the outlawry done away with;

+so both parties were quite willing to accept this

+compromise, but Thorir of Garth had to be reckoned

+with.  Grettir was outlawed at his suit for the

+burning of his sons, and he must be brought to

+consent, or this arrangement could not take place.

+

+But Thorir was not to be moved.  In vain did

+the law-man Snorri urge him, and represent to him

+that Grettir, at large, an outlaw, was a danger

+menacing the country, that he was driven to

+desperation, Thorir absolutely refused to allow the

+sentence to be withdrawn.  Not only so, but he said he

+would set a higher price on his head than had been

+set on the head of any outlaw before, and that was

+three marks of silver.  Then Thorod, not to be

+behind with him, offered three more.

+

+Grettir resolved to get as much out of the way of

+his enemies as he could, so he went into that strange

+excrescence, like a hand joined on by a narrow wrist

+to Iceland, that extends to the north-west.  In this

+peninsula are two great masses of snow and glacier

+mountain, called Glam-jokull and Drang-jokull.  They

+do not rise to any great height, hardly three

+thousand feet, but they are vast domes of snow, with

+glaciers sliding from them to the firths, and these

+fall over the edges of the precipitous cliffs in huge

+blocks of ice that float away on the tide as icebergs.

+The largest of all the fiords that penetrates this

+region is called the Ice-firth, and it runs between

+these great mountains of snow and glaciers.  At

+the extremity of the estuary the valleys are

+well-wooded—that is to say, well-wooded for Iceland—with

+birch-trees, for their valleys are very sheltered,

+and the sea-water that roll in bears with it a certain

+amount of heat, for it has been affected by the Gulf-stream.

+

+One of these valleys is called Waterdale, and at

+the time of our story there lived there a man named

+Vermund the Slim, and his wife's name was

+Thorbiorg; she was a big, fine woman.  Another valley

+is Lang-dale.  Grettir went to Lang-dale—there

+he demanded of the farmers whatever he wanted,

+food and clothing, and if they would not give him

+what he asked, he took it.  This was not to their

+taste at all, and they wished that they were rid of

+Grettir.  He could not remain long in one place, so

+he rode along the side of the Ice-firth demanding

+food, and sleeping and concealing himself in the

+woods.  So in his course he came to the upland

+pastures and dairy that belonged to Vermund Slim,

+and he slept there many nights, and hid about in

+the woods.

+

+The shepherds on the moors were afraid of him,

+and they ran down into the valleys and told the

+farmers everywhere that there was a big strange

+man on the heights, who took from them their curd

+and milk, and dried fish, and that they were afraid

+to resist his demands.  They did not quite know

+what he was, whether a man or a mountain spirit.

+

+So the farmers gathered together and took advice,

+and there were about thirty of them.  They set a

+shepherd to watch Grettir's movements, and let

+them know when he could be fallen upon.  Now, it

+fell out one warm day that Grettir threw himself

+down in a sunny spot to sleep.  The glistening beech

+leaves were flickering behind him, the rocks were

+covered with the pale lemon flowers of the dry as,

+and between the clefts of the stones masses of large

+purple-flowered geranium stood up and made a glow

+of colour deep into the wood.

+

+It is a mistake to suppose that Iceland is bare of

+flowers; on the contrary, there are more flowers there

+than grass.  Beneath Grettir the turf was full of

+tiny deep-blue gentianellas, just as if the turf were

+green velvet, with a thread of blue in it coming

+through here and there.

+

+The shepherd stole near enough to see that Grettir

+really was fast asleep, and then he ran and told the

+bonders, who came noiselessly to the spot.  It was

+arranged among them that ten men should fling

+themselves on him, whilst the others fastened his

+feet with strong cords.

+

+They made a noose, and cautiously without waking

+him managed to get it about his legs; then, all at

+once, ten of them threw themselves on his body, and

+tried to pin down his arms.  Grettir started from

+his sleep, and with one toss sent the men rolling off

+him, and he even managed to get to his knees.

+Then they pulled the noose tighter and brought him

+down, he, however, kicked out at two, whom he

+tumbled head over heels, and they lay stunned on

+the earth.  Then one after another rushed at him,

+some from behind.  He could not get at his weapons,

+which they had removed, and though he made a

+long and hard fight, and struggled furiously, they

+were too many for him, and they overcame him in

+the end, and bound his hands.

+

+Now, as he lay on the grass, powerless, they held

+a council over him what should be done.  The chief

+man of that district was Vermund Slim, but he was

+from home.  So it was settled that a farmer named

+Helgi should take Grettir and keep him in ward till

+Vermund came home.

+

+"Thank you gratefully," said Helgi; "but I have

+other business to attend to than to keep sentinel

+over this man.  My hands are fully occupied without

+this.  Not if I know it shall he cross my threshold."

+

+So the farmers considered, and decided that another

+man who lived at Giorvidale should have the custody

+of Grettir.

+

+"You are most obliging," said he; "but I have

+only my old woman with me at home, and how can

+we two manage him?  Lay on a man only such a

+burden as he can bear."

+

+They considered again, and came to the conclusion

+that one Therolf of Ere should have the charge

+of Grettir.

+

+But he replied, "No, thank you, I am short of

+provisions, there is hardly food enough at my house

+for my own party."

+

+Then they appointed that he should be put with

+another farmer; but he said, "If he had been taken

+in my land, well and good, but as he has not, I won't

+be encumbered with him."

+

+Then every farmer was tried, and all had excuses

+why they should not have the care of Grettir; and

+consequently, as no one would have him, they

+resolved to hang him.  So they set to work and

+constructed a rude gallows there in the wood, and a

+mighty clatter they made over it.

+

+Whilst thus engaged, it happened that Thorbiorg,

+Vermund's wife, was riding up to her mountain dairy,

+attended by five servants.  She was a stirring, clever

+woman, and when she saw so many men gathered

+together and making such a noise, she rode towards

+them to inquire what they were about.

+

+"Who is that lying in bonds there?" she asked.

+

+Then Grettir answered and gave his name.

+

+"Why, now, is it, Grettir," she said, "that you

+have given so much trouble in this neighbourhood?"

+

+"I must needs be somewhere," he answered.  "And

+wherever I am, there I must have food."

+

+"It is a piece of ill-luck that you should have

+fallen into the hands of these bumpkins," said she.

+Then turning to the farmers she asked what they

+purposed doing with Grettir.

+

+"Hang him," answered they.

+

+"I do not deny that Grettir may have deserved

+the rope," said Thorbiorg; "but I doubt if you are

+doing wisely in taking his life.  He belongs to a

+great family, and his death will not be to your

+quietness and content if you kill him."  Then she

+said to Grettir, "What will you do if your life be

+given you?"

+

+"You propose the conditions," said he.

+

+"Very well, then you must swear not to revenge

+on these men what they have done to you to-day,

+and not to do any violence more in the Ice-firth."

+

+Grettir took the required oath, and so he was

+loosed from his bonds.  He said afterwards that

+never had he a harder thing to do than to control

+his temper, when set free, and not to knock the

+farmers' heads together like nuts and crack them,

+for what they had done to him.

+

+Then Thorbiorg invited him to her house, and he

+went with her to the Water-firth, and there abode

+till her husband returned, and when Vermund heard

+all, then he was well pleased; and deemed that

+his wife had acted with great prudence and kindness.

+He asked Grettir to remain there as long as

+was consistent with his safety, and Grettir accepted

+his hospitality, and continued there as his guest till

+late in the autumn, when he went south to

+Learwood, where was Kuggson, with whom he

+purposed spending the winter.  However, he was not

+able to stay there, for it soon became known where

+he was, and his enemies prepared to take him.  He

+accordingly left and went to a friend in another

+fiord, and remained a short while with him, but was

+obliged for the same reason to fly thence also; and so

+he spent the winter dodging about from place to

+place, never able to remain long anywhere, because

+his enemies were so resolved on his death, and were

+on the alert to fall on him wherever they heard he

+was sheltering.

+

+

+

+

+

+.. vspace:: 4

+

+.. _`IN THE DESERT`:

+

+.. class:: center large bold

+

+   CHAPTER XXVI.

+

+

+.. class:: center medium bold

+

+   IN THE DESERT.

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+..

+   

+   *The Center of the Island—Ice, Desert, and

+   Volcanoes—The Bubble-Caves—A Dweller in the

+   Desert—Grettir Stops the Rider—Hall-mund

+   Stronger than Grettir—Grettir Seeks Skapti's

+   Advice—Grettir's Night Fears—Grettir Builds a House*

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+The island of Iceland is one-third larger than

+Ireland, but then the population is entirely

+confined to the coast.  All the centre of the island

+is desert and mountain.  One mighty mass of

+mountain covered with eternal snow and ice occupies

+the south of the island and approaches the sea very

+closely in the south-east.  Much of this is unexplored;

+it has of recent years been traversed once, across the

+great Vatna-jokull, but there are passes west of the

+Vatna.  The mountain masses are broken into three

+main masses.  The vast Vatna-jokull is to the east,

+then comes a pass, and next the circular Arnafells-jokull,

+then another pass, and lastly the jumble of

+snow mountains that form the Ball-jokull and the

+Lang-jokull, the Goatland and the Erick's-jokull.

+North of the Vatna-jokull is a vast region, as large

+as a big county, covered with lava broken up into

+bristling spikes and deep clefts of glass-like rock,

+which no one can possibly get across.  In the midst

+of it, inaccessible, rise the cones of volcanoes that

+have poured forth this sea of molten rock.  East and

+west of this mighty tract of broken-up lava come

+extensive moors also quite desert, covered with

+inky-black sand which has been erupted by volcanoes,

+burying and destroying what vegetation there was.

+The extent of desert may be understood when you

+learn that there are twenty thousand square miles of

+country perfectly barren and uninhabitable, and only

+partially explored.  There are but four thousand

+square miles in Iceland that are inhabited; the rest

+of the country is a chaos of ice, desert, and volcanoes.

+The great lava region mentioned north of the Vatna

+covers one thousand one hundred and sixty square

+miles, and the Vatna envelopes three thousand five

+hundred square miles in ice.  Now, here and there

+in this vast region there are certain sheltered spots

+where some grass grows, valleys that have escaped

+the overflow of the molten rock, or the thrust of the

+glacier; and during the ninety years that Iceland

+had been inhabited, every now and then a churl who

+got tired of service, or a murderer afraid of his life,

+ran away into the centre of the island, and lived

+a precarious existence on the wild birds, their eggs,

+and on the fish that abounded in the countless lakes.

+Probably also they stole sheep, and carried them

+away to the mysterious recesses of the desert where

+they had made for themselves homes.  They lived

+chiefly in caverns, of which there are plenty thus

+formed:—When the lava poured as a fiery stream

+out of the volcanoes, in cooling great bubbles were

+formed in it, sometimes these bubbles exploded, blew

+the fragments into the air, which fell back and made

+a mass of broken bits of rock like an exploded

+soda-water bottle; but all the bubbles did not burst, and

+such hardened when the rock became cool.  These

+bubbles remain as great domed halls, and some of

+them run deep underground, forming a succession

+of chambers.  I have explored one where a band of

+outlaws once lived, and found numbers of sheep-bones

+frozen up in ice in the place where, after they

+had eaten the mutton, they threw away what they

+could not devour.  At the end of the cave they had

+erected a wall so as to inclose a space as a store

+chamber.

+

+These men, living in the desert and rarely seen,

+were the subject of many tales, and it was not clearly

+known who and what they really were, whether

+altogether human, or half mountain-spirits.

+Imagination invested them with supernatural powers.

+

+When spring came and the snows melted, then

+Grettir left the farmhouse where he had been last

+in hiding, and went into the desert, to find food and

+shelter for himself.

+

+One day he saw a man on horseback alone riding

+over a ridge of hill.  He was a very big man, and

+he led another horse that had bags of goods on his

+back.  The man wore a slouched hat so that his face

+could not clearly be seen.

+

+Grettir looked hard at the horse and the goods on

+the pack-saddle, and thought he would probably find

+some of these latter serviceable to him, and in his

+need he was not particular how he got those things

+which he wanted.  So he went up to the rider and

+peremptorily ordered him to stand and deliver.

+

+"Why should I give you things that are my own?"

+asked the stranger.  "I will sell some of my wares if

+you can pay for them."

+

+"I have no money," answered Grettir, "what I

+want I take.  You must have heard that by report."

+

+"Then I know with whom I have to deal; you

+are Grettir the outlaw, the son of Asmund of

+Biarg."  Thereat he struck spurs into his horse and tried to

+ride past.

+

+"Nay, nay!  We part not like this," said Grettir,

+and he laid his hands on the reins of the horse the

+stranger rode.

+

+"You had better let go," said the mounted man.

+

+"Nay, that I will not," answered Grettir.

+

+Then the rider stooped and put his hands to the

+reins above those of Grettir, between them and the

+bit, and he dragged them along, forcing Grettir's

+hands along the bridle to the end and then wrenched

+them out of his grasp.

+

+Grettir looked at his palms and saw that the skin

+had been torn in the struggle.  Then he found out

+that he had met with a man who was stronger

+than himself.

+

+"Give me your name," said he.  "For, good faith!

+I have not encountered a man like you."

+

+Then the horseman laughed and sang:

+

+   |  "By the Caldron's side

+   |  Away I ride,

+   |  Where the waters rush and fall

+   |  Adown the crystal glacier wall

+   |  There you will find a stone

+   |  Joined to a hand—alone."

+   |

+

+This was a puzzling answer.  The meaning was

+that he lived near a waterfall that poured out of the

+Ice mountain, and that his name was Hall-mund,

+*hall* is a stone and *mund* is the hand.

+

+Grettir and he parted good friends; and as he rode

+away Hall-mund called out to Grettir that he would

+remember this meeting, and as it ended in

+friendliness he hoped to do him a good turn yet,—that

+when every other place of refuge failed he was to

+seek him "by the Caldron's side, where the waters

+rush and fall, adown the crystal glacier wall" under

+Ball-jokull, and there he would give him shelter.

+

+After this Grettir went to the house of his friend

+the law-man Skapti, and asked his advice, and whether

+he would house him for the ensuing winter.

+

+"No, friend," answered Skapti, "you have been

+acting somewhat lawlessly, laying hands on other

+men's goods, and this ill becomes a well-born man

+such as you.  Now, it would be better for you not to

+rob and reive, but get your living in other fashion,

+even though it were poorer fare you got, and

+sometimes you had to go without food.  I cannot house

+you, for I am a law-man, and it would not be proper

+for me who lay down the law to shelter such a

+notorious law-breaker as yourself.  But I will give

+you my advice what to do.  To the north of the

+Erick's-jokull is a tangle of lakes and streams.  The

+lakes have never been counted they are in such

+quantities, and no one knows how to find his way

+among them.  These lakes are full of fish, and swarm

+with birds in summer.  There is also a little creeping

+willow growing in the sand, and some scanty grass.  It

+is only one hard day's ride over the waste to Biarg,

+so that your mother can supply you thence with

+those things of which you stand in absolute need, as

+clothing, and you can fish and kill birds for your

+subsistence, and will have no need to rob folk and

+exact food from the bonders, thereby making

+yourself a common object of terror and dislike.  One

+more piece of advice I give you—Beware how you

+trust anyone to be with you."

+

+Grettir thought this advice was good—only in one

+point was it hard for him to follow.  He was haunted

+with these fearful dreams at night which followed the

+wrestle with Glam, and in the long darkness of

+winter the dreadful eyes stared at him from every

+quarter whither he turned his, so that it was

+unendurable for him to be alone in the dark.

+

+Still—he went.  He followed up the White River

+to the desert strewn with lakes from which that river

+flowed, and there found himself in utter solitude and

+desolation.

+

+A good map of Iceland was made in 1844, and on

+that fifty-three lakes are marked, but the smaller

+tarns were not all set down.  In such a tangle of

+water and moor Grettir might be in comparative

+security.  He settled himself on a spot of land that

+runs out into the waters of the largest of the sheets

+of water, which goes by the name of the Great Eagle

+Lake, and thereon he built himself a hovel of stones

+and turf, the ruins of which remain to this day, and

+I have examined them.

+

+

+

+

+

+.. vspace:: 4

+

+.. _`ON THE GREAT EAGLE LAKE`:

+

+.. class:: center large bold

+

+   CHAPTER XXVII.

+

+

+.. class:: center medium bold

+

+   ON THE GREAT EAGLE LAKE.

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+..

+   

+   *The Ruins of the Hut—Erick's-jokull—A Craving for

+   Companionship—A Traitor—Grim Tries to Kill

+   Grettir—Redbeard Undertakes the Task—Redbeard's

+   Stratagem—A Base Fellow—Grettir sinks to the

+   Bottom—Caught in his own Trap—Grettir attacked

+   by Thorir—The Attack Baffled—The Guardian of

+   Grettir's Back—A Summer with Hallmund*

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+Grettir was settled now on the Great Eagle

+Lake.  This lake is shaped like the figure 8,

+only that the spot of land between the upper and

+lower portion of the lake does not run quite across.

+On one side of this spot the rock falls away precipitously

+into the water, whereas it slopes on the other.

+If I had had a spade and pick, and if there had been

+more grass on the moor so as to allow of a longer

+stay, I would have dug about the foundations of

+Grettir's hut, and, who can tell!  I might perhaps

+have found some relic of him.  There is no record of

+anyone else having inhabited it since he was there,

+and in the middle of the 13th century, when the

+Saga of Grettir was committed to writing, there

+remained the ruins of his hut, but no one lived at

+the place.  Now there is no human habitation for

+many miles; the lake was a day's journey on

+horseback from the nearest farm, where I had spent the

+night.  You must get some idea of the place where

+now for some years Grettir was to live.

+

+The moor is made up of rock split to fragments

+by the frost, and with wide tracts between the ridges

+of rock strewn with black volcanic ash and sand.  It

+lies high; when I camped out there at the end of

+June, there was no grass visible, only angelica shoots,

+and a little trailing willow, so that my horses had to

+feed on these.  The willow does not rise above the

+surface of the ground, but its roots trail long distances

+under the surface, groping for nutriment; and for

+fuel one has to dig out these roots with one's fingers,

+and employ those which are dryest.  Every dip in

+the moor is filled with a lake, and every lake has in

+it a pair of swans; in addition there are abundance of

+other wild fowl, and on the moor are ptarmigan that

+live on the flowers of the whortle or blae-berry.

+

+Above the rolling horizon of moor, to the south

+rises the great snowy dome of Erick's-jokull.  This

+is in reality a huge volcano, with precipitous sides

+of black lava towering up like an immense giant's

+castle.  The great crater has been choked up with

+the snow of centuries, and the snow in falling

+had piled up a vast cupola of snow and ice standing

+high above the black walls, and sliding and falling

+over the edges in a succession of avalanches.  When,

+at eleven o'clock at night, I looked out of my tent at

+Erick's-jokull, the scene was sublime.  The sun had

+just gone under the northern horizon of snow and

+hill, but shone on the great dome of Erick's-jokull,

+turning it to the purest and most delicate rose colour,

+and the walls of upright basalt that sustained the

+dome were of the purple of a plum.  Grettir obtained

+nets and a boat from home, and such things as he

+wanted for his hut.  One great advantage of his

+present situation was that three different roads or

+rather tracks led to it from Biarg, so that those who

+wanted to come to him from home could select their

+way and avoid observation, till they got among the

+lakes, when they were in a labyrinth in which anyone

+might easily be lost, and any one could escape a pursuer.

+It is true that it was a long and arduous day's ride

+from Biarg to the Eagle Lake, but the whole of the

+course along each of the ways lay through

+uninhabited land.

+

+Now, when other outlaws heard that Grettir was

+on the Eagle Lake Heath, they had a mind to join

+themselves to him, and Grettir was not unwilling to

+have a companion, so lonely did he feel on this waste,

+and also so fearful was he of being by himself in the

+dark.

+

+There was a man called Grim, who was an outlaw;

+and Grettir's enemies made a bargain with him, that

+he should go to the Eagle Lake Heath, pretend to be

+friends with Grettir, seek opportunity, and kill him.

+They on their side undertook, if he would do this, to

+get his sentence of outlawry reversed, and to furnish

+him liberally with money.

+

+Accordingly he went to the moor, and after some

+trouble, found Grettir, and asked if he might live

+with him.

+

+Grettir replied, "I do not much relish such company

+as yours, for you have got into outlawry through very

+infamous deeds.  I mistrust you; nevertheless I will

+suffer you to remain if you work hard and be obedient.

+I do not want idle hands here."

+

+Grim said he was willing, and prayed hard that he

+might dwell there, and carried his point.  He

+remained with Grettir the whole of the winter; there

+was not much friendship between them.  Grettir

+mistrusted him all along, and was never parted from

+his weapons, night or day, and Grim did not venture

+to attack him whilst he was awake.

+

+But one morning, when Grim came in from fishing,

+he went into the hut and stamped his foot and made

+a noise, seeing that Grettir lay in his bed asleep;

+and he was desirous to know how soundly he slept.

+Grettir did not start and open his eyes, but lay quite

+still.  Then Grim made more noise, thinking that if

+Grettir were awake he would chide him; but Grettir

+made no motion.  Then Grim made sure that he was

+fast asleep, and he stepped to his side.  Now, the

+short sword that had been taken out of the barrow

+of Karr the Old hung above the bed-head.  Grim

+leaned over Grettir and laid hold of the sword, and

+put both hands to it to draw it out of the sheath.

+At that instant Grettir started up, caught Grim round

+the waist and flung him backwards so that he was

+stunned, and the sword fell from his hand.  So

+Grettir made him confess that he had been bribed

+to set on him and murder him.  And then Grettir

+would have no more of him, and resolved to live

+entirely alone.  Yet—directly he was alone, his

+dreams, and his horror of the dark, returned on him.

+Now, Thorir of Garth heard of an outlaw named

+Thorir Redbeard, a very big man, who for murder

+had been outlawed, and was therefore in hiding

+somewhere.  Thorir of Garth sent out messengers

+in search of him, and at last brought about a

+meeting, and then he offered him a great deal of

+money if he would kill Grettir.  Redbeard said

+it was no easy task, for that Grettir was wise and wary.

+

+"It is because it is no easy task that I set you to

+do it," said Thorir of Garth.  "You are no milksop

+to do easy jobs."

+

+This flattered Redbeard, and he undertook to do

+what was required.  He came out on the Eagle Lake

+Heath in the autumn after that winter when Grim

+had been with Grettir and made the attempt on his

+life.  Grettir was feeling uneasy and troubled, as the

+days grew shorter, with the eyes that he thought

+stared at him from every quarter, and although his

+judgment prompted him to refuse hospitality to

+Redbeard, yet his dread of being alone in the dark

+induced him to disregard his doubts.  So he

+reluctantly admitted Redbeard to be an inmate of his cot.

+

+"Now, mind this," said Grettir.  "I let a man be

+with me here last winter, and he lay wait for my

+life.  If I find that you are false, then I shall not

+spare you."

+

+Redbeard said he wished for nothing else; and so

+Grettir received him, and found him to be a very

+powerful man, and so energetic that he was of the

+greatest assistance to Grettir.

+

+Redbeard was with him all that winter (1019-1020)

+and found no occasion on which he could

+take Grettir unawares.  Then set in the next winter

+1020-1021, and Redbeard had begun to loathe his

+life on the heath, and no wonder, for he saw no one

+save Grettir; the cold and desolation of the spot was

+surpassingly wretched.  Now he became impatient

+to kill Grettir and get away.

+

+One night a great storm broke over the moor

+whilst he and Grettir were asleep.  The roar of the

+wind woke Redbeard and he ran outside the hut,

+down to the water-side, and with a huge stone he

+smashed the fishing-boat, so that it sank; and the

+oars and bits he had broken off he threw away into

+the lake.  So did he with the nets.

+

+When he came in Grettir was awake also, and he

+asked how fared the boat.

+

+"She has broken from her mooring," answered

+Redbeard, "and has been dashed to bits on the rocks."

+

+Then Grettir jumped up, and taking his weapons

+ran out to the end of the spit of land on which his

+hut was built, and saw how the nets were drifting

+in the waves and were entangled with the oars.

+

+"Jump in, swim out, and bring them to shore,"

+said he to Redbeard.  The man shook his head and

+answered:

+

+"I can do anything save swim.  I have not held

+back from any other work you have set me, but

+swim I cannot."

+

+Then Grettir laid his weapons down by the

+waterside and prepared to jump in.  But he mistrusted

+Redbeard, so he said, "I will get in the nets, as you

+cannot; but I trust you will not deal treacherously

+by me."

+

+Redbeard answered, "I should be a base fellow

+and unworthy to live if I were false to you

+now—after you have housed me so long."

+

+Then Grettir put off his clothes, and went into the

+water, and swam out to the nets.

+

+He swept them up together and brought them

+towards the land, and cast them up on the bank;

+but the moment he attempted to land Redbeard

+caught up the short sword, drew it hastily and ran

+at Grettir and smote at him, just as he was heaving

+himself up out of the water.  The blade would have

+cut into his neck, or between his shoulder-blades, had

+not Grettir instantly let go, and fallen backwards

+into the water and sunk like a stone.  Sinking thus

+headlong he reached the bottom, and instead of rising

+to the surface again he clung to the rocks under

+water, and groped his way along as close as he could

+to the bank, so that Redbeard might not see him

+till he had reached the back of the creek and got

+aland.

+

+Now, Redbeard stood at the end of the promontory,

+looking into the water, much puzzled.  He had not

+cut Grettir with the sword, and yet Grettir was

+gone down, and did not rise.  He thought he must

+have struck his head against a stone, and so have

+sunk, and he looked out into the water wondering

+where and when he would rise.  Meanwhile Grettir

+had come ashore behind him and was approaching

+stealthily.  Redbeard was unaware of his danger

+till Grettir had his arms about him, had heaved him

+over his head and dashed him down on the rocks, so

+that his skull was broken.  After that Grettir resolved

+not to take another outlaw into his house, though he

+could hardly endure to be alone.

+

+Thorir of Garth did not hear of the death of Redbeard

+till next summer at the great assize; and then

+he was so angry, and so resolved to make an end of

+Grettir, that he collected a body of resolute men, his

+servants and others whom he hired for the purpose,

+to the number of nearly eighty, to sweep the Eagle

+Lake Heath and take and kill Grettir.

+

+One day, when Grettir was out on the moor, he

+saw a large body of armed men riding towards the

+lake.  He had time to fly to a hill that rises at a

+little distance, where there is a rift in the rock that

+traverses the top of the hill.  When I read the

+account in the saga I could not quite understand

+what follows, but no sooner was I on the spot than

+all appeared quite clear.  One could see, at once,

+that Grettir, taken by surprise, would run to this

+very spot and no other.  It was the nearest available

+place of vantage, with stone and crag.  The situation

+was not the best that might have been chosen, as it

+left Grettir's back unprotected; however, he had no

+time to seek a better.

+

+.. _`GRETTIR ATTACKED IN THE RIFT BY THORIR'S PARTY`:

+

+.. figure:: images/img-261.jpg

+   :figclass: white-space-pre-line

+   :align: center

+   :alt: GRETTIR ATTACKED IN THE RIFT BY THORIR'S PARTY.

+

+   GRETTIR ATTACKED IN THE RIFT BY THORIR'S PARTY.

+

+Thorir came with his men to the bottom of the

+hill, and shouted to Grettir and taunted him.

+

+Grettir replied, "Though you may have put the

+spoon to your lips you have not swallowed the

+broth."

+

+Then Thorir egged on his men to go up the slope

+at Grettir, but this was not easy.  It was steep, and

+the rocks were close on either side so that Grettir

+could not be surrounded.  Only one man could get

+at him from before at once.  Several attempts were

+made, but all failed; some of the assailants were

+killed, some wounded.  Then Thorir broke up his

+party into two, and sent one detachment round to

+the back of the rocks, to fall on Grettir from behind.

+Grettir saw the manoeuvre, and did not see how to

+meet it.  All he could do would be to sell his life

+dearly.  He could not hold out long when assailed

+simultaneously from before and behind.

+

+Thorir bade the attack slacken till he thought

+those sent to the rear would be ready, and then he

+ordered a grand, and, as he believed, a combined

+assault.  Grettir fought with desperation, expecting

+every moment to be cut down from behind, but to

+his surprise and that of Thorir he was left unmolested

+in the rear.

+

+Thorir called off his men, and went round the hill

+to inquire why the attack from behind had not taken

+place.  To his amazement he came on a discomfited

+party bleeding, faint, and baffled, and to find that

+twelve men had fallen in it.[#]

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+.. class:: noindent small

+

+[#] At the time, or rather shortly after

+I had been on the spot, I wrote,

+"There is a nook like a sentry-box

+in the side of the cleft, and it was in this

+that Hallmund ensconced himself,

+so that he could hew down anyone who

+attempted to pass through this cleft

+to get at Grettir's back, whilst remaining

+himself screened from observation.

+I could not understand the saga

+account before I saw the spot,

+and how it was that those attacking Grettir

+from behind did not see Hallmund.

+The sight of the place made all plain."

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+Then he bade a retreat.  "Oft," he said, "have I

+heard that Grettir is a man of marvel for prowess,

+but I never knew before that he was a wizard, and

+able to kill as many at his back as he does in front

+of him."

+

+When he numbered his men, Thorir found that he

+had lost eighteen.  Then he and his retinue rode

+away, and they carried on them many and grievous

+wounds.

+

+Now Grettir was no less perplexed with the event

+than was Thorir, and when the latter had withdrawn

+he went through the rift in the rocks to see why he

+had not been fallen on from the rear,—and he lighted

+on a tall strong man leaning against the rocks, sore

+wounded.

+

+Grettir asked his name, and the tall man replied

+that he was Hallmund.

+

+"Do you remember meeting me on the heath one

+day?" asked the wounded man, "when you tried to

+stop my horse, and I pulled the reins through your

+hands so as to skin the palms'?  Then I promised if

+I had the chance to back you up."

+

+"Indeed," said Grettir, much moved, "I remember

+that right well, and now I thank you with all my

+heart, for this day you have saved my life."

+

+Then Hallmund said, "You must now come with

+me, for time must drag with you solitary here on the

+heath."

+

+Grettir said he was glad to accept the offer; so

+they went together south to the Ball-jokull, and

+there Hallmund had a great cave, and his daughter,

+a big muscular girl, lived there with him; there the

+girl applied plasters to the wounds of her father and

+healed him.

+

+Grettir remained with them in the cave all the

+ensuing summer.  But when summer came to an

+end, he wearied of being so long in the desert, and

+longed to see and be with his fellow-men in inhabited

+parts once more; so he bade farewell to Hallmund,

+and went away to the west to Hit-dale that opens on

+the Marshland, through which six or seven large

+rivers flow.  Here he had a friend named Biorn

+living at Holm.

+

+

+

+

+

+.. vspace:: 4

+

+.. _`ON THE FELL`:

+

+.. class:: center large bold

+

+   CHAPTER XXVIII.

+

+

+.. class:: center medium bold

+

+   ON THE FELL.

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+..

+   

+   *The Hollow of Fairwood Fell—Above the Shale

+   Slide—The Outlaw's Lair—The Boaster—A Dandified

+   Warrior—Hunter and Hunted—A Skin-dressing—Sadder

+   and Wiser*

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+Biorn when asked by Grettir to give him shelter

+declined to do so, not that the will was lacking,

+but that he had not the power to protect him.  "You

+have made," he said, "enemies on all sides, and if I

+were to take you under my roof all your enemies

+would become mine also, and I would be involved

+in endless and bitter quarrels.  I cannot give you

+direct assistance and shelter, but indirectly I will do

+what I can for you.  There is a long hill, called

+Fairwood Fell, that runs in front of my house

+on the other side of the river, and ends just above

+the marshes.  Now, in one place there is a steep shale

+slide, and above this is a hollow through the mountain,

+that might very well be made into a dry and

+comfortable place of abode.  From the entrance every one

+who passes along the highway, all who come across

+the marshes, can be seen.  I can supply you with a

+few necessaries to fit the place up, but when there

+you must shift for yourself.  I must not risk too

+much by supporting you."

+

+Grettir consented to this.  So he went up to

+Fairwood Fell and built up the cave, and hung gray

+wadmal before the entrance, so that no one below

+could notice that there was anything peculiar or

+anyone living there.  In this eagle's nest among the

+rocks Grettir spent the time from the autumn of

+1022 to the spring of 1024, that is, two winters.

+Whatever fuel he wanted, all he had to eat, everything

+he wanted, had to be carried up this slippery

+and steep ascent by him.  Down the shale slide he

+came when short of provisions, and went over the

+marshes to this or that farm and demanded or carried

+off, sometimes a sheep, sometimes curds, dried fish,

+in a word what he required; and a very great nuisance

+the men of the district found him.  Heartily did they

+wish they were rid of him, yet they could not drive

+him from his place of abode, for it was so difficult of

+access and so easy of defence.

+

+Now, some years ago, in the summer of 1862,

+the year after I was in Iceland, a very similar lair

+which Grettir inhabited a little later in the east of

+Iceland was explored by an Icelandic farmer.  This

+is his description of it: "The lair stands in the lower

+part of a slip of stones beneath some sheer rocks.

+It is built up of stones, straight as a line 4-3/4 ells long

+and 10 inches wide, and is within the walls 7/8 of an

+ell deep.  Half of it is roofed over with flat stones,

+small thin splinters of stone are wedged in between

+these to fill up the joints, and these are so firmly

+fixed that they could not be removed without tools.

+One stone in the south wall is so large that it requires

+six men to move it.  The north wall is beginning to

+give way.  On the outside the walls are overgrown

+with black lichen and gray moss."

+

+Something like this was the den of Grettir on the

+Fairwood Fell, but it was less built up, as he had the

+natural rock for two of the sides and for the roof.

+

+Whilst Grettir was there, there came a ship into

+harbour, in which was a man named Gisli, a merchant,

+very fond of wearing smart clothes, and an inordinately

+vain man.  He heard the farmers talking about

+Grettir, and what a vexation it was to them to have

+him in their neighbourhood.

+

+"Don't talk to me about Grettir," said Gisli; "I've

+had battles with harder men than he.  I hope he

+may came in my way, that I may dress his skin for him."

+

+The farmer to whom he said this shook his head.

+"You don't know of whom you are speaking.  If you

+were to kill him you would be well off,—six marks

+of silver were set on his head, and Thorir of Garth has

+added three more, so that there stand on him nine

+marks of silver."

+

+"All things can be done for money," said Gisli;

+"and as I am a merchant I'll see to it.  And when

+we meet—I'll dress his skin for him."

+

+The farmer said it would be well not to talk about

+the matter.  Gisli agreed.  "I will abide this winter

+in Snowfell-ness," he said.  "If his lair is on my road

+thither I'll look out for him, and dress his skin as I

+go along."

+

+Now, whether he talked in spite of the caution given

+him, or whether some one overheard what he said, who

+was a friend of Biorn of Holm, is uncertain.  Any

+how Gisli's threat reached the ears of Biorn, who at

+once warned Grettir to be on his guard against the

+merchant.

+

+"If he comes your way," said Biorn, "teach him a

+lesson; but don't kill him."

+

+"No," said Grettir with a grim smile, "I'll merely

+dress his skin for him."

+

+Now it happened one day that Grettir was looking

+out of the entrance to his lair, when he saw a man

+with two attendants riding along the highway.  His

+kirtle was of scarlet, and his helmet and shield flashed

+in the sun.  Then it occurred to him that this must

+be the dandified Gisli, of whom he had heard, so he

+came running down the shale descent to the road.

+He reached the man, and at once he went to his

+horse, clapped his hand on a bundle of clothes behind

+the saddle, and said, "This I am going to take."

+

+"Nay, not so," answered Gisli, for it was he.

+"You do not know whom you are addressing."

+

+"Nor do I care," said Grettir.  "I have little

+respect for persons.  I am in poor and lowly

+condition myself, so low that I am driven to be a

+highway robber."

+

+Then Gisli drew his sword, and called to his men

+to attack Grettir, who gave way a little before them.

+But he soon saw that Gisli kept behind his servants,

+and never risked himself where the blows fell; so

+Grettir put the two churls aside with well-dealt

+strokes, and went direct upon the merchant, who,

+seeing that he was menaced, turned and took to his

+heels.  Grettir pursued him, and Gisli in his fear

+cast aside his shield, then, a little further, threw

+away his helmet, and so as he ran he cast away one

+thing after another that he had with him.  There

+was a heavy purse of silver at his girdle.  This

+encumbered him, and as he ran he unbuckled his

+belt and dropped it and the purse with it.  Grettir

+did not purposely come up with him; he could have

+outstripped him had he willed, but he let the fellow

+run a couple of horse lengths before him.  The end

+of the Fell is above an old lava bed that has flowed

+from a crater called Eldborg or the Castle of Fire, and

+like an old ruined castle it looks.  Gisli ran over

+this lava bed, jumping the cracks, then dived through

+a wood of birch that intervened between the lava

+and the river Haf.  The stream was swollen with

+ice, and ill to ford.  Gisli halted hesitating before

+plunging in, and that allowed Grettir to run in on

+him, seize him and throw him down.

+

+"Are you the Gisli who were so eager to meet

+Grettir Asmund's son?" asked the outlaw.

+

+"I have had enough of him," gasped the fallen

+man.  "Keep my saddle-bags and what I have

+thrown away, and let me go free."

+

+"Hardly yet," said Grettir grimly.  "I think

+something was said about skin-dressing, that is not

+to be overlooked."

+

+Then Grettir drew him back to the wood, took a

+good handful of birch rods, pulled Gisli's clothes up

+over his head, and laid the twigs against his back in

+none of the gentlest fashion.  Gisli danced and

+skipped about, but Grettir had him by his garments

+twisted about his head and neck, and continued to

+flog till the poor fellow threw himself down on the

+ground screaming.  Then Grettir let go, and went

+quietly back to his lair, picking up as he went the

+purse and the belt, the shield, casque, and whatever

+else Gisli had thrown away, also he had the contents

+of his saddle-bags.

+

+Gisli never came back to Fairwood Fell to ask for

+them.  When he got on his legs he ran up the river

+to where it was not so dangerous, swam it, and

+reached a farmhouse, where he entreated to be taken

+in.  There he lay a week with his body swollen and

+striped; after which he went home, and much was

+he laughed at for his adventure with Grettir.

+

+

+

+

+

+.. vspace:: 4

+

+.. _`THE FIGHT ON THE RIVER`:

+

+.. class:: center large bold

+

+   CHAPTER XXIX.

+

+

+.. class:: center medium bold

+

+   THE FIGHT ON THE RIVER.

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+..

+   

+   *Angry Farmers—A Large Band of Men—The Marshmen

+   are Driven Back—The Attacking Party Reinforced—Fighting

+   in Desperation—Wearied but Unwounded—The Song of

+   Victory*

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+Now, whilst Grettir was on Fairwood Fell,

+favoured by Biorn of Hit-dale, his presence after

+a while became unendurable to the bonders who

+lived in the marshes.  He had been for two winters

+in his den on the hill, and when they saw that he

+intended to remain there a third winter, and rob

+them of sheep and whatever he needed, then they

+took counsel together how they might rid

+themselves of the annoyance.

+

+One day in the winter of 1023, Grettir came

+down from his place of vantage, and went over the

+marshes to a farm called Acres, and drove away

+from it two bullocks fit for slaughtering, and several

+sheep, and he had got on with them some way over

+the marshes, on his way to his lair, before the

+farmer at Acres was aware of his loss; he had taken

+six wethers beside from another farm named Brookbend.

+This angered the farmers greatly, and they

+sent a message to the chief man of the district,

+Thord at Hitness, and urged him to waylay Grettir

+before he could reach his den.  Thord shrank from

+doing anything; however, they pressed him so much

+that at last he consented to let his son Arnor go

+with them.  Then messengers were sent throughout

+all the country side, to every farmer who was

+concerned.  And it was so planned that two bodies of

+men should march to the taking of Grettir, one on

+the right, the other on the left bank of the Hit

+River, so as to take him for certain.

+

+Grettir was soon aware that the country was

+roused.  He was not alone, he had two men with

+him—one the son of the farmer at Fairwood Fell, with

+whom he was on good terms, the other a farm-servant.

+They advised him to desert the cattle and

+sheep and run for it, cross the river and take

+refuge in his place of vantage; but this Grettir was too

+proud to do.

+

+Presently he could see coming on behind him a

+large band of men, about twenty in all, under

+Thorarin of Acres and Thorfin of Brookbend.  Now, as

+these were pursuing him over the marshes, up the

+opposite side of the river came Arnor, the son of

+Thord of Hitness, and with him a farmer named

+Biarni of Jorvi.

+

+Grettir managed to reach the river before his

+enemies came up with him, and he had also time to

+secure a place of vantage.  This was a ness of rock

+that ran out into the river, or round which the river

+swept, so that he was protected by the water on all

+sides but one.  Grettir said to the two men with

+him, that they must guard his back, see that none

+came up the sides in his rear, and then he took his

+short-sword in both his hands, planted his feet wide

+apart on the rock, and prepared to sell his life dear.

+

+The party headed by Thorarin of Acres and

+Thorfin of Brookbend came up, twenty in all,—but

+more were coming, for Thorarin had begun the

+pursuit before all the farmers were collected, and he

+knew that a body of some twenty or thirty more

+would arrive before long.  Thorarin himself was an

+old man, and he did not enter into the fray, but

+urged on his men.

+

+The fight was hard.  Grettir was not easily

+reached where he stood, and he smote at all who

+approached.  Some of the Marshmen fell, and several

+were wounded.  In vain did they attempt to

+dislodge him by combined rushes, he drove them over

+the edge into the water, or cut them down with his

+sword.  At last his arm was weary, and he called

+to the farmer's son to step into his place.  He did

+so, and held the ground valiantly, whilst Grettir

+rested.  Then the party drew back, discomfited.  At

+that moment up came the fresh body of men under

+Thrand, the brother of Thorarin of Acres, and

+Stonewolf of Lavadale.  These egged on their men eagerly,

+and they thought they would obtain an easy victory,

+for Grettir had been fighting for some time, and was weary.

+

+Then Thorarin of Acres called out and advised delay.

+

+"For," said he, "the third party of men under

+Arnor and Biarni of Jorvi have not come up on the

+other side of the river."

+

+This piece of advice was rejected by the

+newcomers.  What did they want with more men?

+They were a large party, fresh and untired, and

+Grettir had but two men with him, and they were

+wearied with fighting.  So the signal was given for

+the onslaught.

+

+Then Grettir saw that he must either jump into

+the river, swim across, and desert the sheep and

+bullocks he had driven there, or use almost

+superhuman exertions to defend himself.

+

+His position was, indeed, desperate; for, even if

+he did hold his own against this second body of

+men, a third was on its way up the other bank of

+the river to intercept him on his way up to the

+Fell.  For one moment he hesitated, and then was

+resolved.  No, he would not run.  He would die

+there, and die only after having strewn the ground

+with his foes.  Foremost among his assailants was

+Stonewolf of Lavadale, and Grettir made a sudden

+rush at him, and with a tremendous stroke of his

+sword he clove his head down to the shoulders.

+Thrand, who sprang forward to avenge him, Grettir

+struck on the thigh, and the blow took off all the

+muscle, and he fell, crippled for life.  Then Grettir

+fell back to his place of safety, and dared others to

+come on.  They sprang out on the neck of rock,

+but would not meet his weapon, one after another

+fell or was beaten back.

+

+Then Thorarin cried out, and bade all draw off.

+

+"The longer ye fight," said he, "the worse ye

+fare.  He picks out what men among you he chooses."

+

+The party withdrew, and there were ten men

+fallen, and five had received mortal wounds, or were

+crippled; and hardly one of the two parties was

+without some hurt or other.

+

+Grettir, moreover, was marvellously wearied, but

+had received no wounds to speak of.

+

+Now, hardly had the men withdrawn, carrying

+their dead and wounded, than up came the third

+detachment under Arnor and Biarni, on the other

+side of the river.  There can be no question but that,

+had they crossed and fallen on Grettir, he could not

+have defended himself longer, so overcome was he

+with weariness; but Arnor knew that his father

+had entered on the matter reluctantly, and he was

+discouraged by the ill-success of the other companies.

+Consequently, he neither waded through the river

+at the ford, a little higher, nor did he maintain his

+ground and cut off Grettir's retreat.  Instead, he

+withdrew with all his men, and left Grettir to

+recover his strength, and cross and escape to the Fell.

+This conduct of Arnor provoked much comment;

+and he was accused of cowardice, an accusation that

+clung to him through life.  Even his father

+rebuked him, for the father saw what discredit he had

+brought upon himself.

+

+The point on the river Hit where this affray took

+place is still shown; and is called Grettir's-point to

+this day.

+

+When the fight was over Grettir and the two

+men went to the Fell, and as they passed the farm

+the farmer's daughter came out of the door, and

+asked for tidings.

+

+Then Grettir sang:—

+

+   |  "Brewer of strong barley-corn,

+   |  Pourer forth of drinking-horn,

+   |  Lo! to-day the Stonewolf fell,

+   |  Ne'er again his head be well.

+   |  Many more have got their bane,

+   |  Many in their blood lie slain;

+   |  Little life has Thorgils now,

+   |  After that bone-breaking blow.

+   |  Eight upon the river's bank

+   |  In their gore expiring sank."

+

+

+

+

+

+.. vspace:: 4

+

+.. _`A MYSTERIOUS VALE`:

+

+.. class:: center large bold

+

+   CHAPTER XXX.

+

+

+.. class:: center medium bold

+

+   A MYSTERIOUS VALE.

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+..

+   

+   *The Dome of Snow—Cold Dale—A Fair Valley—The

+   Mottled Ewe—With Thorir and his Daughters—The

+   Stone on Broad-shield—Thorir's Cave*

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+In the spring of 1024 Grettir went away from

+Fairwood Fell; for he had been there so long,

+and had preyed for such a time on the bonders of the

+marshes, that he himself saw that it would be best

+for him to remove into quite another part of the

+island.  So he visited his friend Hallmund once

+more, under the ice of Ball-jokull, and Hallmund

+advised him where to go.  He could not give him

+hospitality himself that winter, because his stock of

+goods was run so short that it would hardly suffice

+for his daughter and himself; but he told him of a

+valley unknown to anyone, save a friend of his

+called Thorir and himself.  And he informed him

+how it was to be reached.

+

+Now, as already said, there are passes in Iceland

+between the several blocks of ice mountains, and

+such a pass exists between Goatland-jokull and a

+curious domed snowy mountain called Ok.  The

+pass is called the Cold Dale, because it lies for many

+hours ride between ice mountains, and under the

+precipitous Goatland-jokull, whose rocks are crowned

+with green ice that falls over incessantly in great

+avalanches.  It is seven hours' ride from one blade of

+grass to another through that dale.  I went through

+it on midsummer-day, and saw the bones of horses

+lying about that had died unable to get through;

+perhaps becoming lame or exhausted on the way.

+

+Half through this long trough of the Cold Dale

+stands up a buttress of rock, or rather a sort of ness,

+projecting from Goatland-jokull, so precipitous that

+hardly any snow rests on it, and this is called the

+Half-way Fell.

+

+Now, Hallmund told Grettir he must go through

+the Cold Dale till he reached the Half-way Fell,

+and there he must strike up over the snow and

+glaciers of Goatland-jokull, due south, and he would

+all at once drop into a valley known to few.

+

+So Grettir went up the moor till he struck the

+White River, that flowed out of the Eagle Lakes he

+knew so well, and under the cliffs and icy crown of

+Erick's-jokull, then he climbed over broken trachyte

+rocks for several hundreds of feet, till he found

+himself in the Cold Dale, and along that he trudged till

+he had reached Half-way Fell, standing up like a

+wall as though to stop the pass.  There he turned

+to the left, and as at this point Goatland is no

+longer precipitous, but slopes in a series of steps to

+the Cold Dale, he climbed up through the snow, a

+long and tedious ascent, till he stood on the neck of

+the mountain, and there he saw that the snow slopes

+fell away rapidly to the south, and he descended and

+soon beheld before him a valley in which were a great

+many boiling springs that threw up clouds of steam,

+and he saw also, what greatly pleased him, that

+there was rich and abundant grass in this valley.

+This is what the saga says: "The dale was long

+and somewhat narrow, locked up by glaciers all

+round, in such a manner that the ice walls

+overhung the dale.  He scrambled down into it, as best

+he could, and there he saw fair hillsides grass-grown

+and set with bushes.  Hot springs were

+there, and it appeared to him that it was the

+earth-fires which prevented the ice walls from closing in

+on the valley.  A little river ran down the dale,

+with level banks.  The sun rarely shone into the

+valley; but the number of sheep there could hardly

+be reckoned, they were so many; and nowhere had

+he seen any so fat and in such good condition."

+

+Grettir did not see Thorir, Hallmund's friend, at

+first; so he built himself a hut of such wood as he

+could get, and with turf.  He killed the sheep he

+wanted, and found that there was more meat on one

+of them than on two elsewhere.

+

+The Saga says:—

+

+"There was one ewe there, brown mottled, with

+a lamb, and she was a beauty.  Grettir killed the

+lamb, and took three stone of suet off it, the meat

+was some of the best he had ever eaten.  But when

+the mottled ewe missed her lamb, she went up on

+Grettir's hut every night, and bleated so plaintively

+as to trouble his sleep, and made Grettir quite

+troubled that he had killed her lamb."

+

+Now Grettir noticed that at evening the sheep

+ran in one direction, and once or twice he heard a

+call; so he went after the sheep one evening, and was

+led by them to the hut where Thorir dwelt.  He

+was a strange man, who had spent so many years

+away from the society of his fellow-men as not to

+care any more to meet them, so he did not welcome

+Grettir very warmly.  However he had three

+daughters, and they were glad to have someone to talk

+to, and as the winter crept on Thorir himself

+became more amiable, and so the winter did not pass

+as drearily as Grettir had feared it would.  He sang

+his songs and related stories, and the party played

+draughts with knuckle-bones of sheep.

+

+When spring came, however, he was fain to go;

+and he did not leave by the way he came, but

+followed the little river, and it led him out between

+rock and glaciers into a piece of desert, covered with

+lava beds that have poured out of a volcano, or

+rather two that stand opposite this entrance to

+Thorir's valley.  These two volcanoes are quite unlike

+each other, though side by side, one, called Hlothu-fell

+has upright walls, like Erick's-jokull, and a

+crater filled up and brimming over with ice; but

+the other Skialdbreith, or the Broad-shield, is like

+a conical round silver shield laid on the ground.

+The entrance to Thorir's Dale is completely hidden

+by a round snowy mountain that blocks it, and then

+a second snowy mountain stands further out in front

+of the opening, so that not a sign of any valley can

+be seen from anywhere.

+

+So difficult did Grettir think it would be to find

+it, that he ascended on Broad-shield and set up a

+stone there with a hole in it, so that anyone

+looking through this hole would see directly into the

+narrow entrance of Thorir's Dale.  This stone still

+stands where Grettir had placed it; but has sunk on

+one side, so that by looking through the hole the

+eye is no longer directed to the entrance.

+

+No one had ever visited Thorir's Dale since Grettir

+left it till the year 1654, when it was explored by

+two Icelandic clergymen, and an account of their

+expedition in Icelandic is to be found in the British

+Museum.[#]  The valley as far as I know has not

+been explored since.  It is marked on the map of

+Iceland, but apparently from the description left by

+the two clergymen, not from any visit made to it

+by the map-maker.

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+.. class:: noindent small

+

+[#] I have given a translation of it

+in my *Curiosities of Olden Times*, London, Hayes, 1869.

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+When the two men visited the valley they went

+to it in the same way as did Grettir.  They found no

+hot springs, and the valley was utterly barren; but

+then they had no time to descend it, they only

+looked down on it from above.  They found the cave

+with a door, and a window to it, which was probably

+the habitation of Thorir and his daughters.

+

+

+

+

+

+.. vspace:: 4

+

+.. _`THE DEATH OF HALLMUND`:

+

+.. class:: center large bold

+

+   CHAPTER XXXI.

+

+

+.. class:: center medium bold

+

+   THE DEATH OF HALLMUND.

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+..

+   

+   *Grim's Fish Disappear—The Thief Wounded and

+   Tracked—Death of Hallmund*

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+Now, there was a man called Grim, who was an

+outlaw for his ill-deeds, and he thought that

+as Grettir no longer abode in his hut on the Eagle

+Lake, he might go there and occupy it.  This did not

+please Hallmund, for Grettir had left him his nets,

+and he was wont to fish in the lake.

+

+Grim had supplied himself with nets, and he one

+day caught a hundred char, large red-fleshed fish,

+delicious eating; so he piled them up outside his

+hut.  Next morning to his great surprise all his

+char had disappeared.  Then he went fishing again,

+and caught even more fish, and he brought them to

+land, and heaped them up as before.

+

+Next morning they also had disappeared.

+

+He could not understand it; so he fished again,

+and had on this occasion extraordinary luck: he

+must have netted nearly three hundred fish.  He

+brought them home, and put them in the same

+place as before; but he did not go to sleep this

+time: he remained within, and watched his store

+through a peep-hole in the door.

+

+During the night he heard someone who trod

+heavily coming along the ness, and then he saw a

+man picking up his fish, and putting them into a

+basket he had on his back.  Grim watched till he

+had filled the basket, which he now heaved upon

+his shoulders.  Instantly Grim threw open the

+door, rushed out, and whilst the man was still

+stooping adjusting his load, he swung up a very sharp

+axe he held, holding it in both hands, and smote at

+the man's neck.  The axe hit the basket, and that

+somewhat broke its force, but it glanced aside and

+sank into the shoulder.  Then the man started aside,

+and set off running with the basket to the south,

+skirting a lava field that had flowed out of

+Erick's-jokull, and which now goes by the name of

+Hallmund's Lava-bed.

+

+Grim ran after him, and saw that he was making

+for Ball-jokull; but the man, who was of great

+size and strength, though wounded and losing blood,

+ran on, and did not stay till he reached a cave in

+the face of the cliff, above which was the ice, and

+with long icicles hanging over the front.  Into this

+he entered.  There was a fire burning inside, and a

+young woman sitting by it.

+

+Grim heard her welcome the man, and call him

+her father, and name him Hallmund.  He cast his

+basket of fish down, and groaned aloud.

+

+Then the girl saw that blood was flowing from

+him, and she asked him what had happened.

+

+Hallmund told what had befallen him, and said

+that he was wounded to the death, and that he

+trusted Grettir would avenge him, for he had no

+other friend to do so.

+

+After that Hallmund began a lay, and sang the

+history of his life, the achievements he had wrought,

+and he sang on till his breath failed, and either he was

+unable to finish his lay, or Grim could not remember

+all of it.  A good deal, however, of Hallmund's

+death-song has been retained and is given in the saga.

+

+But Hallmund's hope or expectation that Grettir

+would avenge him was disappointed, for Grim

+managed to get away from Iceland, and did not

+return to it again during the lifetime of Grettir.

+

+

+

+

+

+.. vspace:: 4

+

+.. _`OF ANOTHER ATTEMPT AGAINST GRETTIR`:

+

+.. class:: center large bold

+

+   CHAPTER XXXII.

+

+

+.. class:: center medium bold

+

+   OF ANOTHER ATTEMPT AGAINST GRETTIR.

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+..

+   

+   *Thorir raises a Party against Grettir—Grettir

+   plays the Herdsman—A Daring Trick—Thorir a

+   Laughing-Stock*

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+Now, during the summer, tidings came to Thorir

+of Garth that Grettir was somewhere about on

+Reekheath in the north-east.  There was his lair

+which was examined a few years ago, and which

+remains in tolerable condition, as already mentioned

+when his lair at Fairwood Fell was described.  Now,

+Thorir of Garth, when he got this tidings was

+resolved to make another attempt to kill him; and

+no wonder, for with singular audacity Grettir had

+come into his neighbourhood.  Grettir no doubt

+thought that he had preyed long enough on men

+who had not harmed him, and that now he would

+prey on the goods and cattle of the man who had

+made an outlaw of him, and who pursued him with

+such remorseless hostility.  Thorir gathered a

+number of men together and went in pursuit of Grettir.

+Grettir was not at that time in his den but out on

+the moor, and he was near a mountain-dairy that

+stood back somewhat from the wayside, and there

+was another man with him, when they spied the party

+of Thorir, all armed, coming along.  They had not

+been observed, so they hastily led their horses into

+the shed attached to the dairy, and concealed

+themselves.  Thorir came along, went to the dairy,

+looked about to see if anyone were there who could

+inform him if Grettir had been seen, noticed only a

+couple of horses tied up, but supposed they belonged

+to the farmer whose summer dairy this was, and,

+without looking further, went on.

+

+As soon as Thorir and his band had gone out of

+sight, Grettir crept from his place of hiding, and

+said to his companion:

+

+"It is a pity they should have come such a ride

+to see me, and should be disappointed.  You watch

+the horses, and I will go on and have a word with

+them."

+

+"You surely will not be so rash?" exclaimed the

+other man.

+

+"I cannot let them come all this way without

+exchanging words with me," said Grettir, and

+leaving the horses under the care of his comrade, he

+strode away over the moor to a place where he was

+sure he could be observed.  Now, Grettir had a

+slouched hat on and a long staff in his hand, and at

+the dairy he had found some clothes belonging to

+the herdsman usually there, and these he had put on.

+

+Directly Thorir and his party saw a man with a

+staff striding about on the moor they rode to him.

+None of them knew Grettir's face, for, indeed, they

+had not been given the chance.  So they thought

+this great rough man was the herdsman, and they

+asked him if he had seen the outlaw Grettir.

+

+"What sort of man is he?" asked Grettir.  "Is he

+armed?"

+

+"Armed indeed is he, with a casque on his head,

+a long sword, and also a short one in his girdle."

+

+"Is he riding?"

+

+"Most certainly he is."

+

+"Then," said Grettir, "you had better get you

+along after him due south; he has gone that way

+not so long agone."

+

+When they heard this Thorir and his party struck

+spurs into their horses, put them into a gallop, and

+away they went as hard as they could in the direction

+indicated.  Now, Grettir knew the country very

+well, and he was well aware that south of where he

+stood were impassable bogs.  Thorir and his fellows

+were too eager in pursuit to attend to the nature of

+the ground over which they rode; besides, they

+thought that if Grettir had ridden that way they

+could ride it as well.  They were speedily mistaken,

+for in they floundered into a bottomless morass;

+some of the horses were in to their saddles; the men

+got off and got out with difficulty, and they had

+much ado to get their horses out at all.  Indeed,

+some were wallowing there more than half the day.

+Many curses were heaped on the churl who had

+befooled them, but they could not find him when

+the went after him to chastise him.

+

+Grettir hastened back to the dairy, mounted his

+horse, and rode to Garth itself, whilst the master

+was floundering in the bog.  As he came to the

+farm he saw a tall, well-dressed girl by the door,

+and he asked who she was.  He was told this was

+Thorir's daughter.  Then Grettir sang a stave to her,

+the meaning of which was that he who came there

+was the man whom Thorir was vainly pursuing.

+

+Much laughter was occasioned by this failure of

+Thorir to take Grettir when he was in his own

+neighbourhood, and by his being so deceived and

+befooled by Grettir when he had him in his power.

+

+

+

+

+

+.. vspace:: 4

+

+.. _`AT SANDHEAPS`:

+

+.. class:: center large bold

+

+   CHAPTER XXXIII.

+

+

+.. class:: center medium bold

+

+   AT SANDHEAPS.

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+..

+   

+   *A Deadly Enemy—In the Service of Steinvor—The

+   Way to Church—Crossing the Quivering Flood—The

+   Priest's Caution—A Weird Tale—The Old Hag—The

+   Stream-churl—Steinvor's Husband's Death—The

+   Foundation of the Story—The Troll-woman of

+   Grettir—The Basaltic Troll-wife—The Search

+   under Goda-foss—Grettir's Dive—The Fight with the

+   Stream-churl—Runes of the Fight—A Bag of Bones*

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+The summer was passing away, and Grettir could

+not remain without shelter through the winter;

+so he considered what was best to be done.  He

+could not ask any farmer in the north-east to shelter

+him, because they were all afraid of Thorir of Garth,

+who would have pursued with implacable animosity

+the man who befriended and housed the outlaw.

+Moreover, Thorir had his spies everywhere, and

+Grettir found he had to shift quarters repeatedly to

+escape his deadly enemy.

+

+Now, when the first snows fell Grettir sent his man

+away with his horses across country to Biarg, and

+he went further away from where Thorir was; but

+never stayed long anywhere, nor gave his real

+name.  He had no relatives in this part of the

+island, and no friends.

+

+Now, a little before Yule—that is Christmas—he

+came to a farm called Sandheaps, on that river

+which is called the Quivering Flood.  This farm

+belonged to a widow woman called Steinvor, who

+had recently lost her husband.

+

+Grettir came and offered his services; he said his

+name was Guest, that he was out of work, and that

+he had come there because he heard she was short

+of hands.

+

+Steinvor looked at him, and saw that he was a

+very powerfully-built man, and that there was a

+certain dignity and nobility in his face; so she

+accepted him, against the opinion of the rest in the

+house, who were frightened at the appearance of

+Grettir, and did not know what to make of him,

+whether he were an ordinary human being or a wild

+man, half mountain-goblin or troll.

+

+It came to pass on Christmas-eve that the widow

+Steinvor was very desirous to go to church, but the

+church was on the further side of the river, and

+there was no bridge.

+

+Grettir heard Steinvor lament that she could not

+go to church, so he said bluntly: "You can go.  I

+will attend you and see you over the water."

+

+Then she made ready for worship, and took her

+little daughter with her.  Now, at times the river

+froze hard across, and then it was possible to cross

+on the ice.  At other times it might be traversed at

+a ford.  But when Grettir came to the side of the

+Quivering Flood, it was plain to him that by the ice

+the water could not be crossed.  For there had been

+a rapid thaw, and now the river was overflowed and

+very full of water; and, moreover, it was rolling

+down great masses of ice.

+

+When Steinvor saw the condition of the river, she

+said, "There is plainly no way across for horse or

+man."

+

+"I suppose there is a ford somewhere," said

+Grettir.

+

+"Yes," answered Steinvor, "there is a ford at

+this place; but I do not see how it is to be traversed."

+

+"I will carry you across," said Grettir.

+

+"Carry over the little maiden first," said the

+widow.  "She is the lightest."

+

+"I don't care about making two journeys when

+one will suffice," answered Grettir.  "Come, jump

+up; I will carry you in my arms."

+

+.. _`FORDING THE QUIVERING FLOOD`:

+

+.. figure:: images/img-297.jpg

+   :figclass: white-space-pre-line

+   :align: center

+   :alt: FORDING THE QUIVERING FLOOD.

+

+   FORDING THE QUIVERING FLOOD.

+

+The widow crossed herself, and said, "That will

+never do.  How can you manage such a burden?"

+

+But without more ado Grettir caught up Steinvor

+on his arm, and then he picked up the little girl

+and set her on her mother's lap, and strode into the

+water; they were on his left arm, but he kept the

+right free.  They were so frightened that they durst

+not cry out.  He waded on in the river, and the

+water foamed up to his breast; and then he saw a

+great ice-floe coming bearing down upon him.  He

+put out his right hand, gave the mass of ice a thrust,

+and it was whirled past them by the current.  Then

+he waded further, and the water washed about his

+shoulders, and that was the deepest point.  After

+that the river shallowed, and he bore the mother

+and child safely to the shore and set them down.

+

+Now Grettir turned to go back, and he took up a

+great stone and set it on his head, and so waded

+back.  If he had tried to go through the water

+without a stone he would have been washed away;

+but the great stone on his head enabled him to stand

+firm and resist the current of the water.  Those who

+have not been through an Icelandic river can hardly

+imagine the intensity of the cold.  I have ridden

+through these rivers, my horse swimming under me,

+and when I reached the further side have thrown

+myself off and lain on the sand for a quarter of an

+hour before I could recover from the numbness

+caused by the deadly cold; for some of these rivers

+are as broad as the Thames at London Bridge, and

+the water is milky because full of undissolved snow.

+

+When Steinvor reached the church every one was

+astonished to see her, and asked how she had

+managed to get across the Quivering Flood.  But when

+the priest heard the story, he called Steinvor aside,

+and said:

+

+"Mind and do not say too much about your new

+man; do not talk about his strength, and set folk

+a-wondering who he may be.  I have my own

+opinion, and I think you will do well to house him,

+and say nothing to anyone about his being in any

+way remarkable."

+

+And now there comes into the saga of Grettir a

+story which is certainly untrue, but how it comes in

+can be made out pretty easily.

+

+The real truth was, as the saga writer confesses,

+that Grettir remained hidden at Sandheaps all that

+winter, and no one in the country round knew that

+he was there.  But then, the saga writer did not feel

+satisfied with such a dull winter, in which nothing

+happened; so, to fill out his story and say

+something interesting, he worked into his history a

+wonderful tale.  The story, which I tell in my own

+words, is this:—

+

+.. vspace:: 3

+

+.. class:: center large bold

+

+   The Story of the Stream-Troll

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+There is on the Quivering Flood some miles below

+Sandheaps a mighty foss, or waterfall.  The whole

+river pours over a ledge in a thundering, magnificent

+cascade.  The stream in the middle is broken

+by an island.  You can hear the roar of the falling

+water for a long way around, and see the spray

+thrown up from the fall like a cloud or column of

+steam rising high into the air.  This waterfall is

+called Goda-foss, and was long supposed to be the

+finest in the island; but there is another, which I

+was the first to see, on the Jokull-river, called

+Detti-foss, which is infinitely finer, but which is in a

+region of utter desert of sand and volcanic crater,

+many miles from any human habitation.

+

+It happens that there is a curious black lava rock

+standing near the river, higher up than the fall,

+which bears a quaint resemblance to an old woman,

+and this stone is called The Old Hag; and the story

+goes that it is a troll-woman turned to stone.

+

+Now, you must know that throughout Norway and

+Iceland, and, indeed, wherever the Scandinavian race

+is found, a superstition exists that every river has

+its spirit, that lives in the river; and it was held

+that these river-spirits demanded a sacrifice of a

+human life, at least once a year.  If a sacrifice were

+not given to them, then they took some man or

+woman, when crossing the water, and carried the

+victim away.  And in heathen times there can be

+no doubt whatever that human sacrifices were

+offered to every river; generally an evildoer or a

+prisoner was thrown in and drowned, to propitiate

+the Stream-churl, as he was called, so that he should

+not snap at and carry off other and more valuable

+lives.  Wherever there was a cataract, there the

+Stream-churl was believed to live, hidden away

+behind the curtain of falling water.  If the stream was

+small, then this spirit or demon was small; if,

+however, it were a mighty river, then the spirit was a

+great troll or giant.  Even to this day in Iceland

+and Norway, the ignorant and superstitious believe

+that there are these Stream-churls, and tell stories

+about them, and cannot but suspect that, when anyone

+is drowned, it is the Stream-churl exacting his toll.

+

+Now, it is quite certain that Steinvor, although

+she was a Christian, believed in there being a great

+Stream-churl living under Goda-foss; and as she had

+lost her husband and one of her servants who had

+been drowned in the Quivering Flood, she held that

+they had been carried off by the Troll of the waterfall.

+

+There had been, as it happened, something

+mysterious about the death of Steinvor's husband.  Two

+years before Grettir came to Sandheaps, on Christmas-eve,

+he had disappeared.  She had gone off to see

+some friends at a distance, and when she returned

+home next day she heard that her husband had not

+been seen—he was gone, and not a trace of him

+remained.  It occurred to her that in all probability

+he had gone across the river to church, and had been

+carried off by the river—that is, by the Stream-churl.

+But she could be certain of nothing, and she was

+greatly distressed because she could not give his

+body burial.  A year passed and not a word about her

+husband could she hear.  His body had not be

+found anywhere washed up by the river, supposing

+he had been drowned.

+

+Next year she lost one of her men-servants in the

+same way.  He vanished, and none knew how or

+whither he had gone.  If he had run away, she

+would probably have had tidings of him; but she

+heard none, and his body was also never found.

+

+I have no doubt that she told Grettir about this,

+and also that she believed that the Stream-churl

+who lived under Goda-foss had carried off both her

+husband and the servant.  I believe also that, to

+satisfy her, Grettir undertook to look, and that he

+actually dived under the fall, and came up and

+searched between the sheet of falling water and the

+rock, and found—nothing.

+

+That is the foundation of a wonderful story which

+has found its way into the saga.  It did not satisfy

+those who told the tale of Grettir that he should

+have spent the winter at Sandheaps and done

+nothing—that he should have dived under Goda-foss

+and found nothing.

+

+So by degrees old nursery tales got mixed up with

+this incident about Grettir's search for the

+Stream-churl, and all was worked into a wonderful story,

+which you shall hear.

+

+On that night on which Grettir had carried Steinvor

+across the river, he returned to the farm, and

+lay down in his bed.

+

+When midnight arrived, then a great din was

+heard outside, and presently the hall door was thrown

+open and in through it came a gigantic woman, a

+Troll-wife, with a trough in one hand and a huge

+chopper in the other.

+

+As she entered she peered about her, and saw

+Grettir where he lay, and she ran at him.  Then

+he jumped up and went to meet her, and they fell

+a-wrestling terribly, and struggled together so

+furiously, that all the panelling of the hall side was

+broken.

+

+She was the stronger, and she dragged Grettir

+towards the door, and forth towards the entrance,

+in spite of all his efforts.  She had got him as far

+as the entrance, when there he made a final struggle,

+and in the struggle the door-posts and fittings were

+torn from their place, and fell outwards.

+

+Then the Troll-woman laboured away with him

+towards the river, and right down towards the gulfs.

+

+Grettir was exceedingly weary, yet he saw that

+his only chance was to make a last effort, or be flung

+by her over the edge into the deep, boiling river.

+

+All night they contended in such fashion, and

+ever was he drawing nearer to the edge.  But just

+as she was preparing to fling him into the water, he

+got his right hand free, and he swiftly seized his

+short-sword, and struck off her arm; and at that

+moment the sun rose, and the Troll-woman was

+turned into stone.  There she stands with her

+amputated arm-socket, as a mass of black basalt or lava

+to this day.

+

+If the reader will recall the story of Grettir's

+struggle with Glam at Thorod's-stead, in the valley

+of Shadows, he will see that this is only the same

+story over again almost in every particular,—except

+that the first fight was with a man, and this is with

+a woman.  The reason why this story was concocted

+and put in here, was to account for the stone figure

+which stands by the river, and which is called the

+Troll-wife.  So far the story carries its character on

+its face.

+

+Now we will go on to the next part of the tale.

+It did not satisfy people that Grettir should have

+dived under Goda-foss and found nothing, so the

+story was thus told:

+

+When the goodwife, Steinvor, came from church,

+she thought that her house had been rudely handled;

+so she went to Grettir and asked him what had

+occurred.  Then he told her all, and she prayed him

+to go and make a search for her husband's bones,

+under Goda-foss.

+

+Grettir consented, but he asked that the priest

+might be sent for.  His name was Stone.  Steinvor

+sent for him, and Stone was curious to know whether

+his suspicions about this stranger were true.  So he

+asked him questions, but Grettir answered that if

+the priest wanted to know who he was, he must find

+out.  The priest laughed at the story of the Troll-wife,

+and said he did not believe a word about the

+struggle.

+

+Then Grettir said, "Well, priest, I see that you

+have no faith in my tale; now I propose that you

+accompany me to Goda-foss, and we will search for

+the Troll himself, and see if we can recover the bones

+of Steinvor's husband."

+

+The priest, Stone, agreed, and they went together

+to the side of the waterfall, and they had a rope with

+them.

+

+Stone shook his head, and he said, "It would be

+too risky for anyone to venture down there."

+

+"I will go," said Grettir.  "But you mind the rope."

+

+The priest drove a peg into the sward on the cliff,

+and heaped stones over it, so as to make the end

+firm, and then he seated himself by the heap.

+

+Then Grettir made a loop in the end of the rope,

+and put a stone through the loop, and threw the

+stone down, and the end of the rope went to the

+bottom of the gulf.

+

+"How are you going down?" asked Stone.

+

+"I shall dive," said Grettir.

+

+Then he stripped, but girt on a short-sword, and

+so leaped off the cliff into the foss.  The priest saw

+only the soles of his feet as he went into the water,

+and then saw no more.

+

+Now, Grettir had gone in below the fall, and he

+dived and went under the curtain of water and

+came up near the rock.  The whirlpool below the

+falls was so strong that he had a desperate struggle

+with the water before he could reach the rock.

+

+When he rose, he saw that the water fell over a

+lip of rock, quite clear, and that in the face of the

+rock was a cavern, and that smoke issued from this

+cave, and mingling with the spray and foam passed

+away, and was not discerned beyond.

+

+Grettir climbed over the stones into the cave, and

+there he saw a great fire flaming from amidst brands

+of drift-wood; and there was the Stream-churl seated

+there, a great Troll with a hideous face.  When he

+saw Grettir he roared and jumped up, and caught

+a glaive that was near him, and smote at the

+newcomer.  Grettir hewed back at him with his

+short-sword, and smote the handle of the glaive and broke

+it.  Then the giant stretched back for a sword that

+hung up to a peg against the side of the cave, but as

+he was thus leaning back Grettir smote him across

+the breast, and cut through to the ribs, and gashed

+open his belly.  The blood poured forth out of the

+cave and mingled with the stream.  When the priest

+saw the bloody foam beneath the fall, he was so

+frightened that he ran away, for he made sure that

+Grettir was dead.

+

+Grettir remained in the cave, standing across the

+giant, till he had killed him.  Then he took up a

+flaming brand and searched the cave through.  He

+found nothing more than dead men's bones, and

+these he put together into a bag, threw that over

+his shoulder, and went again into the water.

+

+He rose beyond the foss and looked up, but could

+see nothing of the priest; so he caught the rope,

+and by means of that he swarmed up to the top of

+the cliff.

+

+Then he sat down, and with a sharp knife he cut

+runes on a staff.  And what he wrote was this:

+

+   |  "Down into the gulf I went,

+   |  Where the rocks are widely rent;

+   |  Where the swirling waters fall

+   |  O'er the black basaltic wall;

+   |  Where, with voice of thunder, leap

+   |  In the foaming darkling deep.

+   |  There the stream with icy wave

+   |  Washes the grim giant's cave."

+

+He had cut as much as he could on one stick, so

+now he took another, and on that he cut:

+

+   |  "Dreadful dweller in the cave

+   |  Underneath the falling wave,

+   |  Fierce at me he brandished glaive;

+   |  Full of rage at me he drove,

+   |  Desperate we together strove.

+   |  Lo!  I smote his halft in twain,

+   |  Lo!  I smote and he was slain,

+   |  Bleeding from each riven vein."

+   |

+

+Then Grettir carried the bag of bones and the

+staves to the church, and laid them in the porch.

+

+Next morning when the priest came to the church

+he found the bag of bones and the staves.

+

+Such is the story.

+

+Now, it is clear that a good bit of it is simply

+transferred from the story of Grettir going down

+into the cairn of Karr the Old.

+

+The real truth of the tale is no more than what

+has been stated, that Grettir went under the

+waterfall and found nothing.  It is, of course, possible

+that he may have hoaxed the priest; but I think it

+more probable that all this marvellous matter is

+simply tacked on to one simple fact, and that it was

+taken, partly from the story of Grettir in the barrow

+of Karr, and partly from that of his struggle with Glam.

+

+What the saga writer does admit is that the

+versions of the story do not quite agree, and that—in

+spite of this wonderful achievement, folks did not

+know that Grettir was at Sandheaps that winter.

+

+

+

+

+

+.. vspace:: 4

+

+.. _`HOW GRETTIR WAS DRIVEN ABOUT`:

+

+.. class:: center large bold

+

+   CHAPTER XXXIV.

+

+

+.. class:: center medium bold

+

+   HOW GRETTIR WAS DRIVEN ABOUT.

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+..

+   

+   *Thorir comes too Late—The Needle of Basalt—The

+   Island of Drangey—The Terrors of the Dark—Brother

+   holds to Brother*

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+After a while rumours reached Thorir of Garth

+that either Grettir, or someone very like

+Grettir,—a tall, powerful man with reddish hair,

+and one who gave no account of whence he came,—was

+lodging at Sandheaps, and Thorir made ready

+to go there after him.  Fortunately Grettir, or

+rather the housewife Steinvor, heard of his intention,

+and so Grettir made off out of the valley of

+the Quivering Flood before Thorir came there in

+quest of him.

+

+He escaped to Maddervales, in the Horg-river

+Dale.  This is a noble valley of the Horg River,

+with chains of snowy peaks on each side, of peculiar

+shape, barred with precipices of basalt, on which lie

+slopes of snow.

+

+Some way up this valley are some very remarkable

+spires of basaltic rock, one of which that is like

+a needle is said to have been climbed by Grettir

+whilst staying in this valley.  It is not so said in

+the saga, but I was told so on the spot, and the tale

+goes that when he climbed to the top he slipped his

+belt round the needle, and there it hangs round it

+still—but no one has been up since to find if it be

+there where he left it.

+

+He could not remain long there, for Gudmund

+the Rich, who was farmer at Maddervales, was afraid

+to house him for long.  Thorir of Garth would come

+and burn his house if he harboured Grettir.  However,

+he kept him for some little while, and then he

+gave him advice what he should do.

+

+It had come to such a pass with Grettir now that

+no one dared to shelter him for long, and Thorir had

+spies everywhere to inform him where Grettir was.

+

+Gudmund the Rich said to Grettir: "You can

+find no safety anywhere that men dwell; for if there

+be not treachery, yet the news flies about that you

+are there.  So I advise you to go where you shall

+be alone."

+

+"Where shall I go?" asked Grettir.  "I am hunted

+like a dog."

+

+"There is an island," answered Gudmund, "lying

+in the Skagafirth, called Drangey.  It is a place

+excellent for defence, as no one can reach it without

+a ladder.  If you could get upon Drangey, no one

+could come on you unawares.  You would see

+anyone who came by boat to the island, and you could

+pull up a rope-ladder, without which no one would

+be able to ascend."

+

+"I will try that," said Grettir; "but I have

+become so fearsome in the dark that not even at the

+risk of my life can I endure to be alone."

+

+"Well," said Gudmund, "that is my counsel.

+Trust none but yourself.  Treachery lies where least

+expected."

+

+Grettir thanked him for his advice, and went

+away west to see his mother.  And he was most

+joyfully welcomed by her and his young brother

+Illugi at Biarg.  There he remained some nights—not

+many; for Ramsfirth was only over a brow of

+hill, and the tidings of his return home was sure in

+a few days to reach the relatives of Oxmain, when

+he would again be set on.

+

+I said, after giving an account of Grettir's

+adventure at Thorhall's-stead with Glam, that there must

+have been something of fact in that story, and not

+pure fiction; and now it has been seen how that

+event coloured and affected his whole after life,

+leaving his nerves so shaken, that he could not

+drive off the impression then made on him, and

+he was ready to run serious risks rather than be

+subject to the terrors that came on him in the dark

+when alone.

+

+He told his mother and Illugi how it was with

+him, and how that he had been advised to go to

+Drangey, but that he could not; he dare not, in the

+long winter night, be on that lonely islet by himself.

+

+Then Illugi his brother said, "Grettir, I will be

+with you."

+

+"Brother holds to brother as hand clasps hand,"

+answered Grettir, and so they parted.  All that

+summer he wandered about in wild places, shifting

+his quarters repeatedly, and living how he could.

+

+

+

+

+

+.. vspace:: 4

+

+.. _`ON THE ISLE`:

+

+.. class:: center large bold

+

+   CHAPTER XXXV.

+

+

+.. class:: center medium bold

+

+   ON THE ISLE.

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+..

+   

+   *Illugi will go to Drangey—Asdis gives Consent—Asdis

+   prophesies Woe—Within Sight of Drangey—Glaum

+   becomes Grettir's Servant—Thorwald rows Grettir

+   to Drangey—Thorbiorn Hook—The Bonders visit the

+   Island—Grettir in Possession—An Inaccessible Spot*

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+When summer was now over, and the first snow

+of winter began to fall, when the days were

+rapidly shortening, and the sun had gone out of the

+north to the south, where it began to move in a

+rapidly narrowing arc, Grettir returned to Biarg

+and remained there a while.  "But," says the saga,

+"so great grew his fear in the dark that he durst

+go nowhere as soon as dusk set in."  We can see

+that the many years strain on his nerves had broken

+them.  Hunted about as a wild beast, always forced

+to be on his guard, never able to sleep without fear

+of being murdered in his sleep, the trial had told on

+him.  This was now the winter of 1028.  He was

+aged but thirty-one; his strength of body was not

+abated, only his nervous force.  He had been in

+outlawry altogether fifteen years, three for the

+slaying of Skeggi, then he had been outlawed by King

+Olaf in 1016.  On his return to Iceland he had

+been outlawed in 1017; this was the eleventh year

+of his outlawry at the suit of Thorir of Garth, an

+outlawry not only unjust, but according to general

+opinion illegal, because he had been tried and

+sentenced in his absence, and without any witnesses

+having been called to establish his guilt—condemned

+on hearsay evidence, and he never allowed to defend

+himself.

+

+Now Illugi, Grettir's sole surviving brother, was

+aged fifteen, and was a very handsome, honest-looking

+boy.

+

+"Grettir," said he, "you know what I said.  I

+will go with you to Drangey, if you will take me.

+I know not that I will be of much help to you, but

+this I know, that I will be ever true to you, and

+will never run from you so long as you stand up.

+Besides, I shall like to be with you, for here at home

+we are ever in anxiety for news about you, always

+fearing the worst; but if I am at your side, I shall

+know how you fare."

+

+"I would rather have you with me than anyone

+else," answered Grettir.  "But I cannot take you

+unless our mother consent."

+

+Then said Asdis, "Now I can see that I have the

+choice of evils.  I can ill spare Illugi; yet I know

+your trouble, Grettir, and that something must be

+done for you.  It grieves me, my sons, to see you

+both leave me; yet I will not withhold my youngest

+from you, Grettir.  It is right that brother should

+help brother."

+

+That rejoiced Illugi.  Then Asdis gave her sons

+what things she thought they might want on the

+island, and they made them ready to depart.

+

+She led them outside the farm inclosure, and then

+she took farewell of them, saying, "My two sons!

+There you depart from me, and I dreamed last night

+that you left me for ever, and would fall together.

+What is fated none may fly from.  Never shall I see

+you again, either of you.  Be it so, that one fate

+overtake you both.  In my dream I saw your bones

+whitening on Drangey.  Be careful and watchful.

+My dreams have troubled me greatly.  Above all

+beware of witchcraft.  None can cope with the craft

+of the old."

+

+When she had said this she wept sore.

+

+Then said Grettir, "Weep not, mother, for if we

+be set on with weapons it will be said of thee that

+thou hadst men and not girls for thy children.  Live

+on well, and be hale."

+

+So they parted.  Grettir and Illugi went to their

+relatives and visited them, never, however, staying

+long in any place, and so on by Swine Lake, a long

+sheet of water in a shallow basin, to the Blend River.

+This river is of the colour of milk and water, because

+it is so full of undissolved snow, and milk and water

+is called Bland, *i.e.* Blend, in Icelandic.  Another

+river enters it that is called the Black Stream,

+because of the dark colour of the water.  Grettir

+turned up the valley of the Black River and then

+over a pass by a pretty lake lying in a mountain

+lap, down into a broad marshy valley in which are

+three or four rivers, and boiling springs pouring

+forth clouds of steam on the hill-slopes.  The valley

+is commanded by a beautiful mountain peak, called

+the Measuring Peak, because the natives thereabouts

+reckon distances from it.

+

+Grettir and Illugi went down this valley till they

+reached the sea, and now there opened before them

+a glorious view of the fiord, extending out north

+about forty miles, and from ten to fifteen miles

+across, between mountains and precipitous cliffs.  A

+little way back from the eastern shore stood up the

+Unadals Jokull, crowned with perpetual snows and

+with glaciers rolling down the sides, and on the

+west, close to the sea, seeming to rise in a wall out

+of it and running up into fantastic peaks, was the

+range of Tindastoll, famous for its cornelians and

+agates and other precious stones.  In the offing,

+fifteen miles out, right in the midst of the fiord,

+stood up the isle of Drangey with sheer cliffs, about

+which the sea perpetually danced and foamed.

+

+Grettir and Illugi skirted the shore on the west.

+The wind was blowing cold, and snow was driving

+before it, as they passed a farm.  The farmer stood

+in his door, and saw a great man stride by with an

+axe over his shoulder, his hood thrown back, and his

+wild red hair blowing about in the gale.  "Verily,"

+said the farmer, "that must be a strange fellow not

+to cover his head with his hood in such weather as

+this."  Near this little farm the brothers stumbled

+upon a tall, thin man, dressed in rags and with a

+very big head.  They asked each other's names, and

+the fellow called himself Glaum.  He was out of

+work, and he went along with the brothers chatting,

+and telling them all the gossip of the neighbourhood.

+Then Glaum asked if they were in want of

+a servant, and Grettir gladly accepted him, and the

+man became thenceforth his constant attendant.

+But the fellow was a sad boaster, and most people

+thought him both a fool and a coward.  He was

+not fond of work, and he spent his time strolling

+about the country picking up and retailing news.

+

+Grettir and his brother and Glaum reached a

+farm called Reykir as the day closed in, where was

+a hot spring in the farm paddock.  The farmer's

+name was Thorwald; and Grettir asked him to put

+him across in a boat to Drangey.  Thorwald shook

+his head and said, "I shall get into trouble with

+those who have rights of pasturage on the island.

+I had rather not."

+

+Then Grettir offered him a bag of silver which his

+mother had given him, and at the sight of this,

+Thorwald raised his eyebrows and thought that he

+might perhaps do what was asked.  The distance

+was just five miles.

+

+So on a moonshiny night Thorwald got three of

+his churls and they rowed Grettir and the two who

+went with him over.  On reaching his destination

+Grettir was well pleased with the spot, for it was

+covered with a profusion of grass, and the sides were

+so precipitous that it seemed a sheer impossibility

+for anyone to ascend it without the aid of the

+rope-ladder that hung from strong staples at the summit.

+In summer the place would swarm with sea-birds,

+and at the time there were eighty sheep left on the

+island for fattening.

+

+A good many farmers had rights of pasturage on

+the island.  Hialti of Hof was one, whose brother's

+name was Thorbiorn Hook, of whom more hereafter.

+Another was Haldor, who lived at Head-strand; he

+had married the sister of these brothers.  Biorn, Eric,

+and Tongue-stone were the names of three others.

+

+Thorbiorn Hook was a hard-headed, ill-disposed

+fellow.  His father had married a second time, and

+there was no love lost between the stepmother and

+Thorbiorn.  It is said that one day as The Hook was

+sitting at draughts, she passed, and looking over his

+shoulder laughed, because he had made a bad move.

+Thorbiorn Hook thereupon said something abusive

+and insulting; this so enraged her that she snatched

+up a draught-man, and pressing it against his

+eye-socket, drove the eyeball out.  He started to his

+feet, and with the draught-board struck her over the

+head such a blow that she took to her bed, and

+died of the injury.  The Hook now went from bad

+to worse, and leaving home settled at Woodwick

+on the fiord, a small farm.  It will be understood

+from this story that he was a violent and brutal

+fellow, and that, indeed, the life in his father's house

+had not been of an orderly description.

+

+As many as twenty farmers claimed rights to

+turn out their sheep on Drangey in summer.  The

+way they managed it is the way still employed by

+their successors.  They take the sheep out in boats,

+and then put them over their shoulders, with the

+feet tied under their chins, and so they climb the

+rope-ladder, carrying the sheep up on their backs.

+Though all these farmers claimed rights on Drangey,

+The Hook and his brother had the largest share,

+that is to say, the right to turn out more sheep

+than the rest.

+

+Now, about the time of the winter solstice, that

+is just before Yule, the bonders made ready to visit

+the island, and bring home their sheep for slaughtering

+for the Christmas feasting.  They rowed out

+in a large boat, and on nearing the island were

+much surprised to see figures moving on top of the

+cliffs.  How anyone had got there without their

+knowledge puzzled them, for Thorwald had kept his

+counsel, and told no one what he had done for

+Grettir.  They pulled hard for the landing-place,

+where hung the ladder, but Grettir drew it up

+before they landed.

+

+The bonders shouted to know who were on the

+crags, and Grettir, looking over, told his name and

+those of his companions.  The farmers then asked

+how he had got there? who had put him across?

+

+Grettir answered, "If you very much wish to

+know, it was not one of you below now speaking to

+us.  It was someone else, who had a good boat and

+a pair of lusty arms."

+

+"Let us fetch our sheep away," called the bonders,

+"then you come to land with us.  We will not

+make you pay for the sheep you have eaten, and we

+will do you no harm."

+

+"Well offered," answered Grettir; "but he who

+takes keeps hold; and a bird in the hand is worth

+two in the bush.  Believe me, I will not leave this

+island till the time of my outlawry is expired,

+unless I be carried from it dead."

+

+The bonders were silenced, it seemed to them

+that they had got an ugly customer on Drangey, to

+get rid of whom would be no easy matter; so they

+rowed home, very ill-satisfied with the result of

+their expedition.

+

+The news spread like wildfire, and was talked

+about all through the neighbourhood.  Thorir of

+Garth was the more embittered, because he could

+see no way in which Grettir could be reached and

+overmastered in this inaccessible spot.

+

+

+

+

+

+.. vspace:: 4

+

+.. _`OF GRETTIR ON HERON-NESS`:

+

+.. class:: center large bold

+

+   CHAPTER XXXVI.

+

+

+.. class:: center medium bold

+

+   OF GRETTIR ON HERON-NESS.

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+..

+   

+   *Grettir goes to Heron-ness—At the Games—The Hook's

+   Challenge—Amongst Strangers—The Oath of Safe-conduct—An

+   old Formula—A Surprise for the Bonders—Regretting the

+   Oath—The two Brothers—Grettir returns to Drangey*

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+Winter passed, and at the beginning of summer

+the whole district met at an assize held

+on the Herons'-ness, a headland in the Skaga-firth,

+between the rivers that discharge into the fiord.

+It is, in fact, the seaward point of a large island in

+the delta of the river that divides about eight miles

+higher up, inland.  The gathering was thronged, and

+the litigations and merry-makings made the assize

+last over many days.  Grettir guessed what was

+going on by seeing a number of boats pass to the

+head of the fiord.  He became restless, and at last

+announced to his brother that he intended being

+present at the assize, cost what it might.  Illugi

+thought it was sheer madness, but Grettir was

+resolute.  He begged his brother and Glaum to watch

+the ladder and await his return.

+

+Now, Grettir was on very good terms with the

+farmer at Reykir, and with some others on that

+side of the firth, and they were not unwilling to

+help him.  Sometimes his mother sent things to

+the brothers that she thought they would need, and

+then there were not wanting men to take these over

+to the island.  So Grettir got put across by his

+friend Thorwald to the mainland, and he borrowed

+of him a set of old clothes, and thus attired he went

+along the coast boldly to Heron-ness.  He had on a

+fur cap, which was drawn closely over his eyes, and

+concealed his face, so that no one might recognize

+him.  Now, in parts of Iceland, the flies are such

+torments that men have to wear literally cloth

+helmets, with only nose and eyes showing, the cloth

+fitting tight to the head, and round over the ears

+and neck, exactly like a helmet, or a German knitted

+sledging cap.  When I was in Iceland, when the

+flies were troublesome, I put my head into a

+butterfly net, and buckled it round my neck tightly with

+a leather strap.  Now, Grettir's cap was something

+like those I have described, and no one was surprised

+at his wearing it, as the whole of that valley

+is one vast marsh, and is infested with flies that

+blacken the air and madden men and beasts.

+

+Grettir thus attired sauntered between the booths

+erected on the headland, till he reached the spot

+where games were going on.

+

+Now, Hialti and Thorbiorn Hook were the chief

+men in these sports.  Hook was specially noisy and

+boisterous, and drove men together to the sports,

+and whether men liked it or not, he insisted on

+their attendance.  He would take this man and that

+by the hands and drag him forth to the field, where

+the wrestling and other games went on.

+

+Now, first wrestled those who were weakest, and

+then each man in turn, and great fun there was.

+But when most men had tried their strength

+except the very strongest, it was asked who would be

+a match for Hialti and The Hook.  These two being

+the strongest and the roughest of all, went round

+inviting each man in turn to wrestle with them,

+but all declined.

+

+Then Thorbiorn Hook, looking round, spied a tall

+fellow in the shabbiest and quaintest of suits, sitting

+by himself, speaking to no one.  Thorbiorn walked

+up to him, laid his hands on his shoulders and asked

+him to wrestle.

+

+The man sat still, and The Hook could not drag

+him from his seat.

+

+"Well!" exclaimed The Hook, "no one else has

+kept his place before me to-day.  Who are you?"

+

+"Guest," answered Grettir shortly.

+

+"A wished-for guest thou wilt be, if thou

+furnish some entertainment to the company," said

+Thorbiorn Hook.

+

+Grettir answered, "I am indisposed to make a

+fool of myself before strangers.  How am I to know,

+supposing that I give you a fall, that I shall not be

+set upon by you or your kindred, and be unfairly treated?"

+

+Then many exclaimed that there should be fair play.

+

+"It is all very well your saying Fair-play now; but

+will you say Fair-play, and stick to it, supposing I

+get the better of this man.  You are all akin, or

+friends, and I am a stranger to you all."

+

+Again he was assured that no one would resent

+what he did.

+

+"But see," said Grettir, "I have not wrestled

+for many years, and have lost all skill in the

+matter."

+

+Yet they pressed him the more.

+

+Then he said, "I will wrestle with whom you

+will, if you will swear to show me no violence so

+long as I am among you as a guest."

+

+This all agreed to, and an oath of safe conduct

+was made, the form of which is so curious that it

+must be given.

+

+A man named Hafr recited the terms of the oath,

+and the rest agreed to it.

+

+"Here set I peace among all men towards this

+man Guest, who sits before us, and in this oath I

+bind all magistrates and well-to-do bonders, and all

+men who bear swords, and all men whatsoever in

+this district, present or absent, named or unnamed.

+These are to show peace to, and give free passage

+to the aforenamed stranger, that he may sport,

+wrestle, make merry, abide with us and depart from

+us, without stay, whether he go by land or flood.

+He shall have peace where he is, in all places where

+he may be till he reaches his house whence he set

+out, so long and no longer.

+

+"I set this treaty of peace between him and us,

+our kinsmen male and female, our servants and

+children.  May the breaker of this compact be cast

+out of the favour of God and good men, out of his

+heavenly inheritance and the society of just men

+and angels.  May he be an outcast from land to its

+farthest limits, far as men chase wolves, as Christians

+frequent churches, as heathen men offer sacrifices,

+as flame burns, earth produces herb, as baby calls its

+mother, and mother rocks her child; far as fire is

+kindled, ships glide, lightnings flicker, sun shines,

+snow lies, Finns slide on snow-shoes, fir-trees grow,

+falcons fly on a spring day with a breeze under their

+wings; far as heaven bends, earth is peopled, winds

+sweep the water into waves, churls till corn; he

+shall be banished from churches and the company

+of Christian men, from heathen folk, from house

+and den, from every house—save hell!  Now let us

+be agreed whether we be on mountain or shore, on

+ship or skate, on ground or glacier, at sea or in

+saddle, as friend with friend, as brother with

+brother, as father with son, in this our compact.  Lay

+we now hand to hand, and hold we true peace and

+keep every word of this oath."

+

+Now, this formula is very curious.  It must have

+been brought by the Icelandic settlers with them

+from Norway, for parts of it are inappropriate to

+their land.  There are no Finns there, nor do

+fir-trees grow there, nor is any corn tilled.  But all

+that about Christians is of later origin.

+

+After a little hesitation the oath was taken by all.

+

+Then said Grettir, "You have done well, only

+beware of breaking your oath.  I am ready to do my

+part, without delay, to fulfil your wishes."

+

+Thereupon he flung aside his hood and garments,

+and the assembled bonders looked at each other,

+and were disconcerted, for they saw that they had

+in their midst Grettir Asmund's son.  They were

+silent, and thought that they had taken the oath

+somewhat unadvisedly, and they whispered the one

+into another, to find if there were not some

+loophole by which they might evade the obligation to

+observe the oath.

+

+"Come now," said Grettir, "let me know your

+purpose, for I shall not long stand stripped.  It will

+be worse for you than for me if you break your

+oath, for it will go down in story to the end of time

+that the men of Heron-ness swore and were perjured."

+

+He received no answer.  The chiefs moved away;

+some wanted to break the truce, and argued that

+an oath taken to an outlaw was not legally binding;

+others insisted that the oath must be observed.

+Then Grettir sang:

+

+   |  "Many trees-of-wealth (*men*) this morn,

+   |  Failed the well-known well to know,

+   |  Two ways turn the sea-flame-branches (*men*),

+   |  When a trick on them is tried;

+   |  Falter folk in oath fulfilling,

+   |  Hafr's talking lips are dumb."

+   |

+

+Then Tongue-stone said, "You think so, do you,

+Grettir?  Well, I will say this of you, you are a

+man of dauntless courage.  Look how the chiefs are

+deep in discussion how to deal with you."

+

+Then Grettir sang:

+

+   |  "Shield-lifters (*men*) rubbing of noses,

+   |  Shield-tempest-senders (men) shake beards,

+   |  Fierce-hearted serpent's-lair-scatterers (*men*),

+   |  Lay their heads one 'gainst another,

+   |  Now that they know, are regretting

+   |  The peace they have sworn to to-day."

+   |

+

+In these staves a number of periphrases for men

+or warriors are used—and the use of these

+periphrases constitute the charm of these verses.

+

+Then Hialti of Hof burst away from the rest, and

+said, "No, never, never shall it be said of us men of

+Heron-ness, that we have broken an oath because

+we have found it inconvenient to keep it.  Grettir

+shall be at full liberty to go to his place in peace,

+and woe betide him who lays hand on him, to do

+him an injury.  But an oath no longer binds us

+should he venture ashore again."

+

+All except Thorbiorn Hook, Hialti's brother, agreed

+to this, and felt their minds and consciences relieved,

+that he had spoken out as a man of honour.  And

+thus was seen how of those two brothers, rude and

+violent though both were, Hialti had some nobleness

+in him that was lacking in the other.

+

+The wrestling began by Grettir being matched

+with Thorbiorn Hook, and after a very brief struggle

+Grettir freed himself from his antagonist, leaped

+over his back, caught him by the belt, lifted him off

+his legs, and flung him over his back.  This is a

+throw called "showing the white mare," among

+Cornish wrestlers of the present day, and a very

+dangerous throw it is, for it sometimes breaks the

+back of the man thrown.  The Hook, however, picked

+himself up, and the wrestling continued with unabated

+vigour, and it was impossible to tell which side had

+the mastery, for, though Grettir was matched against

+both brothers, and after each bout with one brother

+fell to with the other, he was never thrown down.

+After all three were covered with blood and bruises

+the match was closed, the judges deciding that the

+two brothers conjointly were not stronger than

+Grettir alone, though they were each of them as

+powerful as two ordinary able-bodied men.

+

+Grettir at once left the place of gathering, rejecting

+all the entreaties of the farmers that he would leave

+Drangey.  And, so, after all but The Hook had thanked

+him for his wrestling and praised his activity and

+strength, he departed.  He was put across from

+Reykir to his island, and was received with open

+arms by Illugi.

+

+There now they abode peaceably, and Grettir told

+his brother and his churl Glaum the story of what

+had taken place at the assize, and thus the summer

+wore away.

+

+There was much talk through the island of Iceland

+about this adventure, and all good men approved the

+conduct of the men of the Skagafiord that they had

+kept the oath they had so inconsiderately taken.

+

+

+

+

+

+.. vspace:: 4

+

+.. _`OF HŒRING'S LEAP`:

+

+.. class:: center large bold

+

+   CHAPTER XXXVII.

+

+

+.. class:: center medium bold

+

+   OF HŒRING'S LEAP.

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+..

+   

+   *The Piebald Ram—In want of Fire—Not born to be

+   Drowned—Thorwald aids Grettir—A Stratagem—Hœring

+   climbs the Cliff—Hœring's Leap*

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+The smaller farmers began seriously to feel their

+want of the islet Drangey for pasture in summer,

+and, as there seemed no chance of their getting rid

+of Grettir, they sold their rights to Thorbiorn Hook,

+who set himself in earnest to devise a plan by which

+he might possess himself of the island.

+

+When Grettir had been two winters on the island,

+he had eaten all the sheep except one piebald ram,

+with magnificent horns, which became so tame that

+he ran after them wherever they went, and in the

+evening came to the hut Grettir had erected and

+butted at the door till let in.

+

+The brothers liked this place of exile, as there was

+no dearth of eggs and birds, besides which, some

+drift-wood was thrown upon the strand, and served

+as fuel.

+

+Grettir and Illugi spent their days in clambering

+among the rocks, and rifling nests, and the occupation

+of the thrall was to collect drift timber and keep

+up the fire in the hut.  He was expected to remain

+awake and watch the fire whilst the others slept.

+He got very tired of his life on the islet, became

+idle, morose, and reserved.  One night,

+notwithstanding Grettir's warnings to him to be more

+careful, as they had no boat, he let the fire go out.

+Grettir was very angry, and told Glaum that he

+deserved a sound thrashing for his neglect.  The

+thrall replied that he loathed the life he led; and

+that it seemed it was not enough to Grettir that he

+should keep him there as a prisoner, he must also

+maltreat him.

+

+Grettir consulted his brother what was best to be

+done, and Illugi replied that the only thing that could

+be done was to await the arrival of a boat from the

+friendly farmer at Reykir.

+

+"We shall have to wait long enough for that,"

+said Grettir.  "The bonders have taken it ill that

+he has favoured us, and he is now unwilling to be

+seen visiting Drangey.  The only chance is for me

+to swim ashore and secure a light."

+

+"Do not attempt that!" exclaimed Illugi.  "That

+is what you did in Norway, and that led to all your

+misfortune."

+

+"This case is different," answered Grettir.  "Then

+I brought fire for ill-conditioned men, now it is for

+ourselves.  Then I knew not who was on the other

+side, but now I can get the fire for the asking from

+Thorwald."

+

+"But the distance is so great!" remonstrated Illugi.

+

+"Do not fear for me," said Grettir; "I was not

+born to be drowned."

+

+From Drangey to Reykir is, as already said, about

+five English miles.

+

+Grettir prepared for swimming, by dressing in

+loose thin drawers and a sealskin hood; he tied his

+fingers together, that they might offer more resistance

+to the water when he struck out.

+

+The day was fine and warm.  Grettir started in

+the evening, when the tide was in his favour, setting

+in; and his brother anxiously watched him from the

+rocks.  At sunset he reached the land, after having

+floated and swum the whole distance.  Immediately

+on coming ashore, he went to the warm spring and

+bathed in it, before entering the house.  The hall

+door was open, and Grettir stepped in.  A large fire

+had been burning on the hearth, so that the room

+was very warm; Grettir was so thoroughly exhausted

+that he lay down beside the hot embers, and was

+soon fast asleep.  In the morning he was found by

+the farmer's daughter, who gave him a bowl of milk,

+and brought her father to him.  Thorwald furnished

+him with fire, and rowed him back to the island,

+astonished beyond measure at his achievement, in

+having swum such a distance.

+

+Now, the farmers on the Skagafiord began to taunt

+Thorbiorn Hook with his unprofitable purchase of

+the island, and Hook was greatly irritated and

+perplexed what to do.

+

+During the summer, a ship arrived in the firth,

+the captain of which was a young and active man

+called Hœring.  He lodged with Thorbiorn Hook

+during the autumn, and was continually urging his

+host to row him out to Drangey, that he might try

+to climb the precipitous sides of the island.  The

+Hook required very little pressing; and one fine

+afternoon he rowed his guest out to Drangey, and

+put him stealthily ashore, without attracting the

+notice of those on the height.  For in some places

+the cliffs overhung, so that a boat passing beneath

+could not be seen from above.  Now Hœring had

+lain in the bottom of the boat, covered with a piece

+of sailcloth, so that the brothers saw nothing of him

+as the boat was approaching the islet.

+

+They saw and recognized Thorbiorn Hook and his

+churls, and at once drew up the ladder.  Now it was

+whilst they were watching at the landing-place that

+Thorbiorn put Hœring out on another point, where

+the cliffs seemed possible to be climbed by a very

+skilful man, and then came on to the usual landing

+place, and there shouted to Grettir.  Grettir replied,

+and then Thorbiorn began the usual arguments to

+persuade the outlaw to leave the isle.  He promised

+to give him shelter in his house the winter, if he

+would do so.  All was in vain.  What he sought

+was to divert Grettir's attention so as to allow time

+and occasion for Hœring to climb the cliffs

+unobserved and unresisted.

+

+The discussion went on but led to nothing.  In the

+meantime Hœring had managed most cleverly to get

+up by a way never ascended by man before or after;

+and when he came to the top and had his feet on the

+turf, he saw where the brothers stood with their backs

+turned towards him, and he thought that now an

+opportunity had come for him to make himself a

+great name.  Grettir suspected nothing, and

+continued talking to Thorbiorn, who was getting, or

+feigning to get, angry, and used big and violent

+words.

+

+Now, as luck would have it, Illugi chanced to

+turn his head, and he saw a man approaching from

+behind.

+

+Then he cried out, "Brother!  Brother!  Here

+comes a man at us with uplifted axe!"

+

+"You go after him," said Grettir.  "I will watch

+at the ladder."

+

+So Illugi started to his feet and went to meet

+Hœring, and when the young merchant saw that he

+was discovered, he fled away across the islet, and

+Illugi went after him.  And when Hœring came to

+the edge he leaped down, hoping to fall into the sea;

+but he had missed his reckoning, and he went upon

+some skerries over which the waves tossed, and broke

+every bone in his body, and so ended his life.  The

+spot is called Hœring's Leap to this day.

+

+Illugi came back, and Grettir asked him what had

+been the end of the encounter.  Illugi told him.

+

+"Now, Thorbiorn," shouted Grettir; "we have had

+enough of profitless talk.  Go round to the other

+side of the island and gather up the remains of your

+friend."

+

+The Hook pushed off from the strand and returned

+home, ill pleased with the result of the expedition,

+and Grettir remained unmolested on Drangey the

+ensuing winter.

+

+

+

+

+

+.. vspace:: 4

+

+.. _`OF THE ATTEMPT MADE BY GRETTIR's FRIENDS`:

+

+.. class:: center large bold

+

+   CHAPTER XXXVIII.

+

+

+.. class:: center medium bold

+

+   OF THE ATTEMPT MADE BY GRETTIR's FRIENDS.

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+..

+   

+   *The New Law-man—The Outlawry almost at an End*

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+The ensuing summer, that is to say, the summer

+of 1031, at the great annual assize at Thingvalla,

+all Grettir's kin and friends brought up the

+matter of outlawry, and contended that he ought to

+have his sentence done away with.  They said that

+no man could be an outlaw all his life, that was not

+a condition contemplated by their laws.  They said

+that he had been outlawed first in 1011 for the

+slaying of Skeggi, and that he had been in outlawry

+ever since, which made nineteen years.

+

+The old law-man was dead, and now there was

+another at the assize, whose name was Stein.  He laid

+down that no man might by law be in outlawry more

+than twenty years.  Now, when they came to reckon

+since 1011 it was nineteen years.  It was true that

+he had been outlawed thrice, once for Skeggi, then

+by King Olaf, and lastly by the court for the burning

+of the sons of Thorir of Garth, still—the fact

+remained that for nineteen years he had been an

+outlaw, and Stein laid down that by next assize, that is

+to say in one year, his outlawry would have expired.

+

+Thereat Grettir's kinsfolk were pleased, for they

+thought that he would only have to spend one winter

+more on Drangey, and afterwards his troubles

+would be at an end; Thorir of Garth and his other

+foes could no more pursue him, and the price set on

+his head would fall away.

+

+But on the other hand, Thorir of Garth, who had

+not become more charitable and forgiving as he grew

+old, became still more incensed and impatient to have

+Grettir killed before this year would expire, also

+Thorbiorn Hook cast about how he might be avenged

+for the deprivation of his rights over Drangey.  The

+men who had sold their claims came to Thorbiorn,

+and told him he must do one of two things: get rid

+of Grettir and assert his rights by turning out sheep

+on the islet, or they would regard the sale as quashed,

+by his non-usance of the pasture, and they would

+reclaim their shares of the island as soon as Grettir's

+outlawry was at an end, and he left the place.

+

+

+

+

+

+.. vspace:: 4

+

+.. _`OF THE OLD HAG`:

+

+.. class:: center large bold

+

+   CHAPTER XXXIX.

+

+

+.. class:: center medium bold

+

+   OF THE OLD HAG.

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+..

+   

+   *The Hook's Foster-mother—The Hag's Request—The

+   Witch in the Boat—The Hag's Dooming—An Unlucky

+   Throw—Working Bane—The Magic Runes*

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+Now it was so, that Thorbiorn Hook had a

+foster-mother, a woman advanced in age, and of a

+very malicious disposition.  When the people of

+Iceland accepted Christianity, she, in her heart,

+remained a heathen, and would not be baptized and

+have anything to do with the new religion.  She

+had always been reckoned a witch, but with the

+introduction of Christianity witchcraft had been

+made illegal, and anyone who had recourse to

+sorcery was severely dealt with.  The old woman had

+not forgotten her incantations and strange

+ceremonies, whereby she thought to be able to conjure

+the spirits of evil, and send ill on such as offended her.

+

+When Thorbiorn Hook found that he could contrive

+in no way to get Grettir out of Drangey, and

+when he saw that if his expulsion were delayed, and

+Grettir left of his own accord, he would forfeit the

+money he had paid for the rights of pasturage on the

+island, he went to his foster-mother, and told her

+his difficulty, and pretty plainly let her understand

+that as he could get help nowhere else, he did not

+mind having recourse to the black art.

+

+"Ah!" cackled she, "I see how it is, when all else

+fails, man's arms and man's wit, then you come to

+the bed-ridden crone and seek her aid.  Well, I will

+assist you to the best of my power, on one condition,

+and that is, that you obey me without questioning."

+

+The Hook agreed to what she said, and so all

+rested till August without the matter being again

+alluded to.

+

+Then one beautiful day the hag said to Thorbiorn,

+"Foster-son, the sea is calm and the sky bright, what

+say you to our rowing over to Drangey and stirring

+up the old strife with Grettir?  I will go with you

+and hear what he says, then I shall be able to judge

+what fate lies before him, and I can death-doom him

+accordingly."

+

+The Hook answered, "It is waste of labour going

+out to Drangey.  I have been there several times

+and never return better off than when I went."

+

+"You promised to obey me without questioning,"

+said the crone.  "Follow my advice and all will be

+well for you and ill for Grettir."

+

+"I will do as you bid me, foster-mother," said

+Thorbiorn, "though I had sworn not to go back to

+Drangey till I was sure I could work the bane of

+Grettir."

+

+"That man is not laid low hastily, and patience

+is needed; but his time will come, and may be close

+at hand.  What the end of this visit will be I

+cannot say.  It is hid from me, but I know very well

+that it will lead to his or to your destruction."

+

+Thorbiorn ran out a long boat, and entered it

+with twelve men.  The hag sat in the bows coiled

+up amongst rugs and wadmal.  When they reached

+the island, at once Grettir and Illugi ran to the

+ladder, and Thorbiorn again asked if Grettir would

+come to his house for the winter.

+

+Grettir made the same reply as before, "Do what

+you will, in this spot I await my fate."

+

+Now Thorbiorn saw that this expedition also was

+likely to be resultless, and he became very angry.

+"I see," he said, "that I have to do with an

+ill-conditioned churl, who does not know how to accept a

+good offer when made.  I shall not come here again

+with such an offer."

+

+"That pleases me well," said Grettir, "for you and I

+are not like to come to terms that will satisfy both."

+

+At that moment the hag began to wriggle out of

+her wraps in the bows.  Grettir had not perceived

+her hitherto.  Now she screamed out, "These men

+may be strong, but their strength is ebbing.  They

+may have had luck, but luck has left.  See what a

+difference there is between men.  Thorbiorn makes

+good offers, and such they blindly, foolishly reject.

+Those who are blinded and cast away chances do

+not have chances come to them again.  And now

+Grettir"—she raised her withered arms over her head—"I

+doom you to all ill, I doom you to loss of health,

+to loss of wisdom and of foresight.  I doom you to

+decline and to death.  I doom your blood to fester,

+and your brain to be clouded.  I doom your marrow

+to curdle and chill.  Henceforth, so is my doom, all

+good things will wane from you, and all evil things

+will wax and overwhelm you.  So be it."  As she

+spoke a shudder ran over Grettir's limbs, and he

+asked who that imp was in the boat.  Illugi told

+him he fancied it must be that old heathen woman,

+the foster-mother of Thorbiorn Hook.

+

+"Since the powers of evil are with our foes," said

+Grettir, "how may we oppose them?  Never before

+has anything so shaken me with presentiment of evil

+as have the curses of this witch.  But she shall have

+a reminder of her visit to Drangey."

+

+Thereupon he snatched up a large stone and threw

+it at the boat, and it fell on the bundle of rags, in

+the midst of which lay the old hag.  As it struck

+there rose a wild shriek from the witch, for the stone

+had hit and broken her leg.

+

+"Brother!" exclaimed Illugi, "you should not

+have done this."

+

+"Blame me not," answered Grettir gloomily.  "It

+had been well had the stone fallen on her head.  But

+I trow the working of her curse is begun, and what

+I have done has been because my understanding and

+wit are already clouded."

+

+On the return of Thorbiorn to the mainland the

+crone was put to bed, and The Hook was less pleased

+than ever with his trip to the island.  His

+foster-mother, however, consoled him.

+

+"Do not be discouraged," she said.  "Now is

+come the turning-point of Grettir's fortunes, and

+his luck will leave him more and more as the light

+dies away up to Yule.  But the light dies and comes

+again.  With Grettir it will not be so, it will die,

+and die, till it goes out in endless night."

+

+"You are a confident woman, foster-mother," said

+Thorbiorn.

+

+When a month had elapsed, the old woman was

+able to leave her bed, and to limp across the room.

+

+One day she asked to be led down to the beach.

+Thorbiorn gave her his arm, and she had her crutch,

+and she hobbled down to where the water was lapping

+on the shingle.  And there, just washed up on

+the beach, lay a log of drift-timber, just large enough

+for a man to carry upon his shoulder.  Then she

+gave command that the log should be rolled over

+and over that she might examine each side.  The

+log on one side seemed to have been charred, and

+she sent to the house for a plane, and had the burnt

+wood smoothed away.

+

+When that was done she dismissed every one save

+her foster-son, and then with a long knife she cut

+runes on the wood where it had been planed—that

+is to say, words written in the peculiar characters

+made of strokes which Odin was supposed to have

+invented.  Then she cut herself on the arm, and

+smeared the letters she had cut with her blood.

+After that she rose and began to leap and dance,

+screaming a wild spell round the log, making the

+most strange and uncouth contortions, and waving

+her crutch in the air, making with it mysterious

+signs over the log.  Presently, when the incantation

+was over, she ordered the log to be rolled back

+into the sea.  The tide was now ebbing, and with

+the tide the log went out to sea further and further

+from land till Thorbiorn saw it no more.

+

+

+

+

+

+.. vspace:: 4

+

+.. _`HOW THE LOG CAME TO DRANGEY`:

+

+.. class:: center large bold

+

+   CHAPTER XL.

+

+

+.. class:: center medium bold

+

+   HOW THE LOG CAME TO DRANGEY.

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+..

+   

+   *Food for the Winter—Cast up by the Sea—The Log

+   comes back again—The Worst is come—An ugly

+   Wound—The Hag's Revenge—Grettir sings his Great

+   Deeds—Presage of Evil*

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+In the meantime Grettir, Illugi, and the churl

+Glaum were on Drangey catching fish and fowl

+for winter supplies.  The fish in Iceland are beaten

+hard with stones and then dried in the wind, that

+makes them like leather; but it preserves them for

+a very long time, and they form the staple of food,

+as the people have no corn, and consequently no

+bread.  They put butter on these dry fish, and tear

+them with their teeth.  What Grettir did with the fowl

+he caught was to pickle them with salt water from

+the sea, and when the frost and snow came on

+then he would take them out of pickle and freeze

+them.  Now, the whole of the sheep had been eaten

+some time ago, except the old mottled ram, which

+Grettir could not find in his heart to kill; and, as

+may be supposed, he and his brother suffered from

+want of change of food.  Especially deficient were

+they in any green food; and we know, though he

+did not, that the eating of green food is a very

+essential element of health.  He had nothing for

+consumption but salted birds and dried fish—no

+milk, no bread, no vegetables.  Such a diet was

+certain to disorder his health.

+

+The day after that on which the hag had charmed

+the piece of timber, the two brothers were walking

+on the little strand to the west of the island looking

+for drift-wood.

+

+"Here is a fine beam!" exclaimed Illugi.  "Help

+me to lift it on to my shoulder, and I will carry it

+up the ladder."

+

+Grettir spurned the log with his foot, saying, "I

+do not like the looks of it, Little brother.  Runes are

+cut on it, and what they portend I do not know.

+There may be written there something that may

+bring ill.  Who can tell but this log may have been

+sent with ill wishes against us."  They set the log

+adrift, and Grettir warned his brother not to bring

+it to their fire.

+

+In the evening they returned to their cabin, and

+nothing was said about the log to Glaum.  Next

+day they found the same beam washed up not far

+from the foot of the ladder.  Grettir was dissatisfied,

+and again he thrust it from the shore, saying that

+he hoped they had seen the last of it, and that the

+stream and tide would catch it and waft it elsewhere.

+And now the equinoctial gales began to rage.  The

+fine Martinmas summer was over.  The weather

+changed to storm and rain; and so bad was it that

+the three men remained indoors till their supply of

+firewood was exhausted.

+

+Then Grettir ordered the thrall to search the shore

+for fuel.  Glaum started up with an angry

+remonstrance that the weather was not such as a dog

+should be turned out in, with unreason, not

+considering that a fire was as necessary to him as

+to his master.  He went to the ladder, crawled

+down it, and found the same beam cast at its very

+foot.

+

+Glad not to have to go far in his search, Glaum

+shouldered the log, crept up the ladder, bore it to

+the hut, and throwing open the door, cast it down

+in the midst.

+

+Grettir jumped up, "Well done," said he, "you

+have been quick in your quest."

+

+"Now I have brought it, you must chop it up,"

+said Glaum.  "I have done my part."

+

+Grettir took his axe.  The fire was low and

+wanted replenishing, and without paying much

+attention to the log, he swung his axe and brought

+it down on the log.  But the wood was wet and

+greasy with sea-weed, and the axe slipped, glanced

+off the beam, and cut into Grettir's leg below the knee,

+on the shin, with such force that it stuck in the bone.

+

+Grettir looked at the beam; the fire leaped up,

+and by its light the runic inscription on it was

+visible.  Grettir at once saw evil.  "The worst is

+come upon us," he said sadly, as he cast the axe

+away, and threw himself down by the fire.  "This

+is the same log that I have twice rejected.  Glaum,

+you have done us two ill turns, first when you

+neglected the fire and let it go out, and now in that

+you have brought this beam to us.  Beware how

+you commit a third, for that I foresee will be your

+bane as well as ours."

+

+Illugi bound up his brother's wound with rag;

+there was but a slight flow of blood, but it was an

+ugly gash.  That night Grettir slept soundly.  For

+three days and nights he was without pain, and the

+wound seemed to be healing healthily, the skin to

+be forming over it.

+

+"My dear brother," said Illugi, "I do not think

+that this cut will trouble you long."

+

+"I hope not," answered Grettir.  "But none can

+see where a road leads till they have gone through

+to the end."

+

+On the fourth evening they laid them down to

+sleep as usual.  About midnight the lad, Illugi,

+awoke hearing Grettir tossing in his bed as though

+suffering.

+

+"Why are you so uneasy?" asked the boy.

+

+Grettir replied that he felt great pain in his leg,

+and he thought, he said, that some change must

+have taken place in the condition of the wound.

+

+Illugi at once blew up the embers on the hearth

+into a flame, and by its light examined his brother's

+leg.  He found that the foot was swollen and

+discoloured, and that the wound had reopened, and

+looked far more angry than he had seen it yet.

+Intense pain ensued, so that poor Grettir could not

+remain quiet for a moment, but tossed from side to

+side.  His cheeks were fevered, and his tongue

+parched.  He could obtain no sleep at all.

+

+Illugi never left him, he sat beside him holding

+his hand, or bringing him water to slake his

+unquenchable thirst.

+

+"The worst approaches, and there is no avoiding

+it," said Grettir.  "This sickness is sent by the old

+witch in revenge for the stone I had cast at her."

+

+"I misliked the casting of that stone," said Illugi.

+

+"It was ill that it did not fall on her head," said

+Grettir.  "But what is done may not be undone."  Then

+he heaved himself up into a sitting posture

+and sang, supporting himself against his brother's

+shoulder, a lay, of which only fragments have come

+down to us.  A good deal of the lay refers to incidents

+in Grettir's life, of which no record remains in

+the saga, and many staves have fallen away and

+been lost.  So we give but a few verses:—

+

+   |  "I fought with the sword in the bye-gone day,

+   |    In the day when I was young;

+   |  When the Rovers I slew in old Norway,

+   |    The land with my action rung.

+

+   |  "I entered the grave of Karr the Old,

+   |    I rived his sword away;

+   |  I strove with the Troll at Thorod's-stead,

+   |    Before the break of day.

+

+   |  "With Thorbiorn Oxmain in the marsh

+   |    I fought, and his blood I shed;

+   |  Against Thorir of Garth have I stood in arms,

+   |    Who long would have me dead.

+

+   |  "For nineteen years, I a hunted man,

+   |    On mountain, on moor, and fen;

+   |  For nineteen years had to shun and flee

+   |    The face of my fellow men.

+

+   |  "For nineteen years all bitter to bear

+   |    Both hunger and cold and pain;

+   |  And never to know when I laid me down,

+   |    If I might awake again.

+

+   |  "And now do I lie with a burning eye,

+   |    As a wolf is fain to die;

+   |  Whilst the skies are dripping and ocean roars,

+   |    And the winds sob sadly by—"

+   |

+

+The song was probably composed before, as otherwise

+it is not easy to account for its preservation.

+His head was burning, his thoughts wandered, and

+he ceased singing.  He seemed to be dozing off.  But

+presently he started and shivered, and looked hastily

+about him.

+

+"Let us be cautious now," he said, "for Thorbiorn

+Hook will make another attempt.  To me it matters

+little—but to you, brother.  Glaum, watch the

+ladder by day, and draw it up at night.  Be a faithful

+servant, for now all depends on you.  Illugi will

+not leave me, so we are in your hands."

+

+

+

+

+

+.. vspace:: 4

+

+.. _`THE END OF THE OUTLAW`:

+

+.. class:: center large bold

+

+   CHAPTER XLI.

+

+

+.. class:: center medium bold

+

+   THE END OF THE OUTLAW.

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+..

+   

+   *The Shadow of Death—Thorbiorn and his

+   Foster-mother—The Hook sails for Drangey—Out in

+   the Gale—The Unguarded Ladder—Glaum is Captured—The

+   Brothers' last Evening—Defending the Hut—Grettir

+   Wounded—Illugi Taken—The Notch in the Sword—Illugi

+   vows Vengeance—Death of Illugi*

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+The weather became daily worse, and a fierce

+north-east wind raged over the country, bearing

+with it cold and sleet, and covering the fells

+with the first snows of winter.  Grettir inquired

+every night if the ladder had been drawn up, according

+to order.  Glaum answered churlishly, "How

+can you expect folk to live out in such a storm as

+this?  Do you think they are so eager to kill you

+that they will jeopardize their lives in trying to do

+this?  It is easy to see that a little cut was all that

+lacked to let your courage leak out."

+

+Grettir answered, "Go! and do not argue with

+us; guard the ladder as you have been bidden!"

+

+So Illugi drove the churl from the hut every

+morning, notwithstanding his angry remonstrances;

+and Glaum was in the worst of humours.

+

+The pain became more acute, and the whole leg

+inflamed and swollen, signs of mortification

+appeared, and wounds opened in different parts of the

+limb, so that Grettir felt that the shadow of death

+hung over him.  Illugi sat night and day with his

+brother's head on his shoulder, bathing his forehead,

+and doing his utmost to console the fleeting spirit.

+A week had elapsed since the wound had been made.

+

+Now, Thorbiorn Hook was at home, ill-pleased at

+the failure of all his schemes for dispossessing Grettir

+of the island.

+

+One day his foster-mother came to him, and asked

+whether he were ready now to pay his final visit to

+the outlaw?

+

+Thorbiorn replied that he had paid quite as many

+visits to him as he liked, and that he should not go

+to Drangey again till Grettir left it; and then, with

+a sneer he asked his foster-mother whether she

+wanted to have her second leg broken, and was not

+satisfied with the fracture of one.

+

+"I will not go to Drangey myself," answered the

+old woman.  "That is unnecessary.  I have sent him

+my salutation, and by this he has received it.  Speed

+away now to Drangey, and find how he relishes my

+message.  But I warn you, you must go now or you

+will be too late."

+

+Thorbiorn would not listen; he said that her advice

+last time had led to no advantage when he followed

+it, and that the weather was too bad to go out in.

+

+"You need go but this once," said the crone.

+"The storm is of my sending, and is sent to work

+my ends."

+

+Finally he allowed himself to be persuaded.  So

+he got together men, and asked his neighbours to

+help him; and a large vessel was manned.  That

+is to say, the other farmers consented to lend him

+men, but none of them would accompany him

+themselves.  The Hook took twelve of his own men;

+his brother, Hialti, lent him three; Erick of

+Gooddale sent one man; Tongue-stone furnished him

+with two; another, named Halldor, let him have

+six.  Of all these, the only two whose name need

+be mentioned are Karr and Vikarr.

+

+Thorbiorn got a large sailing-boat for his purpose,

+and started from Heron-ness.  None of the men

+were in good spirits, as the weather was bad;

+moreover, they had no liking for their leader.  By dusk

+the boat was afloat, the sail spread, and they ran

+out to sea.  As the wind was from the north-east,

+they were under the lee of the high cliffs, and were

+not exposed to the full violence of the storm.

+

+Heavy scuds of rain and sleet swept the fiord;

+the sky was overcast with whirling masses of vapour,

+charged with snow, and beneath their shadow the

+waters of the firth were black as ink.  For one

+moment the clouds were parted by the storm, the

+rowers looked up, and saw the heavens tinged with

+the crimson rays of the northern light.  A flame ran

+along the cordage, and finally settled on the

+masthead of the vessel, swaying and dancing with the

+motion of the boat.  It was that electric spark, which

+is called in the Mediterranean S. Elmo's fire.

+

+A line of white foam marked the base of Drangey;

+and now and then a great wave from the mouth of

+the fiord boomed against the crags, and shot in

+spouts of foam high into the air.  Along the western

+shore of the firth, which was exposed to the full

+brunt of the gale, the mighty billows were beaten

+into white yeasty heaps of water.  From the top

+of Drangey one tiny spark shone from the window

+of the hovel where lay the dying outlaw.

+

+Now let us look again at Grettir.

+

+He had been in less pain that day.  Illugi had

+not left him, but remained faithful at his post.

+

+The thrall, Glaum, had been sent out as usual to

+collect fuel and to watch the ladder, and to draw it

+up at nightfall.  But instead of doing as he was

+bidden, the fellow laid himself down at the head of

+the steps, under a shelter-hut of turf that had been

+there erected, and went to sleep.

+

+When Thorbiorn and his party reached the shore,

+they found to their content that the ladder had not

+been removed.

+

+"Good luck attends on those who wait," said The

+Hook "Now, my fellows! the journey will not

+prove as bootless as you expected.  Up the ladder

+with you! and let us all be cautious and bold!"

+

+So they ascended, one after the other, The Hook

+taking the lead.  On reaching the top he looked

+into the shelter-hut, and there found Glaum, asleep

+and snoring.  Thorbiorn struck him over the

+shoulders, and asked him who he was.

+

+Glaum turned on his side, rubbed his eyes, and

+growled forth, "Can you not leave a poor wretch

+alone?  Never was a man so ill-treated as am I.  I

+may not even sleep out here in the cold."

+

+The Hook then knew who this was.  "Fool!"

+shouted he.  "Look up, and see who are come.  We

+are your foes, and intend to kill every one of

+you."

+

+Glaum started now to his feet full awake, and

+shrieked with dismay when he saw the black figures

+crowding up from the ladder and surrounding him.

+

+"Make no noise," said Thorbiorn Hook.  "I give

+you the choice of two things; answer the questions

+I put to you truthfully, or die at once."

+

+The churl answered sullenly that he would speak,

+and he had nothing to conceal.

+

+"Then tell me where the brothers are?"

+

+"In the hovel I left them, where there is a fire.

+Not out in the cold.  Grettir is sick and nigh on

+death, and Illugi is with him."

+

+The Hook asked for particulars, and then Glaum

+told him about the log, and how Grettir was

+wounded.  Thereat the Hook burst out laughing,

+and said, "Woe to the man that leans on a churl!

+That is a true proverb.  Shamefully have you

+betrayed your trust, Glaum."

+

+Thereupon Glaum was dragged along to the cabin

+where Grettir lay, and they treated him so roughly,

+that what with their blows and what with fear, he

+was nearly senseless when he reached it.

+

+Illugi had been sitting by the fire with his brother's

+head in his lap, whilst Grettir lay in some sheepskins

+beside the hearth.  All that evening the sick

+man's eyes had been wandering about the roof,

+watching the light play among the rafters, as the

+firewood blazed up or smouldered away.  Illugi saw that

+his fingers plucked at the wool of the sheep-skins,

+riving it out, and that he knew was a bad sign.  He

+felt sure that Grettir would die that night, and he

+watched his face intently, and could not bear to

+withdraw his eyes from him, for he loved him dearly.

+Presently Grettir turned his head, and smiled when

+he saw how he was watching him, and said that he

+felt easier, and would sleep.  In a few moments his

+eyes closed.

+

+As he dozed, his face became calmer than Illugi

+had seen it before; the muscles relaxed, and the

+wrinkles furrowed in his brow by care and suffering

+were now smoothed quite away.  Grettir's face was

+never handsome, but it was grave and earnest, and

+the sorrow and trial he had passed through had left

+its trace on his features.  His breath now came more

+evenly in sleep.

+

+All at once there sounded a crash at the door,

+and the sleeper opened his eyes dreamily.

+

+"It is only the old ram, brother," said Illugi.

+"He is butting, because he wants to come in."

+

+"He butts hard! he butts hard!" muttered Grettir,

+and at that moment the door burst open.  They

+saw faces looking in.

+

+Illugi was on his feet in a moment.  He seized his

+sword, flew to the doorway and defended it bravely,

+so that no one could pass through.

+

+Thorbiorn called to some of the men to get upon

+the roof, and he was obeyed.  The hovel was low,

+and in a moment four or five were on top of it

+tearing off the turf that covered it.  Grettir tried

+to rise to his feet, but could only stagger to his knees.

+He seized his spear and drove it through the roof,

+so that it struck Karr in the breast, and the wound

+was his death.

+

+Thorbiorn Hook called to the men to act more

+warily—they were twenty-five in all against two

+men, and one dying.

+

+So the men pulled at the gable ends of the house

+and got the ridge-piece out, that it broke and fell,

+and with it a shower of turfs, into the hut.

+

+Grettir drew his short-sword—the sword he had

+taken from the barrow of Karr the Old—and smote

+at the men as they leaped upon him from the wall.

+With one blow he struck Vikarr over the left

+shoulder, as he was on the point of springing down.

+The sword cut off his arm.  But the blow was so

+violent, that Grettir, having dealt it, fell forward,

+and before he could raise himself Thorbiorn Hook

+struck him between the shoulders, and made a

+fearful wound.

+

+Then cried Grettir, "Bare is the back without

+brother behind it!" and instantly Illugi threw his

+shield over him, planted one foot on each side of

+him as he lay on the floor, and defended him with

+desperate courage.

+

+.. _`ILLUGI DEFENDS THE DYING GRETTIR`:

+

+.. figure:: images/img-368.jpg

+   :figclass: white-space-pre-line

+   :align: center

+   :alt: ILLUGI DEFENDS THE DYING GRETTIR.

+

+   ILLUGI DEFENDS THE DYING GRETTIR.

+

+The mist of death was in Grettir's eyes; he

+attempted in vain to raise himself, but sank again

+on the sheep-skins, which were now drenched in blood.

+

+No one could touch him, for the brave boy warded

+off every blow that was aimed at his brother.

+

+Then Thorbiorn Hook ordered his men to form a

+ring round and close in on them with their shields

+and with beams.  They did so, and Illugi was taken

+and bound; but not till he had wounded most of his

+opponents, and had killed three of Thorbiorn's men.

+

+"Never have I seen one braver of your age," said

+The Hook.  "I will say that you have fought well."

+

+Then they went to Grettir, who lay where he had

+fallen, unable to resist further, for he had lost

+consciousness.  They dealt him many a blow, but

+hardly any blood flowed from his wounds.  When

+all supposed he was dead, then Thorbiorn tried to

+disengage the sword from his cold fingers, saying

+that he considered Grettir had wielded it long

+enough.  But the strong man's hand was clenched

+around the handle so firmly that his enemy could

+not free the sword from his grasp.

+

+Several of the men came up, and tried to unweave

+the fingers, but were unable to do so.  Then the

+Hook said, "Why should we spare this wretched

+outlaw?  Off with his hand!"  And his men held

+down the arm whilst Thorbiorn hewed off the hand

+at the wrist with his axe.

+

+After that, standing over the body, and grasping

+the hilt of the sword in both hands, he smote at

+Grettir's head; the edge of the blade was notched

+by the blow.

+

+"Look!" laughed Thorbiorn.  "This notch will

+be famous in story for many generations; for men

+will point to it and say, 'This was made by Grettir's

+skull.'"  He struck twice and thrice at the outlaw's

+neck, till the head came off in his hands.

+

+"Now have I slain a notable man!" exclaimed

+Thorbiorn.  "I will take this head with me to land,

+and claim the price that was set on it; and none

+shall deny that it was my hand that slew that

+Grettir whom all else feared."

+

+The men present said he might say what he liked,

+but that they believed Grettir was already dead

+when he smote him.

+

+Thorbiorn now turned to Illugi, and said, "It is

+a pity that a brave lad like you should die,

+because you are associated with outlaws and evil-doers."

+

+"I tell you this," said Illugi, "that I will appear

+before you at the great assize, and there will charge

+you with having practised witchcraft to effect my

+brother's death."

+

+"You hearken to me, boy," said Thorbiorn.  "Put

+your hand to mine, and swear that you will not

+seek to avenge the death of your brother, and I will

+let you go; but if you will not take this oath, you

+shall die."

+

+"And hearken to me, Thorbiorn," said lllugi.

+"If I live, but one thought shall occupy my heart

+night and day, and that will be how I may best

+avenge my brother.  Now that you know what to

+expect of me—take what course you will."

+

+Thorbiorn drew his companions aside to ask their

+advice; but they shrugged their shoulders, and

+replied that, as he had planned the expedition, he

+must carry it out as he thought best.

+

+"Well," said The Hook, "I have no fancy for

+having the young viper lying in wait to sting me

+wherever I tread.  He shall die."

+

+Now, when Illugi knew that they had determined

+on slaying him, he smiled and said, "You have

+chosen that course which is best to my mind.  I do

+not desire to be parted from my brother."

+

+The day was breaking.  They led Illugi to the

+east side of the island, and there they slew him.

+

+It is told that they neither bound his eyes nor his

+hands, and that he looked fearlessly at them when

+they smote him, and neither changed colour nor

+even blinked.

+

+Then they buried the brothers beneath a cairn in

+the island, but they took the head of Grettir and

+bore it to land.  On the way they also slew the

+thrall Glaum.

+

+

+

+

+

+.. vspace:: 4

+

+.. _`HOW ASDIS RECEIVED THE NEWS`:

+

+.. class:: center large bold

+

+   CHAPTER XLII.

+

+

+.. class:: center medium bold

+

+   HOW ASDIS RECEIVED THE NEWS.

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+..

+   

+   *A Charge of Witchcraft—A Heroic Mother—Thorbiorn's

+   Sentence—Burial of the Brothers*

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+Had the old hag, Thorbiorn's foster-mother, any

+hand in the death of Grettir?  Certainly none.

+It was true that Grettir was wounded in the way

+described, by his own axe, but the condition of the

+wound was due to the scorbutic condition of his

+blood, through lack of green food.  This the

+Icelanders did not understand; they could not

+comprehend how a wound could seem to be healing well

+and then break out and mortify afterwards, and

+they supposed that this was due to witchcraft.

+Then, again, Grettir's kin could not take the case of

+Grettir's murder into court, because Thorbiorn had

+acted within the law when killing him; but by

+charging him with the practice of witchcraft they

+made him amenable to the law.  So, partly, no

+doubt, in good faith, they trumped up against Thorbiorn

+the accusation of having effected Grettir's death

+by witchcraft.

+

+Now, it must be told how that, one day after

+the slaying of Grettir, Thorbiorn Hook at the head

+of twenty armed men rode to Biarg, in the Midfirth-dale,

+with Grettir's head slung from his saddlebow.

+On reaching the house he dismounted and

+strode into the hall, where Grettir's mother was

+seated with a servant.  Thorbiorn threw her son's

+head at her feet, and said: "See!  I have been to

+the island and have prevailed."

+

+The lady sat proudly in her seat, and did not shed

+a tear; but lifting her voice in reply, she sang:

+

+   |  "Milk-sop—as timid sheep

+   |  Before a fox all cow'ring keep;

+   |  So did you—nor could prevail

+   |  So long as Grettir's strength was hale.

+   |  Woe is on the Northland side,

+   |  Nor can I my loathing hide!"

+   |

+

+After this The Hook returned home, and folk

+wondered at Asdis, saying that only a heroic

+mother could have had sons so heroic.  When Yule

+was over The Hook rode east away to Garth, and

+told Thorir what he had done, and claimed the

+money set on Grettir's head.

+

+But Thorir was crafty, and just as the Biarg folk

+sought a charge against Thorbiorn for his deed, so

+did Thorir, that he might escape having to pay the

+silver.  He answered, "I do not deny that I offered

+the money on Grettir's head, promising it to

+whomsoever should slay Grettir, but I will pay nothing

+to him who compassed his death by witchcraft;

+and if what the men who went with you say be

+true, you did not slay him with a sword, but hacked

+off his head after he was dead."

+

+This made Thorbiorn Hook very angry, and when

+summer came he brought his suit against Thorir

+for the money.  But simultaneously Grettir's kin

+brought a charge against Thorbiorn for having

+practised witchcraft.  Also they had a summons

+against him for the slaying of Illugi.  Now, the case

+was tried, and hotly discussed, and it ended this

+way:—It was judged that Thorbiorn had struck off

+the head of a man who was already dead, and that

+he had brought about the death of that man by

+witchcraft; thereupon it was judged that he should

+receive nothing of the money, and that he should be

+outlawed from Iceland.

+

+So he went away and never returned.

+

+Now, Grettir and Illugi were brought to land, and

+their bones lie at Reykir, where was the friendly

+farmer who had helped them when they were at

+Drangey.  But Grettir's head was buried at Biarg.

+There is now no church or churchyard there, but

+there is a mound in the *tún* where his head is said

+to lie.  I obtained leave to dig there, and I

+examined the spot, but found only a great stone under

+the turf, and this we had not the appliances to move.

+And perhaps it was as well; for if Grettir's head be

+there, it were better that there it should rest

+undisturbed.

+

+

+

+

+

+.. vspace:: 4

+

+.. _`HOW DROMUND KEPT HIS WORD`:

+

+.. class:: center large bold

+

+   CHAPTER XLIII.

+

+

+.. class:: center medium bold

+

+   HOW DROMUND KEPT HIS WORD.

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+..

+   

+   *Thorbiorn Hook in Norway—Dromund on Thorbiorn's

+   Track—The Varangians—Grettir's Sword—Grettir is

+   Avenged*

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+Now, after that Thorbiorn Hook had been outlawed,

+he found that he had gotten to himself

+no advantage, but great harm by what he had done

+upon Drangey.  He was forced to leave Iceland;

+and he saw, withal, that never again might he set

+foot therein again with safety, for all the relatives

+of the Biarg family would seek his life.  Accordingly

+he made over his farm at Woodwick to his brother

+Hialti, and also all his rights over the island of

+Drangey, such as they were.  Then he collected

+together what moveable goods he had, and went on

+board ship and sailed for Norway.

+

+On reaching Norway he bragged much of what

+he had done in having slain Grettir, of whom tales

+were told in Norway; and, as may well be understood,

+he told the tale of the slaying of Grettir in

+his own way, magnifying his heroism, and saying

+nothing about such matters as lessened the greatness

+of his deed.

+

+During the early winter tidings reached Thorstein

+Dromund at Tunsberg that his brother Grettir

+was dead, and also that the man who slew him was

+in the north of the country.  When Dromund heard

+the tidings he was very sorrowful, and he called to

+mind the words he had said to Grettir when they

+showed each other what sort of arms they had.

+Dromund considered that he was bound to avenge

+his brother's death on his murderer.

+

+Thorbiorn Hook also was aware that there was a

+half-brother of Grettir in Norway, and when he

+knew that he was wary, for he suspected that

+Dromund would seek his life.  And, indeed, Thorstein

+Dromund sent spies to watch Thorbiorn Hook; but

+the latter was so careful of himself that Dromund

+was not able to attempt anything against him all

+that winter.  No sooner did the soft, warm, spring

+breezes begin to blow, than The Hook got away out

+of Norway by the earliest opportunity.  He had

+heard much talk how that the Emperors of the East,

+at Constantinople, kept a guard of Norsemen about

+them, and paid them well, and how that this guard

+was held in high esteem.  So Thorbiorn Hook

+considered he could not do better than go to

+Constantinople, and try his fortune there.  But before

+he left Norway he talked of his intention, and this

+was reported to Dromund at Tunsberg.  So Dromund

+put his lands and affairs into the hands of his

+kinsmen, and got ready for journeying in search of

+Hook, whom he had never seen.

+

+He sailed away after him, and wherever he came

+he made inquiries after the ship in which Thorbiorn

+Hook had been, and he was always just too late.

+He never could catch the ship up.  And then finally

+Thorbiorn left the vessel and journeyed overland,

+and Thorstein lost his traces.

+

+However, Dromund knew that Thorbiorn Hook

+was going to Constantinople, so he travelled thither

+also, and reached the imperial city.  Now there

+were a great many Norsemen and Icelanders there

+in the company called the Varangians, who acted as

+a bodyguard to the Emperor, and among these men

+were some twenty or more called Thorbiorn, and

+which among them was the murderer of Grettir,

+Thorstein Dromund did not know.  The Hook, as

+may well be imagined, did not tell anyone what his

+nickname was; not that he imagined he was pursued,

+but because it was not a pretty and flattering name.

+Thorstein also offered himself as a soldier in the

+guard, and was enrolled.  He also merely gave his

+name as Thorstein, and told no one of his nickname

+of Dromund, lest the man he pursued should take

+alarm and leave.

+

+So time passed, and Thorstein Dromund could not

+find out his man; and he lay awake in bed many

+nights musing on what he had undertaken, on the

+sad lot of Grettir, and on his ill-success in finding

+the murderer of his half-brother.  Now, it fell out

+that on a certain day the order came to the Varangian

+guard that they were to be ready, as they were

+about to be sent on an expedition of importance.

+

+It was usual, before any such an expedition, that

+all the men of the guard should burnish up their

+weapons and armour, and show them, that they were in condition.

+

+So was it on this occasion also.  They were

+assembled in the guard-room, and each produced his

+weapon.  Then Thorbiorn held forth his short-sword—the

+very weapon that Grettir had taken from the

+tomb of Karr the Old, the sword with which he

+The Hook had hewed off Grettir's head.

+

+Now, when Thorbiorn held forth the sword all the

+other guardsmen praised it, and said it was an

+excellent weapon; but it had one grievous blemish,

+for that there was a notch in the edge.

+

+"Oh!" laughed Thorbiorn, "that notch is no

+blemish at all.  It is a memorial of one of my

+greatest achievements."

+

+"What was that?" asked one of the Varangians.

+

+"With this sword," answered Thorbiorn, "I slew

+the man who was esteemed the greatest and most

+powerful champion of his time; a man who was in

+outlawry for twenty years, who had in his time

+fought and beaten off as many as thirty or forty

+who attacked him.  But I was too much for him.

+When I went against him, then he had to give way.

+We fought for an hour without flagging, and finally

+I smote him down.  Then I took from him his own

+sword, and with it I smote off his neck; and thus

+got the sword its notch."

+

+"And his name?" asked Thorstein Dromund.

+

+"His name was Grettir the Strong."

+

+There was a pause; and in that pause the sword

+was handed to Dromund for him to look at.

+

+"Thus is Grettir avenged!" suddenly exclaimed

+Dromund.  He struck across the table at Thorbiorn

+with Grettir's own sword; and so great was the

+stroke that it smote through his skull to the

+jaw-teeth, and The Hook fell without a word, dead.

+

+It was said, in after times, that Grettir was

+wonderful in his life, and wonderful in his death—for

+in life no man had been his equal in strength, and

+had had a sadder span of life; and in death he was

+wonderful—for of all Icelanders he was the only one

+who was avenged far away from home by the shores

+of the Bosphorus, in the City of the Emperors.

+

+

+

+

+

+.. vspace:: 4

+

+.. _`EPILOGUE`:

+

+.. class:: center large bold

+

+   EPILOGUE.

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+..

+

+   *Date of Grettir's Death—Mention of Grettir in other

+   Sagas—Historical Basis of the Grettir Story*

+

+.. vspace:: 2

+

+In the Icelandic annals the death of Grettir is set

+down as having occurred in 1033, but the dates

+are not quite correct, and the real date should be

+1031.

+

+Grettir is mentioned in other Icelandic sagas.

+He is spoken of and his pedigree given in the

+Landnama Book, the Icelandic Domesday, the most

+reliable book for history they have.  The persons

+spoken of in the saga of Grettir are heard of in

+several other quite independent sagas, and in no

+case is there any serious anachronism.

+

+Grettir, it will be recalled, was taken by the

+farmers in the Ice-firth.  This incident is also related

+in the saga of the Foster-brothers; so is another

+incident about a contest concerning a dead whale I

+have not related, as likely to break the continuity

+of the history.  In the saga of Thord, the hero is

+said to have blessed the Middle-firth in these words:

+"Let the man who grows up in this vale never be

+hung."  And this blessing was thought to have had

+something to do with the saving of Grettir's neck

+in the Ice-firth.  The story of Gisli has been told

+whom Grettir whipped.  Now, in the Viga-styr saga,

+the most ancient of all Icelandic sagas, we hear of

+this same Gisli, and his character is painted in the

+same colours as in the saga of Grettir, but no

+mention is made of the whipping administered by

+Grettir.  The murder of Atli, the brother of our

+outlaw, and the consequent slaying of Thorbiorn

+Oxmain is spoken of in the saga of Bard.  The

+circumstance of Grettir having lived in a cave on the

+farm in Hit-dale is spoken of in the saga of Biorn.

+In the history of Grettir mention is made of the

+strife which took place between Biorn and Thord,

+but the full particulars of what is there alluded to

+casually are given in the saga of Biorn of Hit-dale.

+In our saga, Grettir is spoken of as meeting Bard

+wounded after a hard fight, in which he had avenged

+the death of his brother, but no particulars are given.

+In the saga of the Heath-fights we recover the

+whole story.  Thus one saga explains and supports

+another.

+

+It is therefore impossible to set down the story

+of Grettir as fabulous.  It is historical; but the

+history has been somewhat embellished, partly by

+family vanity which led to the undue glorification of

+their hero, and partly by superstition which

+imagined the marvellous where all was really natural.

+

+.. vspace:: 3

+

+.. class:: center

+

+   THE END.

+

+.. vspace:: 4

+

+.. class:: center

+

+   Transcriber's note:

+

+.. vspace:: 1

+

+..

+

+   The source book's pages had variant headers.  These headers

+   have been collected into the introductory paragraph

+   at the start of each chapter.

+

+.. vspace:: 6

+

+.. pgfooter::

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+                           GRETTIR THE OUTLAW
+
+
+
+
+This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online at
+http://www.gutenberg.org/license. If you are not located in the United
+States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you are
+located before using this ebook.
+
+
+
+Title: Grettir the Outlaw
+       A Story of Iceland
+Author: S. Baring-Gould
+Release Date: March 31, 2015 [EBook #48622]
+Language: English
+Character set encoding: US-ASCII
+
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GRETTIR THE OUTLAW ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Al Haines.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Cover art]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THORKELL AND THE OUTLAWED GRETTIR LEAVE THE ASSIZE.]
+
+
+
+
+                          *Grettir the Outlaw*
+
+                          *A Story of Iceland*
+
+
+                                   by
+
+                            S. BARING-GOULD
+
+ Author of "John Herring" "Mehalah" "Iceland: its Scenes and Sagas" &c.
+
+
+
+            _WITH SIX PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS BY M. ZENO DIEMER_
+
+
+
+                        BLACKIE AND SON LIMITED
+                       LONDON GLASGOW AND DUBLIN
+                                  1889
+
+
+
+
+                               *PREFACE.*
+
+
+                          TO MY YOUNG READERS.
+
+
+It is now just thirty years since I first began to read the "Saga of
+Grettir the Strong" in Icelandic.  At that time I had only a Danish
+grammar of Icelandic and an Icelandic-Danish dictionary, and I did not
+know a word of Danish.  So I had to learn Danish in order to learn
+Icelandic.
+
+It was laborious work making out the Saga, and every line when I began
+took me some time to understand.  Moreover, I had not much time at my
+disposal, for then I was a master in a school.
+
+Now, after I had worked a little way into the Saga, I became intensely
+interested in it myself, and it struck me that my boys whom I taught
+might like to hear about Grettir.  So I tried every day to translate,
+after school hours, a chapter, hardly ever more at first, and sometimes
+not even as much as that.  Then, when on half-holidays I proposed a walk
+to some of my scholars, they were keen to hear the story of Grettir.
+Well, Grettir went on for some months in this way, a fresh instalment of
+the tale coming every half-holiday, and it was really wonderful how
+interested and delighted the boys were with the story.  Nor was I less
+so; the labour of translation which was so great at first became rapidly
+lighter, and I was as much interested in the adventures of the hero as
+were the boys.  The other day I met an old pupil of mine, and almost the
+first thing he said to me was: "Oh! do you remember Grettir?  Thirty
+years ago!  Fancy!  I am a married man and have boys of my own, and I
+have often tried to tell them the story which made such an impression on
+me, but I cannot remember all the incidents nor their order.  I do wish
+you would write it as a story for boys.  I should like to read it myself
+again, and my boys would love it."  "Very well," I said, "I will do so."
+
+Now my boy readers must understand that I have told them the story in my
+own words and in my own way.  I went to Iceland in 1861, and went over
+nearly every bit of the ground made famous by the adventures of Grettir.
+Consequently, I am able to help out and illustrate the tale by what I
+actually saw.  In the original book there is a great deal more than I
+have attempted to retell, but much has to do with the ancestors of
+Grettir, and there are other incidents introduced of no great importance
+and very confusing to the memory.  So I have taken the leading points in
+the story, and given them.
+
+S. BARING-GOULD.
+
+
+
+
+                              *CONTENTS.*
+
+CHAP.
+
+      I. Winter Tales
+     II. How Grettir played on the Ice
+    III. Of the Ride to Thingvalla
+     IV. The Doom-day
+      V. The Voyage
+     VI. The Red Rovers
+    VII. The Story of the Sword
+   VIII. Of the Bear
+     IX. The Slaying of Biorn
+      X. Of Grettir's Return
+     XI. The Horse-fight
+    XII. Of the Fight at the Neck
+   XIII. How Grettir and Audun made Friends
+    XIV. The Vale of Shadows
+     XV. How Grettir fought with Glam
+    XVI. How Grettir Sailed to Norway
+   XVII. The Hostel-burning
+  XVIII. The Ordeal by Fire
+    XIX. The Winter in Norway
+     XX. Of what Befell at Biarg
+    XXI. The Return of Grettir
+   XXII. The Slaying of Oxmain
+  XXIII. At Learwood
+   XXIV. The Foster-brothers
+    XXV. How Grettir was well nigh Hung
+   XXVI. In the Desert
+  XXVII. On the Great Eagle Lake
+ XXVIII. On the Fell
+   XXIX. The Fight on the River
+    XXX. A Mysterious Vale
+   XXXI. The Death of Hallmund
+  XXXII. Of Another Attempt against Grettir
+ XXXIII. At Sandheaps
+  XXXIV. How Grettir was Driven About
+   XXXV. On the Isle
+  XXXVI. Of Grettir on Heron-ness
+ XXXVII. Of Hoering's Leap
+XXXVIII. Of the Attempt made by Grettir's Friends
+  XXXIX. Of the Old Hag
+     XL. How the Log came to Drangey
+    XLI. The End of the Outlaw
+   XLII. How Asdis received the News
+  XLIII. How Dromund kept his Word
+
+Epilogue
+
+
+
+
+                            *ILLUSTRATIONS.*
+
+
+Thorkell and the outlawed Grettir leave the Assize, _Frontis_.
+
+Grettir challenges Kormak and his Party
+
+Grettir defends Himself from the Mob
+
+Grettir attacked in the Rift by Thorir's Party
+
+Fording the quivering flood
+
+Illugi defends the dying Grettir
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: PEDIGREE OF THE FAMILY OF ASMUND OF BIARG]
+
+
+
+
+                         *GRETTIR THE OUTLAW.*
+
+
+
+                              *CHAPTER I.*
+
+                            *WINTER TALES.*
+
+
+    _The Birthplace of Grettir--The Peopling of Iceland--A History
+    of Quarrels--Stories Round the Hearth--Biarg--The Great Blue
+    Bay--The Boy Grettir--The Saga of Onund Treefoot--The Northern
+    Pirates--The Fight with King Harald--Onund's Wound--After the
+    Battle_
+
+
+It was night--drawing on to midnight--in summer, that I who write this
+book arrived at the little lonely farm of Biarg, on the Middle River, in
+the north of Iceland. It was night, near on midnight, and yet I could
+hardly call it night, for the sky overhead was full of light of the
+clearest amethyst, and every stock and stone was distinctly visible.
+Across the valley rose a rugged moor, and above its shoulder a snow-clad
+mountain, turned to rosy gold by the night sun.  As I stood there
+watching the mist form on the cold river in the vale below, all at once
+I heard a strange sound like horns blowing far away in the sky, and
+looking up, I saw a train of swans flying from west to east, bathed in
+sunlight, their wings of silver, and their feathers as gold.
+
+I had come all the way from England to see Biarg, for there was born,
+about the year A.D. 997, a man called Grettir, whose history I had read,
+and which interested me so much that I was resolved to see his native
+home, and the principal scenes where his stormy life was passed.
+
+The landscape was the same as that on which Grettir's childish eyes had
+looked more than eight hundred and fifty years ago.  The same outline of
+dreary moor, the same snowy ridge of mountain standing above it,
+catching the midnight summer sun, the same mist forming over the river;
+but the house was altogether different.  Now there stood only a poor
+heap of farm-buildings, erected of turf and wood, where had once been a
+noble hall of wood, with carved gable-ends, surrounded by many
+out-houses.
+
+Before we begin on the story of Grettir, it will be well to say a few
+words about its claim to be history.
+
+Iceland never was, and it is not now, a much-peopled island.  The
+farmhouses are for the most part far apart, and the farms are of very
+considerable extent, because, owing to the severity of the climate, very
+little pasturage is obtained over a wide extent of country for the sheep
+and cattle.  The population lives round the coast, on the fiords or
+creeks of the sea, or on the rivers that flow into these fiords. The
+centre of the island is occupied by a vast waste of ice-covered
+mountain, and desert black as ink strewn with volcanic ash and sand, or
+else with a region of erupted lava that is impassable, because in
+cooling it has exploded, and forms a country of bristling spikes and
+gulfs and sharp edges, very much like the wreck of a huge ginger-beer
+bottle factory.
+
+What are now farmhouses were the halls and mansions of families of noble
+descent.  Indeed, the original settlers in Iceland were the nobles of
+Norway who left their native land to avoid the tyranny of Harold
+Fairhair, who tried to crush their power so as to make himself a
+despotic king in the land.
+
+These Norse nobles came in their boats to Iceland, bringing with them
+their wives, children, their thralls or slaves, and their cattle; and
+they settled all round the coast.  The present Icelanders are descended
+from these first colonists.
+
+Now, the history of Iceland for a few hundred years consists of nothing
+but the history of the quarrels of these great families.  Iceland was
+without any political organization, but it had an elected lawman or
+judge, and every year the heads of the families rode to Thingvalla, a
+plain in the south-west, where they brought their complaints, carried on
+their lawsuits, and had them settled by the judge. There was no army, no
+navy, no government in Iceland for a long time; also no foreign wars,
+and no internal revolutions.
+
+These noble families settled in the valleys and upon the fiords thought
+a good deal of themselves, and they carefully preserved, at first orally
+then in writing, the record of their pedigrees, and also the tradition
+of the famous deeds of their great men.
+
+In summer there is no night; in winter, no day. In winter there is
+little or nothing to be done but sit over the fire, sing songs, and tell
+yarns.  Now, in winter the Icelanders told the tales of the brave men of
+old in their families, and so the tradition was handed on from father to
+son, the same stories told every winter, till all the particulars became
+well known.  At the same time there can be no doubt that little
+embellishments were added, some exaggerations were indulged in, and here
+and there the grand deed of some other man was grafted into the story of
+the family hero.  About two hundred or two hundred and fifty years after
+the death of Grettir, his history was committed to writing, and then it
+became fixed--nothing further was added to it, and we have his story
+after having travelled down over two hundred years as a tradition.  That
+was plenty of time for additions and emendations, and the hobgoblin and
+ghost stories that come into his life are some of these embellishments.
+But the main facts of his life are true history.  We are able to decide
+this by comparing his story with those of other families in the same
+part of the island, and to see whether they agree as to dates, and as to
+the circumstances narrated in them.
+
+In the north-west of Iceland is an immense bay called the Huna-floi,
+which branches off into several creeks, the largest of which is called
+the Ramsfirth, and the next to that is the Middlefiord.  Into this flows
+a river that has its rise in the central desert, in a perfect tangle of
+lakes.  Three rivers issuing from these lakes unite just above Biarg,
+and pour their waters a short morning's ride lower through sands into
+the Middlefirth.
+
+The valley is not cheerful, running from north to south.  Biarg lies on
+the east side, and faces the western sun.  The moor which lies behind
+it, and forms the hill on the other side of the river, is not broken and
+picturesque, and if it were not for the peak of Burfell, covered with
+snow a good part of the year, the view from Biarg would be as
+uninteresting as any to be found in the land.  But then, when one rides
+down to the coast, or ascends the moor, what a splendid view bursts on
+the sight! The great Polar Sea is before one, intensely blue, not with
+the deep ultramarine of the Mediterranean, but with the blue of the
+nemophyla or forget-me-not, rolling in from the mysterious North; and
+across the mighty bay of the Huna-floi can be seen the snowy mountains
+of that extraordinary peninsula which runs out to the north-west of
+Iceland, and is only just not converted into an island because connected
+with Iceland by a narrow strip of land.  That great projection is like a
+hand with fiords between the fingers of land, and glacier-mountains
+where are the knuckles; but the wrist is very narrow indeed, only about
+one English mile across, and there lies a trough along this junction,
+with a little stream and a lake in it.  Now, at this wrist, as we may
+call it, lies the farm of Eyre, where, somewhat later, lived the sister
+of Grettir, who married a man that farmed there, named Glum.
+
+Looking away across the great blue bay, the mountains of the hand may be
+seen rising out of the sea, and looking like icebergs.
+
+Grettir the Strong was the son of a well-to-do bonder, or yeoman, who
+lived at Biarg, and was descended from some of the great nobles of
+Norway. His father's name was Asmund with the Grey-head, and his
+mother's name was Asdis.
+
+He had a brother called Atli, a gentle, kindly young fellow, who never
+wittingly quarrelled with anyone, and was liked by all with whom he had
+to do.  He had also two sisters--one was called Thordis, and she was
+married to Glum of Eyre--but neither come into the story; and he had
+another sister called Rannveig, who was married to Gamli of Melar, at
+the head of Ramsfirth.  He had also a little brother called Illugi, of
+whom more hereafter. Grettir was not a good-looking boy; he had reddish
+hair, a pale face full of freckles, and light blue eyes.  He was
+broad-built, not tall as a boy, though in the end he grew to be a very
+big man.
+
+He was not considered a good-tempered or sociable boy.  He seemed lazy
+and sullen; he liked to sit by the fire without speaking to anyone,
+listening to what was said, and brooding over what he had heard.
+
+If his father set him a task, he did it so unwillingly, and so badly
+that Asmund Greyhead regretted having set him to do anything.
+
+Now, during the winter, as we have already seen, when there is but a
+very little daylight, and the nights are vastly long, when, moreover,
+the whole land is deep in snow, so that there is no farm-work that can
+be done, and no travelling about to visit neighbours, it was, and is
+still, usual in Iceland for those in the house to tell tales, or sagas,
+as they are called.  Some of these sagas relate to the old gods of the
+Norsemen, some are fabulous stories of old heroes who never existed, or,
+if they did exist, have had all sorts of fantastic legends tacked on to
+their histories; but other sagas are the tales of the doings of
+ancestors of the family.
+
+Now, among the sagas that Grettir used to hearken to with greatest
+delight was that of old Onund Treefoot, his great-grandfather, who first
+settled in Iceland.  And this was the tale:
+
+
+Onund, the son of Ufeigh Clubfoot, son of Ivar the Smiter, was a mighty
+Viking in Norway; that is, he went about every summer harrying the
+coasts of England, Ireland, and Scotland.  He joined with three friends,
+and they had five ships together, and one summer they sailed to the
+Hebrides--which were then called the Sudereys, or southern isles. The
+Bishop of the Isle of Man is still called Bishop of Sodor and Man,
+because his diocese originally included the Sudereys.  Then out against
+them came Kiarval, king of the Hebrides, with five ships, and they gave
+him battle, and there was a hard fray. But the men of Onund were the
+mightiest warriors. On each side many fell, but the end of the battle
+was that the king fled with only one ship.  So Onund took the four
+vessels and great spoil, and he wrought great havoc on the coast,
+plundering and burning, and so in the fall of the year returned to
+Norway.  In the history of England, and in that of Scotland and of
+Ireland, we read of the terrible annoyance given to the natives of Great
+Britain and Ireland by the northern pirates; and, indeed, they conquered
+Dublin, and established a kingdom there, and also took to themselves
+Orkney.  Well, when Onund returned to Norway he did not find that
+matters were pleasant there; for King Harald the Unshorn had begun to
+establish himself sole king in Norway.  Hitherto there had been many
+small kings and earls; but Harald had taken an oath that he would not
+cut or trim his hair till he had subdued all under his power, and made
+himself supreme throughout the land.
+
+A great many bonders and all the little kings united against him, and
+there was a great battle fought at Hafrsfiord--the greatest battle that
+had as yet been fought in Norway.  Onund was in the battle along with
+his friend, King Thorir Longchin, and he set his ship alongside of that
+of King Longchin. King Harald ran his ship up alongside of that of
+Longchin, grappled it, and boarded it.  There was a furious fight, and
+Harald sent on board his Bearsarks, a set of half-mad ruffians, who wore
+not bear but wolf skins, and who were said to lead charmed lives, so
+that no weapon would wound them.  Thorir Longchin and all his men were
+killed; and then King Harald cut away the ship and ran up against that
+of Onund.  Onund was in the fore part, and he fought manfully.  As the
+grappling-irons of Harald caught his ship, Onund made a sweep with his
+longsword at the man who threw the irons, and in so doing he put his leg
+over the bulwark.  Then one on the king's ship threw a spear at Onund.
+He saw it flung, and leaned his head back to let it fly over him, and as
+he did so one on the king's ship smote at him with a battle-axe, and the
+axe fell on his leg below the knee and shore his leg off. Then Onund
+fell back on board his own vessel, and his men carried him across into
+that of a friend named Thrand, who lay alongside of him on the other
+board.  And Thrand had a great cauldron there of pitch boiled, and Onund
+set his knee in the boiling pitch, and never blinked nor uttered a cry.
+That staunched the blood.  If he had not done this he would have bled to
+death.
+
+Now, Thrand saw that King Harald was gaining the mastery everywhere, so
+he fled away with his ship and sailed west.
+
+Onund was healed of his wound, but ever after he walked with a wooden
+leg, and that is why he got the name of Onund Treefoot.
+
+After the battle of Hafrsfiord, Onund could only return to Norway by
+stealth, and he could not recover his lands there, so he deemed it
+wisest for him to sail away and seek a home elsewhere.  That is how he
+left Norway and settled in Iceland.
+
+And when King Harald saw himself lord and master through all the land,
+then he had his hair trimmed and combed, and it was so long and so
+beautiful, that ever after he who had been called "The Unshorn" went by
+the name of "Fairhair," and in history he is known as King Harald
+Fairhair.
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER II.*
+
+                    *HOW GRETTIR PLAYED ON THE ICE.*
+
+
+    _An Evil Boyhood--Golf on the Ice--Grettir Quarrels with
+    Audun--A Threat of Vengeance_
+
+
+There are several tales told of Grettir when he was a boy, which show
+that he was a rough and unkindly lad.  He was set by his father to keep
+geese on the moors, and this made him angry, so he threw stones at the
+geese and killed or wounded them all.
+
+The old man suffered from lumbago, and in winter when unwell asked his
+wife and the boys to rub his back by the fire; but when Grettir was
+required to do this, he lost his temper, and on one occasion he snatched
+up a wool-carding comb and dug it into his old father's back.
+
+Many other things he did which made those at home not like him, and
+there was not much love lost between him and his father.  The fact was
+that Grettir was a headstrong, wilful fellow, and bitterly had he to pay
+in after life for this youthful wilfulness and obstinacy.  It was these
+qualities, untamed in him, that wrecked his whole life, and it may be
+said brought ruin and extinction on his family. There were great and
+good qualities in Grettir's nature, but they did not show when he was
+young; only much suffering and cruel privations brought out in the end
+the higher and nobler elements that were in him.
+
+It is so with all who have any good in them, if by early discipline it
+is not manifested, then it is brought out by the rough usage of
+misfortune in after life.
+
+And now I will give one incident of Grettir's boyhood.  It was a
+favourite amusement for young fellows at that time to play golf on the
+ice, and in winter, when the Middlefirth was frozen over, large parties
+assembled there for the sport.
+
+One winter a party was arranged for a match on the ice, and a good many
+lads came to Middlefirth from Willowdale, a valley only separated from
+the Middlefirth by a long shoulder of ugly moor.  The Willowdales-men
+had a much better sheet of water, a very large lake called Hop, into
+which their river flowed, before discharging itself into the sea; and
+the return match was to be played on Hop.
+
+Among the young fellows who came from Willowdale was Audun, a fine,
+strapping fellow; frank, well-built, good-looking, and amiable.
+
+When the parties were assembled at the place, there they were paired off
+according to age and strength; and on this occasion I am speaking of,
+Grettir, who was fourteen, was set to play with Audun, who was two years
+older than he, and a head taller.
+
+Audun struck the ball and it flew over Grettir's head, and he missed it,
+and it went skimming away over the ice to a great distance, and Grettir
+had to run after it.  Some of those who were looking on laughed.  Then
+Grettir's anger was roused.  He got the ball and came back carrying it,
+till he was within a few yards of Audun, and then, instead of dropping
+the ball, and striking it with his golfing-stick, he suddenly threw it
+with all his force against his adversary, and struck him between his
+eyes, so that it half-stunned him, and cut the skin.  Audun whirled his
+golfing-bat round, and struck at Grettir, who dodged under and escaped
+the blow.  Then Audun and Grettir grappled each other, and wrestled on
+the ice.
+
+Every one thought that Audun would have the stumpy, thick-set boy down
+in a trice, but it was not so; Grettir held his ground;--they swung this
+way, that way; now one seemed about to be cast, and then the other, and
+although Audun was almost come to a man's strength, he could not for a
+long time throw Grettir.  At last Grettir slipped on a piece of ice
+where some had been sliding, and went down.  His blood was up, so was
+that of Audun; and the fight would have been continued with their
+sticks, had not Grettir's brother Atli thrown himself between the
+combatants and separated them.  Atli held his brother back, and tried to
+patch up the quarrel.
+
+"You need not hold me like a mad dog," said Grettir.  "Thralls wreak
+their vengeance at once, cowards never."
+
+Audun and Grettir were distant cousins.  They were not allowed to play
+against each other any more, and the rest went on with their game.
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER III.*
+
+                      *OF THE RIDE TO THINGVALLA.*
+
+
+    _Thorkel Mani's Find--Thorkel Krafla--The Halt at Biarg--A Bad
+    Prospect--Among the Lakes--The Lost Meal-bags--Suspicion
+    Confirmed--The Slaying of Skeggi--The Song of the
+    Battle-ogress--Grettir Chooses to take his Trial_
+
+
+There lived in Waterdale, a day's journey from Biarg, an old bonder,
+named Thorkel Krafla. He was the first Icelander who became a Christian.
+
+In heathen times, among the Northmen as among the Romans, it was
+allowable for parents to expose their children to death, if they did not
+want to have the trouble of rearing them.  Now Thorkel had been so
+exposed, with a napkin over his face.  It so happened that a great chief
+called Thorkel Mani was riding along one day, thinking about the gods
+that he had been taught to believe in, who drank and got drunk, and
+fought each other, and, being a grave, meditative man, he could not make
+out what these rollicking, fighting gods could have had to do with the
+world,--with the creation of sun, moon, and stars, and the earth with
+its yield.  He thought to himself, "There must be some God above these
+tipsy, quarrelsome deities; and this higher God must love men, and be
+good and kind to men."
+
+As he thought this, he heard a little whimpering noise from behind a
+stone; he got off his horse, and went to see what produced this noise,
+and found there a poor little baby, that with its tiny hands had rumpled
+up the kerchief which had been spread over its nose and mouth.  Thorkel
+Mani took up the deserted babe in his arms, and looking up to heaven, to
+the sun, said, "If the good God, who is high over all, called this
+little being into life, gave it eyes and mouth and ears and hands and
+feet, He surely never intended His handiwork to be cast out as a thing
+of no value, to die.  For the love of Him I will take this child."
+
+Then Thorkel Mani rode home, carrying the baby in his arms; and he
+called it by his own name, Thorkel; but to distinguish it from himself,
+it was given the nickname Krafla, which means to rumple, because the
+babe had rumpled up the kerchief, so as to let its cries be heard.  So
+the child grew up, and kept the name through life of Thorkel Rumple.
+This Thorkel became a very great man, and Godi, or magistrate, of the
+Waterdale; and, as I have said, he was the first man to become a
+Christian, when missionaries of the gospel came to Iceland.
+
+Very soon after Grettir's birth Christianity became general, and in the
+year 1000 was sanctioned by law; but there were few Christian priests in
+the land, so that the knowledge of the truth had not spread much, and
+taken hold and transformed men's lives. Thorkel Rumple was now very old.
+He was the bosom friend of Asmund, and every year when in the spring he
+rode to the great assizes at Thingvalla, he always halted at least one
+night at Biarg.  Not only were Asmund and he men of like minds, and
+friends, but they were also connected.  In the spring of the year 1011,
+Thorkel arrived as usual at Biarg, attended by a great many men, and he
+was most warmly received by Asmund and his wife.  He remained with them
+three nights, and he and they fell a-talking about the prospects of the
+two young men, Atli and Grettir.  Asmund told his kinsman that Atli was
+a quiet, amiable fellow, now at man's estate, and likely to prove a good
+farmer; a man who would worthily succeed him at Biarg when he died, and
+keep the honour of the family untarnished, and would enlarge the estate.
+
+"Ah!  I see," said Thorkel.  "A useful man, good and respectable, like
+yourself.  But what about Grettir?"
+
+Asmund hesitated a moment before answering; but presently he said, "I
+hardly know what to say of him.  He is unruly, sullen, makes no friends,
+and he has been a constant cause of vexation to me."
+
+Thorkel answered, "That is a bad prospect; however, let him come with me
+to Thingvalla, and I shall be able to see on the journey of what stuff
+he is made."
+
+To this Asmund agreed; and right glad was Grettir to think he was to go
+to the great law-gathering.
+
+Thorkel had sixty men with him, and he rode in some state; for, as
+already said, he was a great man. The way led over the great desolate
+waste, called the Two-days-ride; but as on this expanse there were few
+halting-places, the grass most scanty, and not sufficient to allow of a
+stay, the party rode across it down to the settled lands nearer the
+coast as quickly as they could, and reached Fleet-tongue in time to
+sleep; so they took the bridles off their horses, and let them graze
+with their saddles on.  Their road had lain among the lakes, from which
+issued the rivers that united above Biarg.  In each lake floated a pair
+of swans.  Often they heard the loud hoarse cry of the great northern
+diver; but there was hardly any grass, for the moor lies high, is swept
+by the icy blasts from the glacier mountains to the south, and is made
+up of black sand.  Before them all day had stood towering into the sky
+the Eyreksjokull, a mountain with perfectly precipitous sides of black
+basalt, domed over with glittering ice.  It resembles an immense
+bridecake.  At one place this mountain in former times had gaped, and
+poured forth a fiery stream of lava that ran to the lakes, and for a
+while converted them to steam.  One can still see whence this great
+fiery river issued from the mountain.  Little did Grettir think then as
+he passed under it, a boy of fourteen, that, for the three most lonely,
+wretched years of his life, that great glacier-crowned mountain was to
+be the one object on which his eye would rest.
+
+The men were all very tired after their long ride, and they slept till
+late next morning, lying about on the scant herbage, around a fire made
+of the roots of trailing willows that they had dug out of the sand.
+
+When they awoke many of the horses had strayed, and some had rolled in
+the sand, burst their girths and shaken off their saddles.  But they
+could not have gone any great distance, for they were all hobbled.  In
+Iceland thick woollen ropes are put round the legs of the horses, below
+the hocks, and twisted together into a knot with a knuckle-bone. This
+serves as a secure hobble, and the wool being soft does not gall the
+skin.
+
+It was customary in those days for every one to take his own provisions
+with him, and most of those who went to the great assize carried
+meal-bags athwart their saddles.  Grettir found his horse at last, but
+not his meal-bag, which had come off, and was lost; for the saddle was
+turned under the belly of his cob.
+
+The horses could not have strayed far, not only because they were
+hobbled, but also because the Tongue where they had been turned loose
+was a narrow strip of land between two rivers; but then the slope was
+considerable in places, and the meal-bag might have rolled down into the
+water.
+
+As Grettir was running about hunting for his bag, he saw another man in
+the same predicament.  What is more, he saw that the rest of the party,
+impatient to get on their way, would tarry no longer for them, and were
+defiling down the hill to cross the river.
+
+Grettir was in great distress.  Just then he saw the man run very
+directly in one course, and at the same moment Grettir saw something
+white lying under a mass of lava.  It was towards this that the fellow
+was running.  Grettir ran towards it also.  It was a meal-sack.  The man
+reached it first, and threw it over his shoulder.
+
+"What have you got there?" asked Grettir, coming up panting.
+
+"My meal-sack," answered the fellow.
+
+"Let me look at it," said Grettir.  "It may be mine, not yours.  Let me
+look before you appropriate it."
+
+This the man refused to do.
+
+Grettir's suspicion was confirmed, and he made a catch at the sack, and
+tried to drag it away from the fellow.
+
+"Oh, yes!" sneered the man--who was a servant at a farm called The
+Ridge, in Waterdale, and his name Skeggi,--"Oh, yes! you Middlefirthers
+think you will have everything your own way."
+
+"That is not it," answered Grettir.  "Let each man take his own.  If the
+sack be yours, keep it; if mine, I will have it."
+
+"It is a pity Audun is not here," scoffed the serving-man, "or he would
+trip up your heels and throttle you, as he did on the ice when golfing."
+
+"But as he is not here," retorted Grettir, "you are not like to get the
+better of me."
+
+Skeggi suddenly took his axe by the haft and hewed at Grettir's head.
+Grettir saw what he was at, and instantly put up his left hand and
+caught the handle below where Skeggi's hand held it; wrenched it out of
+his grasp, and struck him with it, so that his skull was cleft.  The
+thing was done in a moment, and Grettir had done it in self-preservation
+and without premeditation.  He was but a boy of fourteen, and this was a
+full-grown stout churl.
+
+Grettir at once seized the meal-bag, saw it was his own, and threw it
+across his saddle.  Then he rode after the company.  Thorkel Krafla rode
+at the head of his party, and he had no misgiving that anything untoward
+had taken place.
+
+But, when Grettir came riding up with his meal-bag, the men asked him if
+he had left Skeggi still in search of his.  Grettir answered in song:
+
+    "A rock Troll did her burden throw
+    Down on Skeggi's skull, I trow.
+    O'er the battle-ogress saw I flow
+    Ruby rivers all aglow.
+    She her iron mouth a-gape
+    Did the life of Skeggi take."
+
+
+This sounds like nonsense; to understand it one must have a notion of
+what constituted poetry in the minds of Icelanders and Northmen.  With
+them the charm of poetry consisted in never calling anything by its
+right name, but using instead of it some far-fetched similitude or
+periphrasis.  Thus--the burden of the rock Troll is iron.  The Troll is
+the spirit of the mountain, and the heaviest thing found in the mountain
+is iron.  The battle-ogress is the axe which bites in battle.  The
+verses that the Norse poets sang were a series of conundrums, and the
+hearers puzzled their brains to make out the sense. This time they soon
+understood what Grettir meant, and the men turned and went back to the
+Tongue, and there found Skeggi dead.
+
+Grettir went on to Thorkel, and in few words, and to the point, told how
+things had fallen out. He was not the aggressor.  He had merely defended
+himself.
+
+Thorkel was much troubled, and he told Grettir that he might either come
+on to the assize or go home; that this act of man-slaughter would be
+investigated at the law-gathering, and judgment given upon it.
+
+Grettir agreed to go on, and see how matters would turn out for him.
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER IV.*
+
+                            *THE DOOM-DAY.*
+
+
+    _The Lava Plain--The Law of Man-slaughter--Grettir's
+    Sentence--The Grettir Stone_
+
+
+That evening they arrived at Thingvalla.
+
+The great plain of Thingvalla is entirely composed of lava.  At some
+remote period before Iceland was colonized a beautiful snowy cone of
+mountain, called "The Broad Shield," poured forth a deluge of molten
+rock, which ran in a fiery river down a valley for some miles,
+half-choking it up, and then spread out over a wide plain where
+anciently there had been a great lake.  Then all cooled, but after the
+cooling, or whilst it was in process, there came a great crack, crack.
+The great mass of lava must have been poured over some subterranean
+caverns; at any rate the whole plain snapped and sank down a good many
+feet, the lava becoming cracked and starred like glass.  Nowadays, one
+cannot cross the plain because it is all traversed with these fearful
+cracks, chasms the bottom of which is filled with black water.  Where
+the plain sank deepest there water settled and formed the beautiful
+Thingvalla Lake.
+
+At the side of one of the cracks where the plain broke off and sank is a
+very curious pinnacle of black rock, and this was called the Hanging
+Rock, as criminals were hung from it over the chasm.
+
+In one place two of the cracks unite, and there is a high mound of
+blistered lava covered with turf and flowers between them.  That is
+called the Law Hill, because the judge and his assessors sat there, and
+no one could get to them, nor could the accused get away across the
+chasms.
+
+Now it was the law at this time in Iceland that when any man had been
+killed his nearest relatives came to the assize, and the slayer appeared
+by proxy and offered blood-money--that is to say, to pay a fine to the
+relations, and so patch up the quarrel.  But if they refused the money
+then they were at liberty to pursue and kill him.  There were no police
+then.  If the relations wanted to have the criminal punished they must
+punish him themselves.
+
+Upon this occasion the case was discussed in the court on the finger of
+rock between the two chasms, the people standing on the further sides of
+these gulfs, listening, but unable to come a step nearer; and Thorkel
+appeared for Grettir and offered to pay the blood-money.  The relations
+of the dead Skeggi, after a little fuss, agreed to accept a certain sum,
+and Thorkel at once paid it.  But the court ordered that, as Grettir had
+acted with undue violence, and as there was no evidence except his word
+that Skeggi had made the first attack, he should be outlawed, and leave
+Iceland for three winters.  If he set his foot in Iceland till three
+winters had passed, his life was forfeit.  He was allowed a moderate and
+reasonable time for finding a ship that would take him out of the
+country.
+
+When the assize was over all rode home, and the way that Thorkel and
+Grettir went was up the valley that had been half-choked with the lava
+that rolled down from Broad Shield.  They came to a small grassy plain
+with a gently-sloping hill rising out of it, a place where games took
+place, the women sitting up the slope and watching the men below. Here
+Grettir is said to have heaved an enormous stone.  The stone is still
+shown, and I have seen it. I also know that Grettir never lifted it; for
+it has clearly been brought there by a glacier.  But this is an instance
+of the way in which stories get magnified in telling.  No doubt that
+Grettir did "put" there some big stone, and as it happened that at this
+spot there was a great rock standing by itself balanced on one point, in
+after days folks concluded that this must have been the stone thrown by
+Grettir.
+
+
+
+
+                              *CHAPTER V.*
+
+                             *THE VOYAGE.*
+
+
+    _Preparations for a Voyage--His Grandfather's Sword--A Bitter
+    Jester--Vain Reproaches--Haflid's Stratagem--The Tables
+    Turned--Shipwrecked_
+
+
+Grettir, then, was doomed by the court to leave his native land whilst
+only a boy, and remain in banishment for three years--that is to say,
+till he was eighteen.  He was not over sorry for this, as he was tired
+of being at home, and he wanted to see the world.
+
+There was a man called Haflid who had a ship in which he intended to
+sail that autumn to Norway, and Asmund sent to him to ask him to take
+Grettir out with him.
+
+Haflid answered that he had not heard a good account of the boy, and did
+not particularly wish to have him in his boat; but he would stretch a
+point, because of the regard he had for old Asmund, and he would take
+him.
+
+Grettir got ready to start; but Asmund would not give him much wherewith
+to trade when abroad, except some rolls of home-made wadmall, a coarse
+felty cloth, and a stock of victuals for his voyage. Grettir asked his
+father to give him some weapon; but the old man answered that he did not
+trust him with swords and axes, he might put them to a bad use, and it
+would be better he went without till he had learned to control his
+temper and keep a check on his hand.
+
+So Grettir parted from his father without much love on either side; and
+it was noticed when he left home that, though there were plenty of folks
+ready to bid him farewell, hardly anyone said that he hoped to see him
+come home again--a certain token that he was not liked by those who had
+seen most of him.  But indeed he had taken no pains to oblige anyone and
+obtain the regard and love of anyone.
+
+His mother was an exception.  She went along the road down the valley
+with him, wearing a long cloak; and when they were alone, at some
+distance from the house, she halted and drew out a sword from under her
+cloak, and handing it to Grettir, said: "This sword belonged to
+grandfather, and many a hard fight has it been in, and much good work
+has it done.  I give it to you, and hope it may stand you in good
+stead."
+
+Grettir was highly pleased, and told his mother that he would rather
+have the sword than anything else that could be given him.
+
+Haflid received Grettir in a friendly manner, and he went at once on
+board; the ship's anchor was heaved, and forth they went to sea.
+
+Now, directly Grettir got on board he looked about for a place where he
+could be comfortable, and chose to make a berth for himself under a boat
+that was slung on deck; then he put up his wadmall, making a sort of
+felt lining or wall round against the wind and spray, leaving open only
+the side inwards, and inside he piled his provisions and whatever he
+had; then he lay down there and did not stir from his snuggery.  Now, it
+was the custom in those days for every man who went in a ship to help in
+the navigation; but Grettir would not only do nothing, but from his den
+he shouted or sang lampoons--that is, spiteful songs, making fun of
+every man on board.  They were not good-natured jokes, but bitter,
+stinging ones.
+
+Naturally enough the other men were annoyed, and they were not slow to
+tell Grettir what they thought of him.  He made no other reply than a
+lampoon.
+
+After the ship had lost sight of land a heavy sea was encountered, and
+unfortunately the vessel was rather leaky and hardly seaworthy in dirty
+weather. The weather was squally and very cold, so that the men suffered
+much.  Moreover, they had to bale out the water from the hold, and this
+was laborious work.  They had not pumps in those days.
+
+The gale increased, and the crew and passengers had been engaged for
+several days and nights in baling without intermission, but Grettir
+would not help.  He lay coiled up in his wadmall under the boat, peering
+out at the men and throwing irritating snatches of song at them.  This
+exasperated them to such an extent that they determined to take him and
+throw him overboard.  Haflid heard what they said, and he went to
+Grettir and reproached him, and told him what was menaced.
+
+"Let them try to use force if they will," said Grettir.  "All I can say
+is that I sha'n't go overboard alone as long as my sword will bite."
+
+"How can you behave as you do?" said Haflid. "Keep silence at least, and
+do not madden the men with your mockery and sneers."
+
+"I cannot hold my tongue from stabbing," said Grettir.
+
+"Very well, then, stab on, but stab me."
+
+"No; you have not hurt me."
+
+"I say, stab me.  Then, if the fellows hear you sing or say something
+spiteful of me, and I disregard it, they will not mind so much the
+ill-natured things you say of them."
+
+Grettir considered a moment, and then, remembering that he had heard of
+something ridiculous that had once occurred to Haflid, he composed a
+verse about it and shouted it derisively at Haflid as he walked away.
+
+"Just listen to him," said Haflid to the men. "Now he is slandering and
+insulting me.  He is an ill-conditioned cur, so ill-conditioned that I
+will not stoop to take notice of his insolence.  And if you take my
+advice you will disregard him as I do."
+
+"Well," said the men, "if you shrug your shoulders and pay no regard to
+his bark, why should we?"
+
+So Haflid, by his tact, smoothed over this difficulty, and averted a
+danger from Grettir's head.
+
+The weather slowly began to mend, and the sun shone out between the
+clouds; but the wind was still strong, and the leak gained on the ship,
+for her bottom was rotten.  Now that the sun shone, the poor women who
+had been aboard and under cover during the gale, crawled forth and came
+to the side where the boat was, and where was a little shelter, and
+there sat sewing; whilst Grettir still lay, like a dog in his hutch,
+within.  Then the men began to laugh, and say that Grettir had found
+suitable company at last--he was not a man among men, but a milksop
+among women.  This was turning the tables on him, and this roused him.
+Out he came crawling from his den, and ran aft to where the men were
+baling, and asked to be given the buckets.  The way in which it was done
+was for one to go down into the hold into the water, and fill a tub or
+cask and hoist it over his head to another man, who carried it up on
+deck and poured it over the bulwarks.  Grettir swung himself down into
+the hold, and filled and heaved so fast that there had to be two men set
+to carry up the baling casks, and then two more, four in all attending
+to him.  At one time he even kept eight going, so vigorously did he
+work;--but then he was fresh, and they exhausted.
+
+When the men saw what a strong, active fellow Grettir was, they praised
+him greatly, and Grettir, unaccustomed to praise, was delighted and
+worked on vigorously, and thenceforth was of the utmost assistance in
+the ship.
+
+They still had bad weather, thick mist, in which they drifted and lost
+their bearings, and one night unawares they ran suddenly on a rock, and
+the rotten bottom of the ship was crushed in.  They had the utmost
+difficulty in rescuing their goods and getting the boat ready; but
+fortunately they were able to put all the women and the loose goods into
+the boat, man her, and row off before the ship went to pieces.  They
+came to a sandy island, ran the boat ashore, and disembarked in the cold
+and wet and darkness.
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER VI.*
+
+                           *THE RED ROVERS.*
+
+
+    _Rescued from the Holm--The Sullen Guest--The Outlawed
+    Rovers--Yule-tide Gatherings--The Suspicious Craft--Grettir
+    Guides the Rovers--The Worst Ruffians in Norway--Grettir
+    Entertains the Band--A Crew of Revellers--When the Wine is
+    in--Thorfin's Treasures--Prisoners and Unarmed--Mad with Drink
+    and Fury--One Against Twelve--In Hot Pursuit--The Slaughter in
+    the Boat-shed--The Last of the Band--Wearied with
+    Slaying--Thorfin's Return--A Moment of Perplexity--Better than a
+    Dozen Men--The Gift of the Sword_
+
+
+One morning, after a night of storm on the coast of Norway, the servants
+ran into the hall of a wealthy bonder, named Thorfin, to tell him that
+during the night a ship had been wrecked off the coast, and that the
+crew and passengers were crowded on a little sandy holm, and were
+signalling for help.
+
+The bonder sprang up and ran down to the shore. He ordered out a great
+punt from his boat-house, and jumping in with his thralls, rowed to the
+holm to rescue those who were there.
+
+These were, I need not tell you, the crew and passengers of Haflid's
+merchant vessel.  Thorfin took the half-frozen wretches on board his
+boat and rowed them to his farm, after which he returned to the islet
+and brought away the wares.  In the meantime his good housewife had been
+lighting fires, preparing beds, brewing hot ale with honey to sweeten
+it, and making every preparation she could think of for the sufferers.
+
+Haflid and the rest of the merchants or chapmen who had sailed with him
+remained at the farm a week, whilst the women were recovering from the
+cold and exposure and their goods were being dried and sorted.  Then
+they departed, with many thanks for the hospitality shown them, on their
+way to Drontheim.
+
+Grettir, however, remained.  Thorfin, the master of the house, did not
+much like him.  He did not ask him to stay; but then he had not the lack
+of hospitality to bid him depart.  In the farm Grettir never offered to
+lend a hand in any of the work; he never joined in conversation, he sat
+over the fire warming himself, and ate and drank heartily.
+
+Thorfin was much abroad, hunting or seeing after the wood-cutting, and
+he often asked Grettir to come with him.  But he was granted no other
+answer than a shake of the head and a growl.  Now the bonder was a
+merry, kindly-hearted fellow, and he liked to have all about him
+cheerful.  It is no wonder, then, that Grettir, morose and indolent,
+found no favour with him.
+
+Yule drew near, and Thorfin busked him to depart, with a number of his
+attendants, to keep the festival at one of his farms distant a good
+day's journey. His wife was unable to accompany him, as his eldest
+daughter was ill and needed careful nursing.  Grettir he did not invite,
+as his sullenness would have acted as a damper on the joviality of the
+banquet.
+
+The farmer started for his house where he was going to spend Yule some
+days before.  A large company of guests were invited to meet him, so he
+took thirty serving-men to attend on him and them.
+
+Norway was at this time being brought into order by Earl Erik, who was
+putting down with a high hand the bands of rovers who had been the
+terror of the country.  He had outlawed all these men, and that meant
+that whoever killed them could not be fined or punished in any way for
+the slaying. Now Thorfin, the farmer with whom Grettir was staying, had
+been very active against these rovers, and they bore him a grudge.
+Among the worst of them were two brothers, Thorir wi' the Paunch and Bad
+Ogmund.  They had not yet been caught, and they defied the power of the
+Earl.  They robbed wherever they went, burned farms over the heads of
+the sleeping inmates, and with the points of their spears drove the
+shrieking victims back into the flames when they attempted to escape.
+
+Christmas Eve was bright and sunny, and the sick girl was sufficiently
+recovered to be brought out to take the air on the sunny side of the
+great hall, leaning on her mother's arm.
+
+Grettir spent the whole day out of doors, not in the most amiable mood
+at being shut out from the merry-makings, and left to keep house with
+the women and eight dunderheaded churls.  He fed his discontent by
+sitting on a headland watching the boats glide by, as parties went to
+convivial gatherings at the houses of their friends.  The deep blue sea
+was speckled with sails, as though gulls were plunging in the waters.
+Now a stately dragon-ship rolled past, her fearful carved head
+glittering with golden scales, her sails spread like wings before the
+breeze, and her banks of oars dipping into the sea and flashing as they
+rose.  Now a wherry was rowed by laden with cakes and ale, and the
+boatmen's song rang merrily through the crisp air.
+
+The day began to decline, and Grettir was on the point of returning to
+the farm, when the strange proceedings of a craft at no great distance
+attracted his attention.  He noticed that she stole along in the shadows
+of the islets, keeping out of sight as much as possible.  Grettir could
+make out of her just this much, that she was floating low in the water,
+and was built for speed.  As she stranded the rowers jumped on the
+beach.  Grettir counted them, and found they were twelve, all armed men.
+They burst into Thorfin's boat-house, thrust out his punt, and in its
+place drew in their own vessel, and pulled her up on the rollers.
+
+Mischief was a-brewing--that was clear.  So Grettir went down the hill,
+and sauntered up to the strangers, with his hands in his pockets,
+kicking the pebbles before him.
+
+"Who is your leader?" he asked curtly.
+
+"I am.  What do you want with me?" answered a stout coarse man--"Thorir,
+whom they nickname 'wi' the Paunch.'  Here is my brother Ogmund. I
+reckon that Thorfin knows our names well enough. Don't you think so,
+brother?  We have come here to settle a little outstanding reckoning.
+Is he at home?"
+
+"You are lucky fellows," laughed Grettir, "coming here in the very nick
+of time.  The bonder is away with all his able-bodied and fighting men,
+and won't be back for a couple of days.  His wife and daughter are,
+however, at the farm.  Now is your time if you have old scores to wipe
+off; for he has left all his things that he values unprotected, silver,
+clothing, ale, and food in abundance."
+
+Thorir listened, then turning to Ogmund he said, "This is as I had
+expected.  But what a chatterbox this fellow is, he lets out everything
+without being asked questions."
+
+"Every man knows the use of his tongue," said Grettir.  "Now, follow me,
+and I will do what I can for you."
+
+The rovers at once followed.  Then Grettir took fat Thorir by the hand
+and led him to the farm, talking all the way as hard as his tongue could
+wag. Now the housewife happened at the time to be in the hall, and
+hearing Grettir thus talking, she was filled with surprise, and called
+out to know whom he had with him.
+
+"I have brought you guests for Yule," said Grettir. "We shall not keep
+it in as dull a fashion as we feared.  Here come visitors uninvited, but
+merry, uncommon merry."
+
+"Who are they?" asked the housewife.
+
+"Thorir wi' the Paunch and Ogmund the Bad, and ten of their comrades."
+
+Then she cried out: "What have you done?  These are the worst ruffians
+in all Norway.  Is this the way you repay the kindness Thorfin has shown
+you in housing and keeping you here, without it's costing you anything?"
+
+"Stay your woman's tongue!" growled Grettir. "Now bestir yourself and
+bring out dry clothes for the guests."
+
+Then the housewife ran away crying, and her sick daughter, who saw the
+house invaded by ill-looking men all armed, hid herself.
+
+"Well," said Grettir, "as the women are too scared to attend on you, I
+will do what is necessary; so give me your wet clothes, and let me wipe
+your weapons and set them by the fire lest they get rusted."
+
+"You are a different fellow from all the rest in the house."
+
+"I do not belong to the house.  I am a stranger, an Icelander."
+
+"Then I don't mind taking you along with us when we go away."
+
+"As you will," answered the young fellow; "only mind, I don't behave
+like this to every one."
+
+Then the freebooters gave him their weapons, and he wiped the salt water
+from them, and laid them aside in a warm spot.  Next he removed their
+wet garments, and brought them dry suits which he routed out of the
+clothes-chests belonging to Thorfin and his men.
+
+By this time it was night.  Grettir brought in logs and faggots of fir
+branches, and made a roaring fire that filled the great hall with ruddy
+light and warmth.  In those days the halls were long buildings with a
+set of hearths running down the middle, and benches beside the fires.
+
+"Now, then, my men," said Grettir, "come to the table and drink, for I
+doubt not you are thirsty with long rowing."
+
+"We are ready," said they.  "But where are the cellars?"
+
+"Oh, if you please, I will bring you ale."
+
+"Certainly, you shall attend on us," said Thorir.
+
+Then Grettir went and fetched the best and strongest ale in Thorfin's
+cellars, and poured it out for the men.  They were very tired and
+thirsty, and they drank eagerly.  Grettir did not stint them in meat or
+drink, and at last he took his place by them, and recited many tales
+that made them laugh, he also sang them songs; but they were becoming
+fast too tipsy to rack their brains to find out the meaning in the
+poetry.
+
+Not one of the house-churls showed his face in the hall that evening;
+they slunk about the farm, in the stables and sheds, frightened and
+trembling.
+
+Then said Thorir: "I'll tell you what, my men. I like this young chap,
+and I doubt our finding another so handy and willing.  What say you all
+to our taking him into our band?"
+
+The pirates banged their drinking-horns on the table in token of
+approval.  Then Grettir stood up and said:
+
+"I thank you for the offer, and if you are in the same mind to-morrow
+morning when the ale is no longer in your heads, I will strike hands and
+go with you."
+
+"Let us drink brotherhood at once," shouted the rovers.
+
+"Not so," said Grettir calmly.  "I will not have it said that I took
+advantage of you when you were not sober.  It is said that when the wine
+is in the wit is out."
+
+They all protested that they would be of the same mind next morning, but
+Grettir stuck to his decision. They were now becoming so tipsy that he
+proposed they should go to bed.
+
+"But first of all," said he, "I think you will like to run your eyes
+over Thorfin's storehouse where he keeps all his treasures."
+
+"That we shall!" roared Thorir, staggering to his feet.
+
+Then Grettir took a blazing firebrand from the hearth, and led the way
+out of the hall into the night.
+
+The storehouse was detached from the main buildings.  It was very
+strongly built of massive logs, firmly mortised together.  The door also
+was very solid, and the whole stood on a strong stone basement, and a
+flight of stone steps led up to the door.  Adjoining the storehouse was
+a lean-to building divided off from it by a partition of planks.
+
+The sharp frosty air of night striking on the faces of the revellers
+increased their intoxication, and they became very riotous, staggering
+against each other, uttering howls and attempting to sing.
+
+Drawing back the bolt Grettir flung the door open, and showed the twelve
+rovers into the treasury; and he held the flaming torch above his head
+and showed the silver-mounted drinking-horns, the embroidered garments,
+the rich fur mantles, gold bracelets, and bags filled with silver coins
+obtained from England.  The drunken men dashed upon the spoil, knocking
+each other over and quarrelling for the goods they wanted.
+
+In the midst of this noise and tumult Grettir quietly extinguished the
+torch, stepped outside and ran the bolt into its place; he had shut them
+all--all twelve, into the strong-room, and not one of them had his
+weapons about him.
+
+Then Grettir ran to the farm door and shouted for the housewife.  But
+she would not answer, as she mistrusted him; and no wonder, for he had
+seemed to be hand and glove with the pirates.
+
+"Come, come!" shouted Grettir, "I have caught all twelve, and all I need
+now are weapons.  Call up the thralls and arm them.  Quick! not a moment
+must be lost."
+
+"There are plenty of weapons here," answered the poor woman, emerging
+from her place of concealment. "But, Grettir, I mistrust you."
+
+"Trust or no trust," said Grettir, "I must have weapons.  Where are the
+serving-men?  Here, Kolbein!  Swein!  Gamli!  Rolf!  Confound the
+rascals, where are they skulking?"
+
+"Over Thorfin's bed hangs a great barbed spear," said the housewife.
+"You will also find a sword and helmet and cuirass.  No lack of weapons,
+only pluck to wield them is needed."
+
+Grettir seized the casque and spear, girded on the sword and dashed into
+the yard, begging the woman to send the churls after him.  She called
+the eight men, and they came up timidly--that is to say, four appeared
+and took the weapons, but the other four, after showing their faces, ran
+and hid themselves again, they were afraid to measure swords with the
+terrible rovers.
+
+In the meantime the pirates had been trying the door, but it was too
+massive for them to break through, so they tore down the partitions of
+boards between the store and the lean-to room at the side. They were mad
+with drink and fury.  They broke down the door of the side-room easily
+enough, and came out on the platform at the head of the stone steps just
+as Grettir reached the bottom.
+
+Thorir and Ogmund were together.  In the fitful gleams of the moon they
+seemed like demons as they scrambled out, armed with splinters of deal
+they had broken from the planks and turned into weapons.  The brothers
+plunged down the narrow stairs with a howl that rang through the
+snow-clad forest for miles.  Grettir planted the boar-spear in the
+ground and caught Thorir on its point.  The sharp double-edged blade,
+three feet in length, sliced into him and came out between his
+shoulders, then tore into Ogmund's breast a span deep.  The yew shaft
+bent like a bow, and flipped from the ground the stone against which the
+butt-end had been planted. The wretched men crashed over the stair,
+tried to rise, staggered, and fell again.  Grettir trod on Thorir,
+wrenched the spear out of him, and then running up the steps cut down
+another rover as he came through the door.  Then the rest came out
+stumbling over each other, some armed with bits of broken stick, others
+unarmed, and as they came forth Grettir hewed at them with the sword, or
+thrust at them with the spear.
+
+In the meantime the churls had come up, armed indeed, but not knowing
+how to use the weapons, and in a condition of too great terror to use
+them to any purpose.  The pirates saw that they were being worsted, and
+their danger sobered them.  They went back into the room and ripped the
+planks till they had obtained serviceable pieces, and then came two
+together down the stair, warding off Grettir's blows with their sticks,
+and not attempting to strike. Then they forced him back and allowed
+space and time for those behind to leap down to the ground. If then they
+had combined they might have recovered the mastery, but they did not
+believe that they were assailed by a single enemy, they thought that
+there must have been many; consequently those who had leaped from the
+platform, instead of attacking Grettir from behind, ran away across the
+farmyard, and those who were warding off his blows, finding themselves
+unsupported, lost heart, and leaped down as well and attempted to
+escape. The yard was full of flying frightened wretches, too blinded by
+their fear to find the gate, and in the wildness of their terror they
+climbed or leaped over the yard wall and ran towards the boat-house.
+Grettir went after them.  They plunged into the dark boat-shed, and
+possessed themselves of the oars, whilst some tried to run their boat
+down into the water.  Grettir followed them in the gloom, smiting to
+right and left.  The bewildered wretches in the darkness hit each other,
+stumbled and fell in the boat, and some wounded went into the water.
+
+The thralls, content that the pirates had cleared out of the yard, did
+not trouble themselves to pursue them, but went into the farmhouse.  The
+good woman in vain urged them to go after and succour Grettir.  They
+thought they had done quite enough.  It is true, they had neither killed
+nor wounded anyone, but they had seen some men killed.  So Grettir got
+no help from them.  He was still in the boat-house, and he had this
+advantage: the boat-house was open to the air on the side that faced the
+sea, whilst the further side was closed with a door, consequently
+Grettir was himself in shadow. But the moon shone on the water, and he
+could see the black figures of the rovers cut sharply against this
+silver background.  So he could see where to strike, whilst he himself
+was unseen.
+
+One stroke from an oar reached him on the shoulder, and for the moment
+numbed his arm; but he speedily recovered sensation, and killed two more
+of the ruffians; then the remaining four made a dash together, past him,
+through the door, and separating into pairs, fled in opposite
+directions.  Grettir went after one of the couples and tracked them to a
+neighbouring farm, where they dashed into a granary and hid among the
+straw.  Unfortunately for them most of the wheat had been thrashed out,
+so that only a few bundles remained.  Grettir shut and bolted the door
+behind him, then chased the poor wretches like rats from corner to
+corner, till he had cut them both down.  Then he opened the door, and
+cast the corpses outside.
+
+In the meanwhile the weather was changing, the sky had become overcast
+with a thick snow fog that rolled up from the sea, so that Grettir, on
+coming out, saw that he must abandon the pursuit of the remaining two.
+Moreover, his arm pained him, his strength was failing him, and a sense
+of overpowering fatigue stole over him.
+
+The housewife had placed a lamp in a window of a loft as a guide to
+Grettir in the fog; the stupid house-thralls could not be induced by her
+to go out in search of him, and she was becoming uneasy at his
+protracted absence.  The fog turned into small snow, thick and blinding,
+and Grettir struggled through it with difficulty, as the weariness he
+felt became almost overpowering.  At last he reached the farm and
+staggered in through the door.  He could hardly speak.  He went to the
+table, took a horn of mead, drank some, and then threw himself down
+among the rushes on the floor by the fire, full armed grasping the
+sword, and in a moment was asleep.
+
+He did not wake for twelve hours; but the cautious and prudent housewife
+had sent out the carles in search of the pirates.  The dead bodies were
+found, some in the yard, some in the boat-house; then Grettir woke and
+came to them and pointed out in what direction the only remaining two
+had run.  The snow had fallen so thick that their traces could not be
+followed, but before nightfall they were discovered, dead, under a rock
+where they had taken refuge; they had died of cold and loss of blood.
+All the bodies were collected and a great cairn of stones was piled over
+them.
+
+When they had been buried, then the housewife made Grettir take the high
+seat in the hall, and she treated him with the utmost respect, as he
+deserved.
+
+Time passed, and Thorfin prepared to return home; he dismissed his
+guests, and he and his men got into their boat to return home.  No
+tidings had reached him of the events that had happened whilst he had
+been away.  The first thing he saw as he came rowing to his harbour was
+his punt lying stranded. This surprised and alarmed him, and he bade his
+men row harder.  They ran to the boat-house, and then saw it occupied by
+a vessel, on the rollers, which there was no mistaking; he knew it well,
+it belonged to those redoubted pirates Thorir and Ogmund.  For a moment
+he was silent with the terror and grief that came on him.  "The Red
+Rovers!" he said, when he recovered the stunning sense of alarm.  "The
+Red Rovers are here--they are on my farm.  God grant they have not hurt
+my wife and daughter!"
+
+Then he considered what was to be done, whether it was best to go at
+once to the farm, or to make a secret approach to it from different
+quarters, and surprise the enemy.
+
+Grettir was to blame.  He ought not to have allowed Thorfin to be thus
+thrown into uncertainty and distress.  He had seen the master's boat
+round the headland and enter the bay, but he would neither go himself to
+meet him on the strand, nor suffer anyone else to go.
+
+"I do not care even if the bonder be a bit disturbed at what he sees,"
+said the young man.
+
+"Then let me go," urged the wife.
+
+"You are mistress, do as you like," said Grettir bluntly.
+
+So the housewife and her daughter went down towards the boat-house, and
+when Thorfin saw them he ran to meet them, greatly relieved but much
+perplexed, and he clasped his wife to his heart and said, "God be
+praised that you and my child are safe!  But tell me how matters have
+stood whilst I have been away, for I cannot understand the boat being
+where I found it."
+
+"We have been in grievous peril," answered his wife.  "But the
+shipwrecked boy whom you sheltered has been our protector, better than a
+dozen men."
+
+Then he said, "Sit down on this rock by me and tell me all."
+
+They took each other by the hand and sat on a stone; and the attendants
+gathered round, and the housewife told them the whole story from
+beginning to end.  When she spoke of the way in which the young
+Icelander had led the tipsy rovers into the storehouse and fastened them
+in, without their swords, the men burst into a shout of joy; and when
+her tale was concluded, their exultant cries rang so loud that Grettir
+heard them in the farmhouse.
+
+Thorfin said nothing to interrupt the thread of his wife's story; and
+after she had done he remained silent, rapt in thought.  No one ventured
+to disturb him.  Presently he looked up, and said quietly, "That is a
+good proverb which says, 'Never despair of anyone.'  Now I must speak a
+word with Grettir."
+
+Thorfin walked with his wife to the farm, and when he saw Grettir he
+held out both his hands to him, and thanked him.
+
+"This I say to you," said Thorfin, "which few would say to their best of
+friends--that I hope some day you may need my help, and then I will
+prove to you how thankful I am for what you have done. I can say no
+more."
+
+Grettir thanked him, and spent the rest of the winter at his house.  The
+story of what he had done spread through all the country, and was much
+praised, especially by such as had suffered from the violence of the Ked
+Rovers.  But Thorfin made to Grettir a present, in acknowledgment of
+what he had done; and that present was the sword that had hung above his
+bed, with which Grettir had killed so many of the rovers.  Now,
+concerning this sword a tale has to be told.
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER VII.*
+
+                       *THE STORY OF THE SWORD.*
+
+    _The Light on the Cliff--The Grave of Karr the Old--The Visit to
+    the Ness--The Chamber of the Dead--The Shape on the Throne--In
+    the Dead Man's Arms--A Fearful Wrestle--The Dead Vanquished--The
+    Dragon's Treasure--The Tale of the Sword--The Two Swords of
+    Grettir_
+
+
+Some little while before the slaying of the Red Rovers, a strange event
+had taken place.
+
+Grettir had made the acquaintance of a man called Audun, who lived at a
+little farm at some distance from the house of Thorfin, and he walked
+over there occasionally to sit and talk with his friend.  As he returned
+late at night he noticed that a strange light used to dance at the end
+of a cliff that overhung the sea, at the end of a headland; a lonely
+desolate headland it was, without house or stall near it.  Grettir had
+never been there, and as it was so bare, he knew that no one lived on
+that headland, so he could not account for the light.  One day he said
+to Audun that he had seen this strange light, which was not steady but
+flickered; and he asked him what it meant.
+
+Audun at once became very grave, and after a moment's hesitation said,
+"You are right.  No one lives on that ness, but there is a great mound
+there, under which is buried Karr the Old, the forefather of your host
+Thorfin; and it is said that much treasure was buried with him.  That is
+why the ghostly light burns above the mound, for--you must know that
+flames dance over hidden treasure."
+
+"If treasure be hidden there, I will dig it up," said Grettir.
+
+"Attempt nothing of the kind," said Audun, "or Thorfin will be angry.
+Besides, Karr the Old is a dangerous fellow to have to deal with.  He
+walks at night, and haunts all that headland and has scared away the
+dwellers in the nearest farms.  No one dare live there because of him.
+That is why the Ness is all desolate without houses."
+
+"I will stay the night here," said Grettir, "and to-morrow we will go
+together to the Ness, and take spade and pick and a rope, and I will see
+what can be found."
+
+Audun did not relish the proposal, but he did not like to seem
+behindhand with Grettir, and he reluctantly agreed to go with him.
+
+So next day the two went out on the Ness together. They passed two
+ruined farmhouses, the buildings rotting, the roofs fallen in.  Those
+who had lived in them had been driven away by the dweller in the old
+burial mound, or barrow.  The Norse name for these sepulchral mounds is
+_Haug_, pronounced almost like How; and where in England we have places
+with the names ending in _hoe_, there undoubtedly in former times were
+such mounds.  Thus, in Essex are Langenhoe and Fingringhoe, that is to
+say the Long Barrow and Fingar's How.  Also, the Hoe, the great walk at
+Plymouth above the sea, derives its name from some old burial mound now
+long ago destroyed.
+
+The Ness was a finger of land running out into the sea, and on it grew
+no trees, only a little coarse grass; at the end rose a great circular
+bell-shaped mound, with a ring of stones set round it, to mark its
+circumference.  Grettir began to dig at the summit, and he worked hard.
+The day was short, and the sun was touching the sea as his pickaxe went
+through an oak plank, into a hollow space beneath, and he knew at once
+that he had struck into the chamber of the dead.  He worked with
+redoubled energy, and tore away the planks, leaving a black hole beneath
+of unknown depth, but which to his thinking could not be more than seven
+feet beneath him.  Then he called to Audun for the rope.  The end he
+fastened round his waist, and bade his friend secure the other end to a
+pole thrown across the pit mouth.  When this was done, Audun cautiously
+let Grettir down into the chamber of the dead.
+
+Now, you must know that in heathen times what was often done with old
+warriors was to draw up a boat on the shore, and to seat the dead man in
+the cabin, with his horse slain beside him, sometimes some of his slaves
+or thralls were also killed and put in with him, and his choicest
+treasures were heaped about him.  This men did because they thought that
+the dead man would want his weapons, his raiment, his ornaments, his
+horse and his servants in the spirit world.  Of late years such a mound
+has been opened in Norway, and a great ship found in it, well preserved,
+with the old dead chief's bones in it.  When a ship was not buried, then
+a chamber of strong planks was built, and he was put in that, and the
+earth heaped over him.  Into such a chamber had Grettir now dug.
+
+He soon reached the bottom, and was in darkness, only a little light
+came in from above, through the hole he had broken in the roof of the
+cabin or chamber.  His feet were among bones, and these he was quite
+sure were horse bones.  Then he groped about.
+
+As his eyes became more accustomed to the darkness, he discerned a
+figure seated in a throne.  It was the long-dead Karr the Old.  He was
+in full harness, with a helmet on his head with bull's horns sticking
+out, one on each side; his hands were on his knees, and his feet on a
+great chest.  Round his neck was a gold torque or necklet, made of bars
+of twisted gold, hooked together behind the head. Grettir in the dark
+could only just make out the glimmer of the gold, but it seemed to him
+that a phosphorescent light played about the face of the dead chief.
+
+So little light was left, that Grettir hasted to collect what he could.
+There stood a brazen vessel near the chair, in which were various
+articles, probably of worth, but it was too dark for Grettir to see what
+they were.  He brought the vessel to the rope and fastened the end of
+the cord to its handle.  Then he went back to the old dead man and drew
+away a short sword that lay on his lap, and this he placed in the brass
+vessel.  Next he began to unhook the gold torque from his neck, and as
+he did this the phosphorescent flame glared strangely about the dead
+man's face.
+
+Then, all at once, as both his hands were engaged undoing the hook
+behind Karr's neck, he was clipped. The dead man's arms had clutched
+him, and with a roar like a bull Karr the Old stood up, holding him
+fast, and now all the light that had played over his features gathered
+into and glared out of his eyes.
+
+When Audun heard the roar, he was so frightened that he ran from the
+barrow, and did not stay his feet till he reached home, feeling
+convinced that the ghost or whatever it was that lived in the tomb had
+torn Grettir to pieces.
+
+Then began in the chamber of the dead a fearful wrestle.  Grettir was at
+times nigh on smothered by the gray beard of the dead chief, that had
+been growing, growing, in the vault, ever since he had been buried.
+
+How long that terrible struggle continued no one can tell.  Grettir had
+to use his utmost force to stand against Karr the Old.  The two wrestled
+up and down in the chamber, kicking the horse bones about from side to
+side, stumbling over the coffer, and the brass vessel, and the horse's
+skull, striking against the sides, and when they did this then masses of
+earth and portions of broken plank fell in from above.
+
+At last Karr's feet gave way under him and he fell, and Grettir fell
+over him.  Then instantly he laid hold of his sword, and smote off Old
+Karr's head and laid it beside his thigh.
+
+This, according to Norse belief, was the only way in which to prevent a
+dead man from walking, who had haunted the neighbourhood of his tomb,
+and in the Icelandic sagas we hear of other cases where the same
+proceeding was gone through.  The Norsemen held to something more
+dreadful than ghosts walking; they thought that some evil spirit entered
+into the bodies of the dead, that when this happened the dead no longer
+decayed, but walked, and ate, and drank, and fought, very much like
+living ruffians, but with redoubled strength.  Then, when this happened,
+nothing was of any avail save the digging up of the dead man, cutting
+off his head and laying it at his thigh.
+
+When Grettir had done this, he despoiled Karr the Old of his helm, his
+breast-plate, his torque, and he took the box on which the feet had
+rested. He fastened all together to the rope, and called to Audun to
+haul up.  He received no answer, so he swarmed up himself, and finding
+that his friend had run away he pulled up what he had tied together, and
+carried the whole lot in his arms to the house of Thorfin.  Thorfin and
+his party were at supper; and when Grettir came in, the bonder looked
+up, and asked why he did not keep regular hours, and be at the table
+when the meal began.  Grettir made no other answer than to throw all he
+carried down on the supper-table before the master.  Thorfin raised his
+eyebrows when he saw so much treasure.
+
+"Where did you get all this?" he asked.
+
+Then Grettir answered in one of his enigmatical songs:
+
+    "Thou who dost the wave-shine shorten,
+      My attempt has been to find
+    In the barrow what was hidden,
+      Deep in darkness black and blind.
+    Nothing of the dragon's treasure
+      With the dead is left behind."
+
+
+By the wave-shine shortener he meant Thorfin; the dragon's treasure
+meant gold, because dragons were thought to line their lairs with that
+metal.
+
+Thorfin saw that Grettir's eye looked longingly at the short sword that
+had lain on the knees of Karr. He said: "It was a heathen custom in old
+times to bury very much that was precious along with the dead.  I do not
+blame you for what you have done; but this I will say, that there is no
+one else about this place who would have ventured to attempt what you
+have done.  As for that sword on which you cast your eyes so longingly,
+it has ever been in our family, and I cannot part with it till you have
+shown that you are worthy to wear it."
+
+Then that sword was hung up over Thorfin's bed. You have heard how
+Grettir did show that he was worthy to wear it, and also how Thorfin
+gave it him.
+
+Now, this tale about the sword will very well illustrate what was said
+at the beginning, that the history of Grettir contains, in the main,
+truth; but that this substance of truth has been embroidered over by
+fancy.  What is true is, that during the winter in which he was with
+Thorfin he did dig into the mound in which Karr was buried, and did take
+thence his treasures and his sword.  But all the story of his fight with
+the dead man was added. The same story occurs in a good many other
+sagas, as in that of Hromund Greip's son, who also got a sword by
+digging into a barrow for it.  When the history of Grettir was told, and
+this adventure of his was related, those who told the story imported
+into it the legend of the fight of Hromund in the grave with the dead
+man, so as to make the history of Grettir more amusing.  As you will see
+by the tale, no one else was present when it happened, for Audun had run
+away, and it was not like Grettir to boast of what he had done.  This
+was an embellishment added by the story-teller, and from the storyteller
+the incident passed into the volume of the story-writer.
+
+Grettir had now two good swords; one long, which he called Jokull's
+Gift, that he had received from his mother, and this short one that he
+wore at his girdle, which he had taken out of the grave of Karr the Old,
+and which he had won fairly by his bravery in the defence of the house
+and family of Thorfin.
+
+
+
+
+                            *CHAPTER VIII.*
+
+                             *OF THE BEAR.*
+
+
+    _Grettir goes North--Biorn the Braggart--The Bear's Den--Biorn's
+    Feat--A Hunting Party--The Lost Cloak--Grettir Seeks the Bear
+    Alone--Grettir's Hardest Tussle--The Fall Over the
+    Cliff--Thorgils Acts as Peacemaker--Grettir Restrains Himself_
+
+
+When spring came, then Grettir left his friend Thorfin, and went north
+along the Norwegian coast, and was everywhere well received, because the
+story of how he had killed twelve rovers, he being as yet but a boy, was
+noised through all the country, and every one who had anything to lose
+felt safer because that wicked gang was broken up. Nothing of
+consequence is told about him during that summer.  For the winter he did
+not return to Thorfin as asked, but accepted the invitation of another
+bonder, named Thorgils.
+
+Thorgils was a merry, pleasant man, and he had a great company in his
+house that winter.  Among his visitors was a certain Biorn, a distant
+cousin, a man whom Thorgils did not like, as he was a slanderous-tongued
+fellow, and moreover he was a braggart.  He was one of those persons we
+meet with not infrequently who cannot endure to hear another praised;
+who, the moment a good word is spoken of someone, immediately puts in a
+nasty, spiteful word, and tells an unkind story, so as to drag that
+person down in the general opinion.  At the same time, concerning
+himself he had only praiseworthy and wonderful feats to relate about his
+wit, his wisdom, his craft, his knowledge of the world, about his
+strength and courage.
+
+Thorgils knew how much, or rather how little, to believe of what Biorn
+said, and he did not pay much regard to his talk.  But now Grettir had
+an opportunity of seeing and of feeling how mistaken had been his
+conduct on board the ship upon which he had come to Norway, when he made
+lampoons on the sailors and chapmen, and stung them with sharp words.
+He saw how disagreeable a fellow Biorn was, how much he was disliked,
+and by some despised; and he kept very greatly to himself and out of
+Biorn's way.  He did not wish to quarrel with him, because he was the
+relative of his host, and he was afraid that his anger would get the
+better of him if he did come to words with the braggart.
+
+Grettir had grown a great deal since he left Iceland, and he was now a
+strapping fellow, broad built but not short.  He was not handsome, but
+his face was intelligent.
+
+It fell out that a bear gave much trouble that winter to Thorgils and
+the neighbouring farmers. It was so strong and so daring that no folds
+were secure against it, and Thorgils and the other farmers endured
+severe losses through the depredations of Bruin.
+
+Before Yule, a party was formed to go in search of and kill the bear,
+but all that was done was to find the lair.
+
+The bear had taken up his abode in the face of a tremendous cliff that
+overhung the sea.  There was but one path up to the cave, and that was
+so narrow that only one man could creep along it at a time. Moreover, if
+his foot slipped he would be flung over the edge upon the rocks or
+skerries below against which the waves dashed.
+
+"When the den of the bear had been discovered," Biorn said, "That is the
+main thing.  Now I know where the rogue lies, I'll settle with him,
+trust me. I've been the death of scores of bears.  My only dread is lest
+he be afraid of me, and will not come on."
+
+And, actually, Biorn went out on several moonlit nights to watch for the
+bear.  He saw that the only way to deal with him would be to stop the
+track from the den, and fight him as he attempted to come away.  He took
+his short sword and great shield with him covered with ox-hide, and one
+night he laid himself down on the path of the bear, and put his shield
+over him.  He thought that Bruin would come smelling at the great
+hide-covered shield, and then all at once he (Biorn) would spring up and
+drive his sword into the heart of the bear. That was his plan--and not a
+bad plan--only, unfortunately for Biorn, the bear did not come out for a
+long time.  He had got an inkling that a man was watching for him, so he
+was shy, and whilst he waited before venturing forth, Biorn, who had
+been drinking pretty freely that evening, went to sleep.
+
+Presently the bear came out, crept cautiously down the narrow track,
+snuffing about, and when he came to Biorn, he plucked with his claws at
+the shield, and with one wrench had it off and tumbled it down the
+cliff.
+
+Biorn woke with a start, rose to his knees, saw the huge bear before
+him, and in a moment turned tail, and ran as hard as he could run to
+Thorgils' house, and was too scared to be able to boast that he had
+killed or wounded the bear.
+
+Next morning his shield was found where the bear had thrown it, and much
+fun did this adventure of the braggart occasion.  This made him very
+irritable and more spiteful than ever.
+
+Thorgils now said that really something must be done to rid the
+neighbourhood of the bear, so a party of eight set out well armed with
+spears; of this party were Biorn and Grettir.  They reached the point
+where the track to the den ran up the cliff to the lair, and one man
+after another tried it.  But there was no getting at the bear; for as
+soon as a man came near the beast put his great forepaws forth and
+caught and snapped the spear-heads or beat them down.  As already said,
+only one could crawl up at a time.
+
+Grettir had gone out that day in a fur coat that his friend Thorfin had
+given him, and which he greatly valued.  When the onslaught against the
+bear began, he took off his fur coat, and folded it, and put it on a
+stone.  Biorn saw this, and, when none observed, he took the fur coat
+and threw it into the cave of the bear.  Grettir did not see what had
+been done till the party, disappointed with their want of success, made
+ready to depart, when he missed it, and then some suspicion entered his
+head as to what had been done with it, and by whom, but he said nothing.
+
+As they walked home, Biorn began to taunt Grettir with having done
+nothing all day.  He could kill robbers who were unarmed and were drunk,
+perhaps asleep, but a bear was too serious an adversary for him.
+
+Grettir said nothing, but as his gaiter thong became broken, he stopped
+and stooped to mend it. Thorgils asked if they should wait for him.
+Grettir declined.
+
+"Oh," said Biorn, "it is all nonsense.  It is a pretence.  He means to
+have all the glory of fighting the bear alone when we have gone on."
+
+He said the truth, but he had no idea when he spoke that it was the
+truth.
+
+Grettir tarried till the party had crossed a hill and was out of sight,
+then he turned and went back to the bear's den.  He slipped his hand
+through the loop at the end of the handle of his short sword that he had
+taken from the grave of Karr the Old, and let it hang on his wrist, but
+he held the long sword, Jokull's gift, by the pommel.  His plan was to
+use the long sword if needed, but if the bear came to close quarters he
+would throw it down and grasp the short one without having to put his
+hand to his girdle for it.  Very cautiously he crept along the path.
+Bruin saw him, and was now angry and hungry, and came down to meet him.
+The bear was somewhat above him; Grettir halted, and the bear stood up
+growling on his hind-legs.
+
+At once the long sword was whirled and fell on the right wrist above the
+paw, and cut it off.  The bear immediately fell down on all-fours; but
+the amputated paw was on the side away from the wall of rock, and when
+he went down on the stump he was overbalanced, and came down with his
+whole weight on Grettir.
+
+Grettir let fall his long sword at once, and with both hands grasped the
+brute's ears, and held his head off lest he should get a bite at him.
+Grettir, in after years, was wont to say that this was the hardest
+tussle he had in his life--it was even worse than anything he had to do
+with the rovers.  For if the beast had but been able to nip him on the
+breast, or shoulder, or face with his great fangs, all would have been
+up with him.  Moreover, the ears were so smooth that he had to do his
+utmost not to let them slip.  Grettir had the wit to drag back the
+brute's head to the rock, and by so doing the bear could not use his
+only uninjured fore-leg, armed with terrible claws, which would have
+ripped Grettir's clothes and flesh.
+
+In the struggle the two went over the edge, and for a moment Grettir
+thought, as they spun in the air, that he was lost.  But the bear was
+heavier than the lad, consequently he fell crash on the rocks at the
+bottom first, and Grettir on him, breaking Grettir's fall by his great
+body.  The bear's back was broken.
+
+Then Grettir got up, shook himself, left the bear, went up the path and
+found his fur coat torn to tatters, and he put it about him, recovered
+also his long sword, and took the cut-off paw of the bear.
+
+He now went back to Thorgils' house, and when he came into the hall
+where the fires were blazing, every one laughed to see him in his
+tattered coat; but when he gave the paw of the bear to Thorgils the
+general merriment exchanged to surprise.  Biorn, however, could not
+contain himself for vexation, and launched forth some coarse jest that
+made Grettir's blood tingle in his veins.
+
+"Do not listen to him," said Thorgils.  "You are a brave fellow, and
+there are not many your like."  Then turning to Biorn, he said,
+"Kinsman, I advise and warn you to keep a civil tongue in your head, or
+you will come to rue it, and have to be taught better manners."
+
+"Oh, if I am to learn manners from Grettir, that is sending me to a cub
+indeed!"
+
+"I want to know," said Grettir, "whether you threw my fur coat into the
+den?"
+
+"I am not afraid of saying that I did."
+
+"Will you give me another in its place?"
+
+"I have not the smallest intention of doing charity to beggars."
+
+The braggart knew that Grettir was restraining himself because he did
+not wish to quarrel with his host's kinsman, and he took advantage of
+his knowledge.  But Thorgils was greatly distressed and ashamed, and he
+said to Grettir:
+
+"Pay no attention to his words.  He has insulted you, and I will pay you
+a fine in compensation for his insult, that it may be buried and
+forgotten."
+
+That was customary then.  When one had hurt another in body or in honour
+by blow or foul word, he was bound to pay a sum of money; if he did not
+then the man injured was required by the laws of honour to revenge the
+injury.
+
+But when Biorn heard this proposal, he shouted out that he would not
+suffer the matter to be so compromised; he was not ashamed of his words.
+Thorgils drew Grettir aside, and said to him that his kinsman was a
+badly-behaved, brutal fellow, but that he hoped Grettir would not take
+up the quarrel in his house; and Grettir promised him solemnly that he
+would not attempt to take revenge for the rudeness of Biorn so long as
+they were both inmates of his house.
+
+"As for what may happen between you later," said Thorgils, "I wash my
+hands of responsibility. If Biorn is offensive to those who have never
+hurt him, he must take the consequences."
+
+So matters remained; only that Biorn, presuming on his position, became
+daily more arrogant, intolerable, and abusive, so that Grettir had to
+exercise daily self-restraint to keep his hands off him.  And glad he
+was when spring came, that he might get away to another part of Norway.
+
+As for Biorn, he went in the summer to England in a ship that belonged
+to Thorgils, trading there for Thorgils and for himself.  Consequently,
+all that summer he and Grettir did not meet.
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER IX.*
+
+                        *THE SLAYING OF BIORN.*
+
+
+    _The Meeting on the Island--Biorn's Death--Thorfin Comes to
+    Grettir's Aid--Grettir's Life in Danger--Hiarandi's Revenge--A
+    Doomed Man_
+
+
+Grettir left Thorgils very good friends, and he went with some merchants
+to the north, but when the summer was over he came back south, and
+arrived at a little island in the entrance of the Drontheim firth.  His
+intention was to see Earl Sweyn, and perhaps take service under him; but
+if so, things fell out other than he had reckoned.  For, as he was in
+this island, there came in a large merchant vessel from England, and
+Grettir and those with him at once went to see the shipmen, and among
+them was Biorn.  The ship was, in fact, that of Thorgils, and it was
+laden with commodities bought in England, or obtained by exchange for
+the wool, and furs, and women's embroidery sent out in the spring by
+Thorgils.
+
+Directly Biorn saw Grettir he turned red, and pretended not to recognize
+him; but Grettir went to him at once and said:
+
+"Now has come the time when we two can settle our differences."
+
+"Oh," said Biorn, "that is soon done.  I don't object to paying a
+trifle."
+
+"The time for paying is over," said Grettir. "Thorgils offered an
+indemnity for your insolence, and you refused to consent to it."
+
+Then Biorn saw that there was no help for him but that he must fight.
+So he girded him for the conflict, and he and Grettir went down on the
+sand, and they fought.
+
+The fight did not last long.  Grettir's sword cut him that he fell and
+died.
+
+When the news reached Thorgils, he got ready, and came by boat as fast
+as he could to see the earl at Drontheim.  He found the earl very angry,
+but he said to him:
+
+"I am a kinsman of the fallen man, and I know that he treated Grettir
+with intolerable insolence, and that he refused every compromise.  Then
+remember what a benefit has been done to the country by Grettir, who
+ridded it of the Red Rovers, Thorir wi' the Paunch and Ogmund the Bad."
+
+Thorfin also came to Drontheim when he heard of the straits into which
+Grettir had come through killing Biorn.  The earl called a council on
+the matter, and said he would not come to a decision till he had heard
+what Biorn's brother Hiarandi had to say on the matter.  Hiarandi was a
+violent man, and he was very wroth.  He would hear of no patching up of
+the matter, and he vowed he would not, as he expressed it, "bring his
+brother into his purse."  As already said, it was customary when a man
+had been killed to offer a sum of money to the next of kin, and if he
+accepted the money the quarrel was at an end.  When we now speak of
+"pocketing an injury," reference is made to this same ancient usage, by
+which every offence was estimated at so much money, and if the wronged
+man took money for the offence committed against him, he was said _to
+pocket it_.  When the earl went into the matter, and heard how Grettir
+had been wronged and outraged by Biorn, he gave his decision that
+Grettir had not acted contrary to law, and that Biorn had justly
+forfeited his life.  Thorfin offered the sum of money which the earl
+considered was sufficient to atone to the relations for the death of
+Biorn, but Hiarandi refused absolutely to touch it.
+
+Then Thorfin knew that Grettir's life was in danger, for Hiarandi would
+certainly try to take it; so he begged his kinsman Arinbiorn to go about
+with Grettir, and keep on the look-out against the mischief that
+threatened.
+
+Now it fell out one day that Grettir and Arinbiorn were walking down a
+street in Drontheim when their way led before a narrow lane opening into
+it.  They did not see any danger in the way, and were unaware of this
+lane.  But just as they had passed it a man jumped out from behind, in
+the shadow, swinging an axe, and he struck at Grettir between the
+shoulder-blades.  Fortunately, Arinbiorn had looked round at the lane,
+and he saw the man leap out, so he suddenly dragged Grettir forward with
+such a jerk that Grettir fell on his knee. This saved his life, for the
+axe came on his shoulder-blade, made a gash that cut to his armpit, and
+then the axe buried itself in the roadway.  Instantly Grettir started to
+his feet, turned round, and with his short sword smote in the very nick
+of time as the man, who was Hiarandi, was pulling up his axe to cut at
+Grettir again.  Grettir's sword fell on his upper arm near the shoulder,
+and cut it off.  Then out rushed some servants of Hiarandi on Arinbiorn
+and Grettir, who set their backs against a house-wall and defended
+themselves with such valour that they killed or put to flight all who
+had assailed them.
+
+Now, this had been a base and cowardly attempt on the life of Grettir,
+and Hiarandi richly deserved his fate.  But the earl was exceedingly
+angry when he heard the news, and he called a council together. Thorfin
+and Grettir attended, and the earl angrily charged Grettir with having
+committed great violence, and being the cause of the death of Hiarandi
+and some of his servants.
+
+Grettir acknowledged this; but showed his wound, and stated how he had
+been attacked from behind; how his life had been saved by the
+promptitude of Arinbiorn, and how he had but defended himself against
+enemies who sought his life.
+
+"I wish you had been killed," said the earl, "and then there would have
+been an end to these disorders."
+
+"You would not have a man not raise his hands to save his head?" said
+Grettir.
+
+"I see one thing," exclaimed the earl.  "Ill luck attends you, and you
+are doomed to commit violences wherever you are."
+
+The end of it was that Earl Sweyn said he would not have Grettir to live
+in Norway any longer, lest he should be the cause of fresh troubles.
+But he remained over the third winter, and next spring sailed for
+Iceland, the time of his outlawing being ended.
+
+
+
+
+                              *CHAPTER X.*
+
+                         *OF GRETTIR'S RETURN.*
+
+
+    _Iceland Once More--Life's Bitter Lessons--Grettir Pays Audun a
+    Visit--Some Icelandic Terms--Byres and Sels--A Chief's Hall--The
+    Return of Audun--Grettir's Second Wrestle with Audun--Bard
+    Interposes--The Cousins Reconciled_
+
+
+When Grettir came back to Biarg, he found his father so old and infirm
+as to be no more able to stir abroad, and Atli managed the farm for him
+along with Illugi, Grettir's youngest brother, now grown up to be a big
+boy.  Grettir was now aged eighteen, but he looked and was a man.
+Illugi was about fifteen, a gentle, pleasant boy.  He and the kindly,
+careful Atli were as unlike Grettir as well could be; they avoided
+quarrels, they had a civil word for every one, and took pains to make
+themselves agreeable, whether to guests in their house, or when staying
+anywhere, to their hosts. Grettir never troubled himself to be courteous
+or to be obliging to anyone.  Now that he was back from Norway he was
+rather disposed to think much of himself as a man more brave and
+audacious than his fellows, for, had he not killed twelve rovers, broken
+into a barrow, slain a bear, and been the death of one man in a duel,
+and another who had attempted to assassinate him?  Atli did not much
+like his manner, and cautioned him not to be overbearing whilst at home,
+lest he should involve himself in fresh troubles.  But words were wasted
+on Grettir.  He was not the fellow to listen to advice, but one of those
+men who must learn the bitter lessons of life by personal experience.
+It is so with men always.  Some, who are thoughtful, see what God's law
+is which is impressed on all society, and listen to what others have
+found out as the lessons taught them by their lives, so they are able to
+go out equipped against the trials and difficulties of life.  But others
+will neither look nor listen, and such have to go through every sort of
+adversity, till they have learned the great truths of social life, and
+perhaps they only acquire them when it is too late to put them in
+practice.
+
+It is with laws and courtesies of life as with the three R's.  A man
+will fare badly who cannot read, write, and cipher.  If he learns these
+accomplishments as a child, he does well; he is furnished for the
+struggle of life, and starts on the same footing as other men; but if as
+a child he is morose and indifferent, and refuses to learn, then all
+through his life he is met with difficulties, owing to his ignorance,
+and he finds that he must learn to read, write, and do sums; and he has
+to acquire these in after years with much less ease than he might have
+learnt as a child, and after he has lost many chances of getting on
+which might have been seized, had he known these things before.
+
+Grettir's temper on his return may be judged by one incident that
+happened almost directly.  He had not forgotten his struggle on the ice
+with his cousin Audun, and he was resolved to have another trial of
+strength with him.  So he had not been home many days before he rode
+over the hill to Audunstead in his best harness, and with a beautiful
+saddle on his horse that had been given him by Thorfin.  The time was
+that of hay, and he saw the field round Audun's farm full of rich grass,
+ready to be cut.  He took the bridle off his horse and turned it into
+Audun's meadow.  This was not out of thoughtlessness, but out of
+insolence, and was intended to exasperate Audun.  In Iceland grass grows
+very little, and only fit to be cut for hay round the farms in what is
+called the _tun_, where it is richly dressed with stable-dung.
+Consequently hay is very scarce and very precious.  The grass never
+grows much longer than one's fingers, and so even in the tun it is not
+plentiful.  He knocked at the door of the farm and asked for his cousin,
+and was told that Audun had gone to the highland _sel_ to fetch curds,
+and would be back later.  The _sel_ was a farm on the highland, only
+occupied in summer, when the cattle were driven to the moors and hills
+to feed on the grass there, and to save that in the lowlands against
+winter.
+
+Here a word or two must be said about Icelandic names of places and
+people.  When Iceland was colonized, those who first settled in the land
+and built farms, called the places after their own names in a great many
+cases; they called them so-and-so's _stead_, or so-and-so's _by_ or
+farm.  A _by_ is the Scotch byre, and in Icelandic is _boer_, pronounced
+exactly like the Scotch word.  Wherever, in the north and east of
+England, Norse settlers came, there we find names of places ending in
+the same way, and we know that these were farms and dwellings of old
+Norse settlers.  Thus in Northumberland, Yorkshire, and Lincolnshire,
+are plenty of Norse place-names. Near Thirsk is Thirkelby or
+Thorkel's-byre, near Ripon is Enderby or Andrew's-byre.  Not only so,
+but where there are high hills there we find also _sels_, that is
+summer-farms, like the Alps to which the cattle are driven in
+Switzerland.  Next as to the names of people.  What is a little puzzling
+to remember is the number of persons whose names begin with Thor.  Thor,
+the god of thunder, was regarded with the highest reverence by the
+Icelanders; they thought of him even more than they did of Odin, the
+chief god of all, who had one eye, and his one fiery eye was the sun.
+Thor was called the Redbeard, and the aurora borealis was thought to be
+his waving red-beard in the sky.  The thunderbolt they regarded as his
+hammer.  To show their respect for him, children were named after him:
+Thor-grim means Thor's wrath; Thor-kel, Thor's kettle, in which the
+sacrificial meat was cooked in offering to Thor; Thor-gil was Thor's boy
+or servant; Thor-hall was Thor's flint spear-head, and so on.  The
+Northumbrian king, St. Osmund, takes his name from the Hand of God, and
+the name is the same as Asmund, the father of Grettir.  Oswald means the
+elect of the god; in Icelandic the name would be Aswald.
+
+When Grettir found that Audun was from home, he went into the hall and
+lay down on the bench nearest the door.  The hall was dark.
+
+The halls of the Icelandic chiefs were like bodies of churches, and were
+divided into a nave with side aisles; and were lighted by windows in a
+clere-story that were covered with the skin of the lining of a sheep's
+stomach, to let in light and keep out cold, because they had no glass.
+In the side aisles were the beds of those who lived in the house, some
+with doors and shutters, which could be fastened from within; and a man
+in danger of his life would so sleep.  He would go to bed, and then
+close himself in and lock the shutters, that no one could get at him
+when he was asleep.  The fires and benches and tables were in the nave,
+or middle of the great hall.  Over the partitions for the beds were hung
+shields and swords and spears, and on grand occasions hangings were put
+up all along the sides, hiding the beds and berths in the side aisles.
+The arrangement in an Icelandic house at the present day is much the
+same, only on a very much reduced scale.  The people live and eat and
+sleep in the same room, like the saloon-cabin of a ship, with the berths
+round the walls.
+
+Audun arrived in the afternoon with a horse that carried curds in skins
+on its back; that is to say, skins were made into bottles, as is still
+common in Palestine.  When he saw that a horse with a saddle on it was
+wandering about in his meadow, trampling down the grass and eating it,
+he was very vexed; and throwing one bottle of curd over his back, and
+hanging another in front on his breast to counterbalance it, he ran into
+the house to ask who had done this.
+
+The hall was dusky, and Audun's eyes were accustomed to the bright
+summer-light.  As he entered Grettir put out his foot; Audun did not see
+it, and stumbled over it, fell on the skin of curds and burst it.  Then
+he jumped up, very angry, and asked who had played him this scurvy
+trick.  Grettir named himself, and said he had come over about that
+matter of the wrestle on the ice.  Audun, still very irate, all at once
+stooped, picked up the burst skin, and dashed it in Grettir's face,
+smothering him with curds.  Then he threw down the other curd-bottle,
+and began to wrestle with Grettir.  They swung up and down the hall,
+kicking over the benches, now upon the floor, then on the stone-paved
+fire-hearth in the midst; then they crashed against the walls and
+pillars of the bed-chambers, and as they did so the shields and weapons
+hung over them clashed like bells.  Some frightened servant-maids came
+in, and ran out again in alarm, calling for aid.
+
+Audun felt now that Grettir had outgrown him in strength, but he would
+not give in; then they slipped on the curd and both fell, parted for a
+moment, rose, and flew at each other once more. Again, up and down,
+banging, stumbling, writhing in each other's arms, twisting legs round
+each other, to try to trip each other up, and ever Grettir bearing Audun
+backwards, but never wholly mastering him.  Audun could not trust his
+cousin, for though they were akin, and though he had not really done him
+an injury, there was no telling to what a pitch Grettir's blood might
+mount and blind him; so as they wrestled, Audun took care to twist the
+short sword out of Grettir's belt and throw it away.  As, to do this, he
+had to disengage his hand from Grettir's shoulder, he lost an advantage.
+Grettir managed to trip him, and throw him flat on his back.
+
+At that moment, fortunately, a man, big, wearing a red kirtle, and in
+full harness, entered the hall and asked what was the meaning of the
+noise and fight? As he did not receive an immediate answer, he came to
+the rescue of Audun, and drew Grettir from him.
+
+"We are only in play with each other," said Grettir.
+
+"Rather rough play," said the man, "and likely to end in tears rather
+than laughter."
+
+"Who are you that interfere?" asked Grettir.
+
+"My name is Bard."
+
+Then Audun scrambled to his feet.
+
+"What is the reason of this rough play?" asked Bard.
+
+Then Grettir answered, by singing:
+
+    "Prithee, Audun, will you say
+    How, upon the ice one day,
+    You to throttle did essay?
+    Now, for that I this have done,
+    On Audun honour I have won;
+    Curds and wrestle make good fun."
+
+
+"Oh, I see," said Bard; "fighting out an old grudge.  I have nothing to
+say against that.  Now, shake hands, and be loving cousins again."
+
+Audun held out his hand, and Grettir agreed to let the matter end thus.
+But he was dissatisfied, and ever after bore Bard a grudge.  However, he
+never again wrestled with Audun, and remained on good terms with him.
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER XI.*
+
+                           *THE HORSE-FIGHT.*
+
+
+    _Atli's Roan--The Coming Fight--Unfair Play--Grettir
+    Retaliation--Smouldering Fire_
+
+
+One of the rude and cruel sports that amused the Icelanders in summer
+time was horse-fighting. A smooth piece of turf was chosen, and was
+staked round.  Into this inclosure two or sometimes more horses were
+introduced, and a man attended each, who urged on his own horse, armed
+with a goad. By means of these goads the horses were stung to madness,
+and attacked each other, biting each other savagely.  Now, Atli had a
+beautiful roan, with a black mane, which he and his old father were very
+proud of.  Lower down the valley, near the sea, was a farm called Mais,
+in which lived a bonder named Kormak, and his brother; they had in their
+house a man called Odd the Foundling, a sly, captious fellow, who, like
+Grettir, made verses; but his verses were not generally thought to be so
+good as those of Grettir.  On the opposite side of the river is a
+hot-spring; it is still hot, but not so hot as it was in those days,
+when it boiled up and poured forth a cloud of steam, and ran in a
+scalding rill down to the river.  There was a convenient level place
+near the river for a horse-fight, and it stood above the water on one
+side rather steeply, so that it needed only fencing on three sides.
+Kormak had a brown horse that fought well, and it was resolved that
+autumn to have a fight between the horse of Kormak and the roan of Atli.
+Odd was to goad on Kormak's brown, and Grettir offered himself to his
+brother to run with the roan.  Atli did not much like the proposal, as
+he feared Grettir's temper; but he could not well decline his offer, so
+he said, "I will consent, brother; only I pray you, be peaceable, for we
+have to do with overbearing men, and it will be very unfortunate if a
+broil should come of this."
+
+"If they begin, I shall not run away," said Grettir.
+
+"Not if they begin; but be very careful not to provoke a quarrel."
+
+"Quarrels come and are not made," said Grettir.
+
+"That I do not hold," answered Atli.
+
+The day of the horse-fight arrived, and the horses were led to the place
+of contest.  They had been fed up and groomed for the occasion, and each
+had a band round his middle of colour, by which he who went with the
+horse could hold, and the goad of each was tied with a tuft of feathers
+at the head, stained the same colour as the belt about the horse.
+
+The two horses were introduced within the inclosure, and were soon
+goaded into anger, and began to plunge, and snort, and snap at each
+other.  The by-standers outside the railing cheered and shouted, and the
+horses seemed to understand that they were to do their best; so they
+pranced about each other, struck at each other, and tried to get round
+each other so as to bite the flank.  At one moment the roan bit the side
+of the brown, and held.  Odd ran his goad into the horse of Grettir to
+make it let go;--this was against the rules; he did it to save his own
+horse from a terrible wound.  Grettir saw what he did, but he said
+nothing.  Now the horses bore towards the river, and were rearing and
+plunging close to the edge, and the two men had much ado to hold on.
+Then Odd took the opportunity when Grettir's back was turned to drive at
+him with his goad between the shoulders, where was the great scar still
+red, and only just fully healed, that he had received from the axe of
+Hiarandi.  It was a cruel blow, and this also was against all rule of
+fair play.
+
+At that moment the roan reared, and instantly Grettir ran under him, and
+struck Odd with such a blow that he reeled back towards the water edge,
+and in so doing dragged the brown horse he was holding over the edge,
+and both went down into the water together.  The river was very full
+with the melted snows, and Odd was brought ashore with difficulty.  It
+was found that three of his ribs were broken; but whether with the blow
+dealt by Grettir, or by his fall on the rock, or by the hoof of the
+horse as it fell and struggled in the river, cannot be said; but the
+party of Kormak, of course, charged Grettir with having broken Odd's
+ribs with his stick, and they flew to arms, and threatened the party
+from Biarg.  However, the people of the nearest vales and firths
+interfered, and no bloodshed ensued.  But the men of Mais and of Biarg
+separated bearing each other much ill-will, each charging the other with
+having broken the laws of the sport.
+
+Atli did not say what he felt, he was greatly annoyed; but Grettir was
+less careful of his words, he said that the matter was by no means
+ended, and that he hoped there would be a meeting between the men of
+Mais and the men of Biarg, and then--it would not be a fight of horses,
+but of men; not a biting of horses, but of sharp blades.
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER XII.*
+
+                      *OF THE FIGHT AT THE NECK.*
+
+
+    _The Desolate Moor--Grettir challenges Kormak--Oxmain comes on
+    the Scene--Slow-coach taunts Grettir--Grettir's Vexation_
+
+
+The next fiord on the west of that into which the river that flowed past
+Biarg poured was called the Ramsfirth, and at the head of it lived
+Grettir's married sister.
+
+In the following summer, that is in 1014, Grettir paid his sister a
+visit; he had with him two servant-men from Biarg, and he spent three
+days and nights at his sister's.  Whilst there, news reached him that
+Kormak, who had been away from Mais for a week or two, was on his road
+home, and who was now staying at a house called Tongue.  Grettir at once
+made ready to depart, and his brother-in-law sent two men with him, for
+it was not safe that Grettir should have only two churls with him, as
+there was ill blood between him and Kormak about that affair of the
+horse-fight.
+
+A high, long shoulder of desolate moor lies between the Ramsfirth and
+the Westriver-dale, in which is a confluent of the river that flows past
+Biarg.  This shoulder rises to the north into a great hump, called
+Burfell, and on the saddle is a little lake.  A very fine view is
+obtained from this shoulder of moor over the northern immense bay of
+Hunafloi, towards the glaciers and mountains of that curious excrescence
+of land that lies on the north-west of Iceland.  I know exactly the road
+taken by Grettir on this occasion, for I have ridden over it.  Along the
+top of this shoulder the rocks are scraped by glaciers, that must at one
+time have occupied the whole centre of the island, and have slowly
+slidden down into the firths on all sides.  Here, what is curious is,
+that the rocks are furrowed, just as if carved with a graving tool, in
+lines from south to north, showing the direction from which the glaciers
+slipped down. Now, on the slope of this bit of upland is a great stone
+poised on a point, which I have seen.  Grettir came to this stone, and
+spent a long time in trying to upset it.  It is called Grettir's-heave
+to this day. The men who were with him rather wondered at him why he
+wasted time over this, instead of pushing on.  But his sharp eye had
+noticed the party of Kormak leaving Tongue, and he was bent on an
+encounter.  He thought that if Odd had seen him going over the hill he
+would make a lampoon about him running away from his sister's house the
+moment he heard that danger was threatening.  So he determined to tarry
+till Kormak came up and fight him.  He had not long to wait, for
+presently over the top of the hill came Kormak with Odd and some others.
+Grettir at once rode to meet them, and said, "Now we have our weapons on
+both sides, let us fight like men of good birth, and not with sticks as
+churls."
+
+Then Kormak turned to his men and bade them accept the challenge and
+fight.
+
+Accordingly they ran at one another and fought. Grettir bade his two
+serving-men stand behind his back and defend that, and he, sweeping his
+longsword from left to right, went forward against Kormak.  Thus they
+fought for a while, and some were wounded on both sides.
+
+Now it so happened that at a rich farm in the Ramsfirth-dale lived a
+well-to-do, and very strong man, called Thorbiorn--that is, Thor's
+Bear--nicknamed Oxmain.  He had ridden that day over Burfell-heath, with
+a party, and was now returning. As he came along he heard shouts and the
+clashing of arms, so he quickened his pace, and presently came in sight
+of the fighters.  He at once ordered his men to dash in between the
+combatants.  But by this time the passions of those engaged were so
+furious that they would not be separated.  Grettir sweeping his
+long-sword about him strode forward, and the men of Kormak fell back
+before him. Down went two of those who were with Kormak, and one servant
+of Atli, Grettir's brother, was killed.
+
+[Illustration: GRETTIR CHALLENGES KORMAK AND HIS PARTY.]
+
+Then Thorbiorn Oxmain raised his great voice and roared out, that he and
+his party would take sides against the first man who dealt another blow.
+Grettir saw that it would hardly do if Thorbiorn Oxmain brought all his
+force against him, so he gave up the battle; but they did not part till
+every one of those engaged was wounded, and two were killed on one side,
+and one on the other.  Grettir was ill pleased that the affray had ended
+in this manner, and he felt resentment against Oxmain for his
+interference.  Unfortunately, Oxmain's brother, who went by the name of
+the Slow-coach, made fun of the matter, and laughed about Grettir
+sneaking away from the fight directly he saw that he was getting the
+worst of it.  Whatever he said was reported at Biarg, and, as may well
+be imagined, did not improve Grettir's temper, or liking for Oxmain and
+Slow-coach.  Nothing further occurred between him and Kormak, probably
+he and Kormak were content with the trial of strength that had taken
+place, and were disinclined to renew a profitless contest.
+
+Atli took no notice of the loss of his house-churl; he desired peace,
+and not a stirring afresh of the fires of discord.  To his peaceable
+behaviour it was doubtless due that the quarrel with Kormak came to an
+end.  But the vexation felt by Grettir against Oxmain for his
+meddlesomeness, and against Slow-coach for his gibes, rankled in his
+breast.
+
+
+
+
+                            *CHAPTER XIII.*
+
+                 *HOW GRETTIR AND AUDUN MADE FRIENDS.*
+
+
+    _Audun's Pedigree--His relation to Grettir--Grettir's-heaves--In
+    Willowdale--The Place called Tongue--A very strange Tale_
+
+
+Grettir remained through the autumn at Biarg, after the skirmish at the
+Neck, till September, and then he thought he would ride away east and
+see Audun again, with whom he had had that little ruffle that was almost
+a quarrel, and which was fortunately interrupted by the entrance of
+Bard. Audun was a cousin, though not a near one, and Grettir had no
+desire that any bad blood should exist between kinsfolk.  Audun belonged
+to what was called the Madpate family; for it had had in it at least two
+who had been so odd in their ways that folk said they were not quite
+right in their minds. The relationship will easily be understood by a
+look at the pedigree.  It will be remembered that old Onund Treefoot,
+who had settled in Iceland, had to wife secondly Thordis, an Icelandic
+woman, and his son by her was Thorgrim Grizzlepate, and this Thorgrim
+bought the estate and house of Biarg about the year 935.  Onund Treefoot
+died in or about 920, and then his widow Thordis married again a man
+called Audun Skokull, and they had a son who was called Asgeir, who
+settled in Willowdale, and either went off his head or proved so queer
+in his ways that folks called him Madpate.  This Madpate married and had
+a son Audun, and a daughter Thurid who married away west into a very
+good family; and she had a son called Thorstein Kuggson, of whom we
+shall hear more presently.  Audun of Willowdale's son was Madpate the
+Second, and the lad Audun who wrestled with Grettir and burst the bottle
+of curds was the son of this Madpate the Second.  Consequently the
+relationship to Grettir was through Grettir's great-grandmother, and
+Audun belonged to a generation younger than that of Grettir, because
+Grettir was the son of Asmund's old age. Moreover, Asmund's father
+Thorgrim had married somewhat late in life, whereas all the Madpate
+family had dashed into marriage at a very early age.  Thus it came about
+that Grettir's great-grandmother was Audun's great-great-grandmother,
+and that, nevertheless, Audun was somewhat older than Grettir.
+
+Grettir rode straight up over the hill behind his house.  Now this hill
+like the Neck, already described, is rather curious, for on it are a
+number of rocks that have been deposited by glaciers, and not only so,
+but they have been dragged along by ice, scratching the rocks over which
+they were driven forward, and so these beds of rock are rubbed and
+scored with lines made by the stones forced over them by ice.  Above
+Biarg there is one large stone that has scratched a deep furrow in the
+bed of rock and then has stopped at the end of the furrow it had itself
+scored.  This remarkable phenomenon tells us of a time when the whole of
+the centre of Iceland was covered with glaciers, like the centre of
+Greenland now.  These glaciers slided down the slopes of the hills, and
+were thrust along to the sea, where they broke off and floated away as
+icebergs.
+
+Nowadays folk in Iceland do not understand these odd stones perched in
+queer places, which were deposited by the ancient glaciers, and they
+call them Grettir-taks or Grettir's-heaves.  So the farmer at Biarg told
+me that the curious stone at the end of the furrow in the bed of rock on
+top of the hill was a Grettir-tak; it had been rubbed along the rock and
+left where it stands by Grettir.  But I knew better. I knew that it was
+put there by an ancient glacier ages before Grettir was born, and before
+Iceland was discovered by the Norsemen.  I have no doubt that in
+Grettir's time this stone was said to have been put there by some troll.
+Afterwards, when people ceased to believe in trolls, they said it was
+put there by Grettir.
+
+Grettir's ride led him by a pretty little blue lake that lies folded in
+between high hills and has a stream flowing from it into a very large
+lake near Hop.  But he did not follow the stream down; he crossed
+another hill, not very steep and high, and reached his cousin's house at
+Audun stead in Willowdale.  Now this valley took its name from the woods
+of willows that grew in it when first settled, but at the present day
+none remain; all have in course of time been burnt for fuel, and except
+for scanty grass the Willowdale is very dreary-looking.  We may be sure
+that Iceland presented a much more smiling and green appearance eight
+hundred or a thousand years ago than it does at present.
+
+When Grettir came to Willowdale, Audun received him in a friendly
+manner, and Grettir made him a present of a handsome axe he had.  He
+remained with him some little while, and they talked over old tales of
+Onund Treefoot and his doings, and every shadow of rivalry and anger
+disappeared, so that they parted at length in the best of tempers and as
+true and affectionate cousins.
+
+Audun would have desired to keep Grettir there longer, but Grettir would
+not stay.  He desired to get on to the head of Waterdale, where lived an
+uncle of his called Jokull, his mother's brother, at a place called
+Tongue.
+
+So he rode away over the moor, and reached Tongue.  Here a stream comes
+rushing through a gorge in a series of waterfalls, and meets another
+stream that comes down a valley called the Valley of Shadows further
+east.
+
+Tongue is so called because it lies on a grassy slope exactly in the
+tongue of land between these two streams.  There is now a good farm
+there and a church, and there I stayed a few days.  At the back of
+Tongue the hill rises rapidly to a fell called Tongue-heath.  This hill
+was covered with snow when Grettir arrived.  This uncle Jokull was glad
+to see him.
+
+He was a rough and violent man, very big and strong; and it was clear to
+everyone that his nephew took after his mother's family more than his
+father's, for there was a strong likeness both in build and face and in
+character between Jokull and Grettir.
+
+He received Grettir heartily in his rough, blunt way, and bade him stay
+there as long as he liked. Jokull had been a seafaring man, and had made
+much by his merchant trips.  He would probably have been a richer and
+more respected man had he not been so violent and overbearing and ready
+to pick quarrels.
+
+Now Grettir had not been at Tongue three days before he heard a very
+strange tale.  Jokull's mouth was full of it, and with good reason, for
+the events had taken place not an hour's ride distant.  It was a tale
+about the nearest farm in the Valley of Shadows, a farm called
+Thorhall's-stead, which was reported to be haunted; and so serious had
+affairs become there that no servants would remain, and the farmer and
+his family had been driven from house and home by the hauntings last
+winter, and had come and lodged with Jokull at Tongue, and he had
+entertained them for some two or three months.  Now this was not a case
+of mere fancy and fantastic fear.  It was something very real and very
+marvellous.  But it is a long story, and must be consigned to another
+chapter.
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER XIV.*
+
+                         *THE VALE OF SHADOWS.*
+
+
+    _A Turning-point in Grettir's Life--The Farm in the Valley--The
+    haunted Sheep-walks--A strange-looking Fellow--"Here is my
+    Hand"--Glam keeps Faith--Glam is missing--Following the Red
+    Track--The Ghost of Glam--Glam's Successor--Thorgaut is
+    Missing--From Bad to Worse--Fate of the old
+    Serving-man--Thorhall's Perplexity--Grettir offers Aid_
+
+
+We have come now to an incident which formed a turning-point in
+Grettir's life.  It is a very mysterious and inexplicable story, not one
+that can be put aside as we have that of his fight in the tomb with Karr
+the Old.  This is a story even more gruesome. It relates to an event
+that so shook Grettir's nerves that he never after could endure to be
+alone in the dark, and would risk all kinds of dangers to escape
+solitude.  How much of truth lies under this strange narrative we cannot
+now say, but that something really did take place is certain from the
+effect it had on Grettir ever after.
+
+The richest valley for grass in all this quarter of Iceland, and the
+most peopled, is the Waterdale. On the east rises a mountain ridge of
+precipitous basaltic cliffs, down which leap waterfalls from the snows
+above.  The river that flows through this valley is fed by two main
+streams that unite at the farm called Tongue.  The stream on the east
+rises a long way inland in a mass of lava, and flows through a valley so
+narrow and so gloomy that it goes by the name of the Valley of Shadows.
+The high ranges of moor and waste to the south shut off the southern
+sun, and the lofty banks of mountain to east and west so close it in
+that it gets no sun morning or evening.
+
+A little way up this valley--not far, and not where it is most
+gloomy--are now the scanty ruins of a farm called Thorhall's-stead.
+Above this the valley so contracts and the hills are so steep that it is
+only with great difficulty that a horse can be led along. This I know
+very well; for in crossing an avalanche slide my horse and I were almost
+precipitated into the torrent below.  Further up the valley stands a
+tongue of high land with a waterfall on one side and the ravine on the
+other, and here at one time some robbers had their fortress who were the
+terror of the neighbourhood.  No trace of their fortress remains at
+present, but it was to find this place that I explored the valley.
+
+In the farm that is now but a heap of ruins lived a bonder named
+Thorhall and his wife.  He was not a man of much consideration in the
+district, for he was planted on cold, poor land, and his wealth was but
+small.  Moreover, he had no servants; and the reason was that his
+sheep-walks were haunted.
+
+Not a herdsman would remain with him.  He offered high wages, he
+threatened, he entreated, all in vain.  One shepherd after another left
+his service, and things came to such a pass that he determined to have
+the advice of the law-man or chief judge at the next annual assize.
+
+He saddled his horses and rode to Thingvalla. Skapti was the name of the
+judge then, a man with a long head, and deemed the best of men for
+giving counsel.  Thorhall told him his trouble.
+
+"I can help you," said Skapti.  "There is a shepherd who has been with
+me, a rude, strange man, but afraid of neither man nor hobgoblin, and
+strong as a bull; but he is not very clear in his intellect."
+
+"That does not matter," said Thorhall, "so long as he can mind sheep."
+
+"You may trust him for that," said Skapti.  "He is a Swede, and his name
+is Glam."
+
+Towards the end of the assize two gray horses belonging to Thorhall
+slipped their hobbles and strayed; so, as he had no serving-man, he went
+after them himself, and on his way met a strange-looking fellow, driving
+before him an ass laden with faggots.  The man was tall and stalwart;
+his face attracted Torhall's attention, for the eyes were ashen gray and
+staring.  The powerful jaw was furnished with white protruding teeth,
+and about his low brow hung bunches of coarse wolf-gray hair.
+
+"Pray, what are you called?" asked Thorhall, for he suspected that this
+was the man Skapti had spoken about.
+
+"Glam, at your service."
+
+"Do you like your present duties--wood-cutting?" asked the farmer.
+
+"No, I do not.  I am properly a shepherd."
+
+"Then, will you come with me?  Skapti has spoken of you and offered you
+to me."
+
+"What are the drawbacks to your service?" asked Glam cautiously.
+
+"None, save that my sheep-walks are haunted."
+
+"Oh! is that all?  Ghosts won't scare me.  Here is my hand.  I will come
+to you before winter."
+
+They separated, and soon after the farmer found his horses; they had got
+into a little wood, and were nibbling the willow tops.  He went home,
+having thanked Skapti.
+
+Summer passed, then autumn, and nothing further was heard of Glam.  The
+winter storms began to bluster up the valley from the cold Polar Sea,
+driving the flying snowflakes and heaping them in drifts at every turn
+of the vale.  Ice formed in the shallows of the river, and the streams
+which in summer trickled down the sides were now turned to icicles. I
+was there the very end of June, and then the whole of the mountain flank
+to the west was covered with frozen streams spread like a net of icicle
+over the black and red striped bare rock.
+
+One gusty night a violent blow at the door startled all in the farm.  In
+another moment Glam, tall and wild, stood in the hall glowering out of
+his gray staring eyes, his hair matted with frost, his teeth rattling
+and snapping with cold, his face blood-red in the glare of the fire that
+glowed in the centre of the hall.
+
+He was well received by Thorhall, but the housewife did not like the
+man's looks, and did not welcome him with much heartiness.  Time passed,
+and the shepherd was on the moors every day with the flock; his loud and
+deep-toned voice was often borne down on the wind as he shouted to the
+sheep, driving them to fold.  His presence always produced a chill in
+the house, and when he spoke it sent a thrill through the women, who did
+not like him.
+
+Christmas-eve was raw and windy; masses of gray vapour rolled up from
+the Arctic Ocean, and hung in piles about the mountain tops.  Now and
+then a scud of frozen fog, covering bar and beam with feathery
+hoar-frost, swept up the glen.  As the day declined snow began to fall
+in large flakes.
+
+When the wind lulled there could be heard the shout of Glam high up on
+the hillside.  Darkness closed in, and with the darkness the snow fell
+thicker. There was a church then at Thorhall's farm; there is none there
+now, since the valley has been abandoned from its cold and ill name.
+
+The lights were kindled in the church, and every snowflake as it sailed
+down past the open door burned like a golden feather in the light.
+
+When the service was over, and the farmer and his party returned to the
+house, Glam had not come home.  This was strange; as he could not live
+abroad in the cold, and the sheep would also require shelter.  Thorhall
+was uneasy and proposed a search, but no one would go with him; and no
+wonder, it was not a night for a dog to be out in, and the tracks would
+all be buried in snow.  So the family sat up all night listening,
+trembling and anxious.
+
+Day broke at last faintly in the south over the great white masses of
+mountains.  Now a party was formed to search for the missing man.  A
+sharp climb brought them to the top of the moor above Tongue.  Here and
+there a sheep was found shivering under a rock or half buried in a
+snowdrift, but of Glam--not a sign.
+
+Presently the whole party was called together about a spot on the
+hilltop where the snow was trampled and kicked about, and it was clear
+that some desperate struggle had taken place there. There the snow was
+also dabbled with frozen blood. A red track led further up the mountain
+side, and the searchers were following it when a boy uttered a shriek of
+fear.  In looking behind a rock he had come on the corpse of the
+shepherd lying on its back with the arms extended.  The body was taken
+up and carried to the edge of the gorge, and was there buried under a
+pile of stones, heaped over it to the height of about six feet.  _How_
+Glam had died, _by whom_ killed, no one knew, nor could they make a
+guess.
+
+Two nights after this one of the thralls who had gone for the cows burst
+into the hall with a face blank from terror; he staggered to a seat and
+fainted.  On recovering his senses, in a broken voice he assured those
+who were round him that he had seen Glam walking past him, with huge
+strides, as he left the stable door.  The shepherd had turned his head
+and looked at him fixedly from his great gray staring eyes.  On the
+following day a stable lad was found in a fit under a wall, and he never
+after recovered his senses.  It was thought he must have seen something
+that had scared him.  Next, some of the women, declared that they had
+seen Glam looking in on them through a window of the dairy.  In the dusk
+Thorhall himself met the dead man, who stood and glowered at him, but
+made no attempt to injure his master, and uttered not a word.  The
+haunting did not end thus. Nightly a heavy tread was heard round the
+house, and a hand groping along the walls, and sometimes a hand came in
+at the windows, a great coarse hand, that in the red light from the fire
+seemed as though steeped in blood.
+
+When the spring came round the disturbances lessened, and as the sun
+obtained full power, ceased altogether.
+
+During the course of the summer a Norwegian vessel came into the fiord;
+Thorhall went on board and found there a man named Thorgaut, who had
+come out in search of work.  Thorhall engaged him as a shepherd, but not
+without honestly telling him his trouble, and what there was uncanny
+about his sheep-walks, and how Glam had fared.  The man did not regard
+this, he laughed, and promised to be with Thorhall at the appointed
+season.
+
+Accordingly he arrived in autumn, and he soon established himself as a
+favourite in the house; he romped with the children, helped his
+fellow-servants, and was as much liked as his predecessor had been
+detested.  He was such a merry careless fellow that he did not think
+anything of the risks that lay before him, and joked about them.
+
+When winter set in strange sights and sounds began to alarm the folk at
+the farm, but Thorgaut was not troubled; he slept too soundly at night
+to be disturbed by the heavy tread round the house.
+
+On the day before Yule, as was his wont, Thorgaut drove out the sheep to
+pasture.  Thorhall was uneasy.  He said to him: "I pray you be careful,
+and do not go near the barrow under which Glam was laid."
+
+"Don't fear for me," laughed Thorgaut, "I shall be back in time for
+supper, and shall attend you to church."
+
+Night settled in, but no Thorgaut arrived.  There was little mirth at
+table when the supper was brought in.  All were anxious and fearful.
+
+The wind was cold and wetting.  Blocks of ice were driving about in the
+bay, grinding against each other, and the sound could be heard far up
+the valley.  Aloft, the aurora flames were lighting up the heavens with
+an arch of fire.  Again this Christmas night the dwellers in the farm
+sat up and did not go to bed, waiting for the return of Thorgaut, but he
+did not arrive.
+
+Next morning he was sought, and was found lying dead across the barrow
+of Glam, with his spine and one leg and one arm broken.  He was brought
+home and laid in the churchyard.
+
+Matters now rapidly became worse.  Outbuildings were broken into of a
+night, and their woodwork was rent and shattered; the house door was
+violently shaken, and great pieces of it were torn away; the gables of
+the house were also pulled furiously to and fro.
+
+Now it fell out that one morning the only man who remained in the
+service of the family went out early.  Not another servant dared to
+remain in the place, and this man remained because he had been with
+Thorhall and with his father, and he could not make up his mind to
+desert his master in his need. About an hour after he had gone out
+Thorhall's wife took her milking cans and went to the cow-house that she
+might milk the cows, as she had now not a maid in the house, and had to
+do everything herself.  On reaching the door of the cow-house she heard
+a terrible sound from within, the bellowing of the cattle, and the deep
+bell-notes of an unearthly voice.  She was so frightened that she
+dropped her pails and ran back to the house and called her husband.
+Thorhall was in bed, but he rose instantly, caught up a weapon, and
+hastened to the cow-house.
+
+On opening the door he found all the cattle loose and goring each other.
+Slung across the stone that separated their stalls was the old
+serving-man, perfectly dead, with his back broken.  He had, apparently,
+been tossed by the cows, and had fallen on this stone backwards.
+
+Neither Thorhall nor his wife explained his death in this way; they
+thought that Glam must have been there, have driven the cattle wild, and
+that just as he had broken the back of Thorgaut, so had he now broken
+that of the poor old serving-man.
+
+It was impossible for the bonder to remain longer in that place; he and
+his wife therefore removed down to Tongue, which lies at the junction of
+the two rivers, and there things were quiet.  There he was hospitably
+received by Jokull.  Thorhall was able to persuade some of his runaway
+servants to come back to him, but no man all that winter would go near
+the moor where was the barrow of the shepherd Glam.
+
+Not till the summer returned, and the sun had dispelled the darkness,
+did Thorhall venture back to the Vale of Shadows.  In the meanwhile his
+daughter's health had given way under the repeated alarms of the winter;
+she became paler every day; with the autumn flowers she faded, and was
+laid in the churchyard before the first snowflakes fell.  What was
+Thorhall to do through the winter?  He knew that it was not possible for
+him to secure servants if he remained on his own farm; besides, he did
+not know what loss might come to his stock.  Then, he could not spend
+the whole winter at Tongue, for that was another bonder's house, and
+though the farmer there had kindly received him and entertained him for
+three months the winter before, he could not ask him to give him
+houseroom to himself, his cattle, and servants for a whole long winter.
+
+So he was in the greatest possible perplexity what to do.  Help came to
+him from an unexpected quarter.
+
+Grettir had heard the story of the hauntings, and he rode to Thorhall's
+farm and asked if he might be accommodated there for the night.  He said
+that it was his great desire to encounter Glam.
+
+Thorhall was surprised, but not exactly pleased, for he thought that the
+family at Biarg would attribute the wrong to him were anything to happen
+to Grettir.
+
+Grettir put his horse into the stable, and retired for the night to one
+of the beds in the hall and slept soundly.
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER XV.*
+
+                    *HOW GRETTIR FOUGHT WITH GLAM.*
+
+
+    _Grettir awaits Glam--The Sound of Feet--Glam breaks into the
+    Hall--A Strange Figure--Grettir seizes Glam--Grettir's Last
+    Chance--Glam's Curse--The End of Glam--Was it True?_
+
+
+Next morning Grettir went with Thorhall to the stable for his horse.
+The strong wooden door was shivered and driven in.  They stepped across
+it; Grettir called to his horse, but there was no responsive whinny.
+Grettir dashed into the stall and found his horse dead; its neck was
+broken.
+
+"Now," said Thorhall, "I will give you a horse in exchange for that you
+have lost.  You had better ride home to Biarg at once."
+
+"Not at all.  My horse has been killed, and I must avenge it."  So
+Grettir remained.
+
+Night set in.  Grettir ate a hearty supper, and was right merry.  But
+not so Thorhall, who had his misgivings.  At bed-time the latter crept
+into a locked bedstead beside the hall; but Grettir said he would not go
+into a bed, he would lie by the fire in the hall.  So he wrapped himself
+up in a long fur cloak and flung himself on a bench, with his feet
+against the posts of the high seat.  The fur cloak was over his head,
+and he kept an opening through which he could look out.
+
+There was a fire burning on the hearth, a smouldering heap of glowing
+embers, and by the red light Grettir looked up at the rafters of the
+blackened roof.  The smoke escaped by a _louvre_ in the middle. The wind
+whistled mournfully.  The windows high up were covered with parchment,
+and admitted now and then a sickly yellow glare from the full moon,
+which, however, shone in through the smoke hole, silvering the rising
+smoke.  A dog began to bark, then bay at the moon.  Then the cat, which
+had been sitting demurely watching the fire, stood up with raised back
+and bristling tail, and darted behind some chests.  The hall-door was in
+a sad plight.  It had been so torn by Glam that it had to be patched up
+with wattles.  Soothingly the river prattled over its shingly bed as it
+swept round the knoll on which stood the farm.  Grettir heard the
+breathing of the sleeping women in the adjoining chamber, and the sigh
+of the housewife as she turned in her bed.
+
+Then suddenly he heard something that shook all the sleep out of him,
+had any been stealing over his eyes.  He heard a heavy tread, beneath
+which the snow crackled.  Every footfall went straight to Grettir's
+heart.  A crash on the turf overhead. The strange visitant had scrambled
+on the roof, and was walking over that.  The roofs of the houses in
+Iceland are of turf.  For a moment the chimney gap was completely
+darkened--the monster was looking down it--the flash of the red fire
+illumined the horrible face with its lack-lustre eyes.  Then the moon
+shone in again, and the heavy tramp of Glam was heard as he walked to
+the other end of the hall.  A thud--he had leaped down.
+
+Then Grettir heard his steps passing to the back of the house, then the
+snapping of wood showed that Glam was destroying some of the outhouse
+doors. Presently the tread was heard again approaching the house, and
+this time the main entrance.  Grettir thought he could distinguish a
+pair of great hands thrust in over the broken door.  In another moment
+he heard a loud snap--a long plank had been torn out of place, and the
+light of the moon shone in where the gap had been made.  Then Glam began
+to unrip the wattles.
+
+There was a cross-beam to the door, acting as bolt. Against the gray
+light Grettir saw a huge black arm thrust in trying to remove the bar.
+It was done, and then all the broken door was driven in and went down on
+the floor in shivers.  Now Grettir could see a tall dark figure, almost
+naked, with wild locks of hair about the head standing in the doorway.
+That was but for a minute, and then Glam came in stealthily; he entered
+the hall and was illumined by the firelight.  The figure Grettir now saw
+was unlike anything he had seen before.  A few rags hung from the
+shoulders and waist, the long wolf-gray hair was matted.  The eyes were
+staring and strange.  Grettir could hear Thorhall within his locked bed
+trembling and breathing fast.
+
+Presently Glam's eyes rested on the shaggy bundle by the high seat.  He
+stepped towards it, and Grettir felt him groping about him.  Then Glam
+laid hold of one end of the fur cloak and began to pull at it. The cloak
+did not come away.  Another jerk.  Grettir kept his feet firmly pressed
+against the posts, so that the fur was not pulled away.  Glam seemed
+puzzled; he went to the other end of the bundle and began to pull at
+that.  Grettir held to the bench, so that he was not moved himself, but
+the fur cloak was torn in half, and the strange visitant staggered back
+holding the portion in his hand wonderingly before his eyes.  Before he
+could recover from his surprise, Grettir started to his feet, bent his
+body, flung his arms round Glam, and driving his head into the breast of
+the visitor, tried to bend him backward and so snap his spine.  This was
+in vain, the cold hands grasped Grettir's arms and tore them from their
+hold. Grettir clasped them again about his body, and then Glam threw his
+also round Grettir, and they began to wrestle.  Grettir saw that Glam
+was trying to drag him to the door, and he was sure that if he were got
+outside he would be at a disadvantage, and Glam would break his back.
+He therefore made a desperate effort not to be drawn forth.  He clung to
+benches and posts, but the posts gave way, and the benches were torn
+from their places.
+
+At each moment he was being dragged nearer to the door.  Sharply
+twisting himself loose, Grettir flung his arms round a beam of the roof,
+for the hall was low.  He was dragged off his feet at once. Glam
+clenched him about the waist, and tore at him to get him loose.  Every
+tendon in Grettir's breast was strained; still he held on.  The nails of
+Glam cut into his side like knives, then his hands gave way.  He could
+endure the strain no longer, and Glam drew him towards the doorway, in
+so doing trampling over the broken fragments of the door, and the
+wattles that lay about.  Grettir knew that the last chance was come for
+saving himself.  Here, in the hall, he could hold to posts and beams,
+and so make some resistance; but outside he would have nothing to cling
+to, and strong though he was, his strength did not equal that of his
+opponent.
+
+Now the door-posts were of stone, and the beam that had served as bolt
+went across the door, slid into a hollow on one side cut in the
+door-post, and was pulled across and fitted into another hollow in the
+other post.  As the wrestlers neared the opening, Grettir planted both
+his feet against the stone posts, one against each, and put his arms
+round Glam.  He had the enemy now at an advantage; but then, he merely
+held him, and could not hold him so for ever.  He called to Thorhall,
+but Thorhall was too greatly frightened to leave his place of refuge.
+
+"Now," thought Grettir, "if I can but break his back!" Then drawing Glam
+to him by the middle, he put his head beneath the chin of his opponent
+and forced back the head.  If he could only drive the head far enough
+back he would break his neck.
+
+At that moment one or both of the door-posts gave way; down crashed the
+gable-trees, ripping beams and rafters from their places, frozen clods
+of turf rattled from the roof and thumped into the snow.
+
+Glam fell on his back outside the door, and Grettir on top of him.  The
+moon was, as I said before, at her full; large white clouds chased each
+other across the sky.  Grettir's strength was failing him, his hands
+quivered in the snow, and he knew that he could not support himself from
+dropping flat on the mysterious and dreadful visitant, eye to eye, lip
+to lip.
+
+Then Glam said: "You have done ill matching yourself with me; now know
+that never shall you be stronger than you are to-day, and that, to your
+dying day, whenever you are in the dark you will see my eyes staring at
+you, so that for very horror you will not dare to be alone."
+
+At this moment Grettir saw his short sword in the snow, it had slipped
+from his belt as he fell. He put out his hand at once, clutched the
+handle, and with a blow cut off Glam's head, and at once laid it beside
+his thigh.
+
+Thorhall came out at this juncture, his face blanched; but when he saw
+how the fray had ended, he joyfully assisted Grettir to roll the dead
+man to the top of a pile of faggots that had been collected for winter
+fuel.  Fire was applied, and soon far down the Waterdale the flames of
+the pyre startled folks, and made them wonder what new horror was being
+enacted in the Vale of Shadows.
+
+Next day the charred bones were conveyed a long way--some hours'
+ride--into the great desert in the interior, and in one of the most
+lonely spots there a cairn or pile of stones was heaped over them. I
+have seen this mound, which is still pointed out as that under which the
+redoubted Glam lies.
+
+And now we may well ask, what truth is there in the story?  That there
+is a basis of truth can hardly be denied.  The facts have been
+embellished, worked up, but not invented.  The only probable explanation
+of the story is this.
+
+As already said, further up the valley, in a spot difficult to be
+reached, stood the old fortress of some robbers, with many caves in the
+sandstone about it very convenient for shelter.  Now, it is not
+improbable that some madman may have taken refuge in this safe retreat,
+and may have come out at night in search of food, and carried off the
+sheep of Thorhall.  It may be that Glam caught him attempting to steal a
+sheep, and fought with him, and was killed, and that in like manner
+Thorgaut was killed. Then when people saw a great wild man wandering
+about they thought it was Glam, whereas it was the man who had haunted
+the region before Glam came there, and had killed Glam.  This is the
+simplest and easiest explanation of this wild and fearful tale.
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER XVI.*
+
+                    *HOW GRETTIR SAILED TO NORWAY.*
+
+
+    _Olaf the Saint--Slowcoach with the Nimble Tongue--Slowcoach
+    insults Grettir--Ill Words--Death of Slowcoach--In Search of
+    Luck_
+
+
+Early in the spring of the year 1015, news reached Iceland of a change
+of rulers in Norway.  Olaf Harald's son, commonly known as Olaf the
+Saint, had come to be King of Norway; Earl Sweyn had been defeated in
+battle and driven out of the country.  Now Grettir was remotely
+connected with the king, that is to say, his father's grandfather was
+brother to the grandfather of Asta, Olaf's mother.  The cousinship was
+somewhat distant; but in those days folk held to their kin more than
+they do now.  Grettir thought that a good chance had opened to him for
+doing well in Norway, so he resolved to leave Iceland, and enter the
+service of his relative, the king.  There was a ship bound for Norway
+lying in Eyjafiord, and Grettir engaged a berth in her, and made ready
+for the voyage.
+
+Now his father Asmund was very old and feeble, and was well nigh
+bedridden.  He had given over the entire management of the farm to his
+eldest son Atli, and to young Illugi, who was a few years younger than
+Grettir.  Atli was everywhere liked, he was such a prudent, peaceable,
+and kindly man.
+
+Grettir's ill-luck still followed him; for, as it chanced, Thorbiorn,
+the Slowcoach, the relation of Thorbiorn Oxmain, had resolved to go to
+Norway also, and in the same ship.  Now the Slowcoach may have been
+overslow in his movements, but he was overnimble with his tongue, and he
+was strongly advised either not to go in the same boat with Grettir, or,
+if he did, to mind his words.
+
+Such advice was thrown away on the Slowcoach, who, instead of practising
+caution, in order to show himself off, began to brag of his strength,
+and to say scurvy things of Grettir, which were duly reported by
+tale-bearers to Grettir.  Consequently, when Grettir arrived in the
+Eyjafiord with his goods, he was not very amiably disposed towards the
+Slowcoach.  However Atli had impressed on him the necessity of
+controlling himself, and Grettir was resolved not to quarrel with the
+man unless he could not help it.
+
+At the side of the shore, those who were about to sail had run up booths
+and cabins for themselves and their stores.  Many of those going in the
+boat were chapmen, and they took with them goods with which to traffic
+in Norway.
+
+Just as the vessel was ready, and about to sail next day, Slowcoach
+arrived, slow as usual, and after every one else was ready, and their
+goods on board. As it was the last evening on shore, all the merchants
+and seamen were sitting about their booths, when Thorbiorn Slowcoach
+arrived, and rode along the lane between the wooden cabins.  The men
+shouted to him to know if he had any news to tell them.
+
+Thorbiorn's eye caught that of Grettir, who was sitting on a bench, and
+he answered, "I don't hear any news, except that the old idiot Asmund of
+Biarg is dead."
+
+This was not true; the old man was not dead, but very ill.  Some of
+those who heard him said, "That is sad news indeed, for he was a worthy
+and honourable old man, and he could ill be spared."
+
+"I don't know that," said Thorbiorn with a scornful laugh.
+
+"But how did he die?  What did he die of?"
+
+"Die of?" repeated the Slowcoach loud enough to be heard by Grettir.
+"Smothered like a dog in the poky little kennel they call their hall at
+Biarg.  As for any loss in him, it is news to me that the world is not
+well rid of dotards."
+
+"These are ill words," said those who heard him. "No good man will speak
+slightingly of old and blameless chiefs.  Besides, such words as these
+Grettir will not endure."
+
+"Grettir!" scoffed Thorbiorn.  "Before I face him I must see him use his
+weapons better than he did last summer, when engaged with Kormak.  Then
+I put my elbow between them, and Grettir was but too ready to accept the
+interference.  I never saw a man before so shake in his shoes."
+
+Thereat Grettir stood up, and controlling himself, said, "If I have any
+faculty of foresight, Slowcoach, I see that you will not be smothered
+with smoke like a dog.  You should have done other than speak foul words
+of very aged men.  Gray hairs deserve respect."
+
+"I don't think more of your foresight than I do of the wisdom of your
+old fool of a father," said Thorbiorn.
+
+The end was that they fought.  The insult was too gross to be endured,
+and Grettir felt it incumbent on him to strike for his father's honour.
+The fight did not last long; the Slowcoach was slow in his fighting,
+slow of hand, only not slow of tongue, and Grettir's sharp sword wounded
+him to death.
+
+Slowcoach was buried in the nearest churchyard; and the chapmen gave
+Grettir credit for having restrained himself as long as possible, and
+allowed that, according to the ideas of the time, he was justified in
+fighting and killing the Slowcoach for his spiteful and strife-provoking
+words.  But Grettir was not pleased, he regretted the contest, because
+he knew that it left occasion of strife behind, which might occasion
+Atli trouble.  Thorbiorn Oxmain would, lie feared, be sure to take up
+the quarrel, and then Atli would have to pay a heavy fine in silver to
+atone for the death.
+
+The vessel set sail, and reached the south of Norway.  There Grettir
+took ship in a trading keel, to go north to Drontheim, because he heard
+that the king was there, and his heart beat high with hopes that Olaf
+would acknowledge him as a cousin, and would take him into his
+body-guard, and treat him with honour; and that so, though he had had
+ill-luck in Iceland, good luck might attend him in Norway.
+
+
+
+
+                            *CHAPTER XVII.*
+
+                         *THE HOSTEL BURNING.*
+
+
+    _Aground in the Fiord--The Light over the Water--Grettir Swims
+    Across--The Fight for Fire--The Burned Hostel--At Drontheim_
+
+
+There lived a man named Thorir at Garth in Iceland who had spent the
+summer in Norway when Olaf returned from England, and he had stood in
+great favour with the king.  He had two sons, and at this time both were
+well-grown men.
+
+Thorir left Norway for Iceland, where he broke up his ship, not
+intending again to go a seafaring. But when he heard the tidings that
+Olaf was king over the whole of Norway, then he deemed it would be well
+for his sons to go there and pay their respects to the king, and remind
+him of his old friendship for their father.
+
+On reaching Norway much about the same time as had Grettir, they took a
+long rowing-boat, and skirted the coast on their way north to Drontheim.
+They preceded Grettir by a few days.  On reaching a fine fiord, in which
+there was shelter from the gales that began to bluster violently with
+the approach of winter, the sons of Thorir ran in their boat, and as
+there was a large wooden hostelry there built for the shelter of
+weather-bound travellers, they took refuge in it, and spent their days
+in hunting and their nights in revelry.
+
+Now it so fell out that Grettir's merchant ship came into this same
+fiord one evening and ran aground on the opposite shore to that on which
+was the hostel.  The night was bitterly cold; storms of snow drove over
+the country, whitening the mountains.  The men from the ship were worn
+out and numbed with cold, and they had no means of kindling a fire.
+Then, all at once, they saw a light spring up on the opposite side of
+the firth, twinkling cheerfully between the trees.  This was a sight to
+make them more eager for a fire, and they began to wish that some one of
+their number would swim across and bring over a light.
+
+"In the good old times there must have been men who would have thought
+nothing of swimming across the streak of water at night," said Grettir.
+
+"No comfort to us to know that," said one of the crew.  "It does not
+concern us what may have been in the past, we are shivering in the
+present.  Why do you not get us fire?"
+
+Grettir hesitated.  The night was very like that on which he had fought
+with Glam: the same full moon, with snow-laden clouds rolling over its
+face for a while obscuring it, and then the full glare falling over the
+face of earth again; and, unaccountably, a sense of doubt and depression
+had come over him, as though that evil adversary were now about to
+revenge his downfall upon him.  He looked round suddenly, for he thought
+that the fearful eyes were staring at him from out of the black shadows
+of the fir-wood.
+
+The rest of the crew united in urging him, and at length, reluctantly,
+Grettir yielded.  He flung his clothes off, and prepared himself to
+swim.  He had on him a fur cape, and a pair of wadmal breeches. He took
+up an iron pot, and jumped into the sea and swam safely across.
+
+On reaching the further shore, he shook the water off him, but before
+long his trousers froze like boards, and the water formed in icicles
+about the cape. Grettir ascended through the pine-wood towards the
+light, and on reaching the hostel from which it proceeded, walked in
+without speaking to anyone, and striding up to the fire, stooped and
+began to scrape the red-hot embers into his iron pot.  The hall was full
+of revellers, and these revellers were the sons of Thorir and their
+boat's crew.  They were already more than half intoxicated, and when
+they saw a wild-looking man enter the hall, half naked and hung with
+icicles, they thought he must be a troll or mountain-spirit.
+
+At once every one caught up the first weapon to hand, and rushed to the
+attack.  Grettir defended himself with a fire-brand plucked from the
+hearth; the sons of Thorir stumbled over the fire, and the embers were
+strewn about over the floor that was covered with fresh straw.
+
+In a few moments the hall was filled with flame and smoke, and Grettir
+took advantage of the confusion to effect his escape.  He ran down to
+the shore, plunged into the sea and swam across.
+
+He found his companions waiting for him behind a rock, with a pile of
+dry wood which they had collected during his absence.  The cinders were
+blown upon, and twigs applied, till a blaze was produced, and before
+long the whole party sat rubbing their almost frozen hands over a
+cheerful fire.
+
+Next morning the merchants recognized the fiord, and, remembering that a
+hostel stood on the further side, they crossed the water to see it,
+when--what was their dismay to find of it only a heap of smoking embers!
+From under some of the charred timber were thrust scorched human limbs.
+The chapmen, in alarm and horror, turned upon Grettir and charged him
+with having maliciously burned the house with all its inmates.
+
+"See, now," said Grettir, "I had a thought that this expedition would
+not bring luck.  I would I had not taken the trouble to get fire for
+such a set of thankless churls."
+
+The ship's crew raked out the embers, pulled aside the smoking rafters,
+in their search for the bodies. Some of these were not so disfigured but
+that they could recognize them.  Moreover, they knew the ship that lay
+at anchor under the lee, hard by, and they saw that Grettir had brought
+the sons of Thorir to an untimely end.  The indignation of the merchants
+became so vehement, and their fear so great that they might be
+implicated in the matter, that they drove Grettir from their company,
+and refused to receive him into their vessel for the remainder of their
+voyage.  Grettir, in sullen wrath, would say no word of self-defence; he
+had to make his way on foot to Drontheim, where he resolved to lay the
+whole matter before the king.
+
+The vessel reached Drontheim before him, and the news of the hostel
+burning roused universal indignation against Grettir.
+
+
+
+
+                            *CHAPTER XVIII.*
+
+                         *THE ORDEAL BY FIRE.*
+
+
+    _Grettir tells his Story--Preparing for the Ordeal--The
+    Procession--Attacked by the Mob--The King Intervenes--Wicked or
+    Unlucky_
+
+
+One day, as King Olaf sat in audience in his great hall, Grettir strode
+in, and going before his seat, greeted the king.  Olaf looked at him and
+said:
+
+"Are you Grettir the Strong?"
+
+He answered: "That is my name, and I have come hither, kinsman, to get a
+fair hearing, and to clear myself of the charge of having burned men
+maliciously.  Of that I am guiltless."
+
+King Olaf replied: "I heartily trust that what you say is true, and that
+you will be able to rid yourself of a charge so bad."
+
+Grettir replied that he was ready to do whatsoever the king desired, in
+order to prove his innocence.
+
+Then said the king to him, "Tell me the whole story, that I may be able
+to judge."
+
+Grettir answered by relating the circumstances. He had simply taken fire
+from the hearth, when he was fallen upon by those who were drinking, and
+who were too tipsy to understand his explanation. He went away with the
+red-hot embers, and did not set fire to anything, but the drunken men
+kicked the glowing coals about amidst the straw.
+
+The king remained silent some moments, and then he said: "There are no
+witnesses either on your behalf or against you.  No man was by who is
+not dead. God and his angels alone know whether you speak the truth or
+not, therefore I must refer you to the judgment of God."
+
+"What must I do?" asked Grettir.
+
+"You will have to go through the ordeal of fire," said the king.
+
+"What is that?" asked the young man.
+
+"You must lift bars of red-hot iron, and walk with bare feet on
+ploughshares heated red in a furnace."
+
+"And what if I am burnt?"
+
+"Then will you be adjudged guilty."
+
+Grettir shrugged his shoulders: "If it must be so, let it be at once;
+but whether I be burnt or not, I declare that I am clear of all intent
+to hurt those men."
+
+"You cannot undergo the ordeal now," said the king.  "You would be
+burned to a certainty.  You must go through preparation first."
+
+"What preparation?"
+
+"A week of fasting and prayer," was the reply.
+
+Then Grettir was taken away and put in ward, and fed with bread and
+water for a week, and the bishop visited him and taught him to pray that
+if he were innocent, God would reveal his innocence by enabling him to
+pass unscathed through the ordeal.
+
+The day came, and Drontheim was thronged with people from all the
+country round, to see the Icelander of whom such tales were told.  A
+procession was formed; first went the king's body-guard followed by the
+king himself, wearing his crown, then came the bishop, the choir, and
+the clergy, and last of all Grettir, his wild red hair flying loose in
+the breeze, his arms folded, and his eyes wandering over the sea of
+heads that filled the square before the cathedral doors.  The crowd
+pressed in closer and closer.  Opinions differed as to whether he were
+guilty or not.  Among the mob was a young man of dark complexion, who
+made a great noise, shouldering his way to the front, and shouting.
+
+"Look at the fellow!" he exclaimed.  "This is the man who, in cold
+blood, burnt down a house over helpless men, and now he is to be given u
+chance of escape."
+
+"But he says he is guiltless," argued one in the crowd.
+
+"Guiltless!" exclaimed the youth.  "If one of us had done the deed,
+should we have been trifled with?  The king wants him for his
+body-guard, because he is so strong."
+
+"He should be given a chance of clearing himself," said one who stood
+near.
+
+"Yes--of course--because he is a kinsman of the king.  So the irons have
+been painted red, to look as if hot.  I know how the trick is done.  But
+he shall not escape me."
+
+Thereupon the young man sprang at Grettir and drove his nails into his
+face so that they drew blood; at the same time he poured forth against
+him a stream of insulting names.
+
+This was more than the Icelander could bear; he caught the young man, as
+a cat catches a mouse, held him aloft, shook him, and then threw him
+away, when he fell on the ground and was stunned. It was feared he might
+be killed.  This act gave occasion to a general uproar; the mob wanted
+to lay hands on Grettir; some threw stones, others assaulted him with
+sticks; but he, planting his back against the church wall, turned up his
+sleeves, guarded off the blows, shouting to his assailants to come on.
+Not a man came within his reach but was sent reeling back or was felled
+to the ground. In the meantime the king and the bishop were in the choir
+waiting.  The red-hot ploughshares which had been laid on the pavement
+were gradually cooling, but no Grettir appeared.
+
+[Illustration: GRETTIR DEFENDS HIMSELF FROM THE MOB.]
+
+At last the sounds of the uproar reached the king's ear, and he sent out
+to know the occasion. His messenger returned a moment after to report
+that the Icelander was fighting the whole town and had knocked down and
+well nigh killed several persons.  The king thereupon sprang from his
+throne, hastened down the nave, and came out of the great western door
+when the conflict was at its height.
+
+"Oh, sire," exclaimed Grettir, "see how I can fight the rascals!" and at
+the word he knocked a man over at the king's feet.
+
+With difficulty the tumult was arrested, and Grettir separated from the
+combatants; and then he wanted to go with the king and try the ordeal of
+fire.
+
+"Not so," answered Olaf, "you have already incurred sin.  It is possible
+that some of those you have knocked down may never recover, so that
+their blood will lie at your door."
+
+"What is to be done?" asked Grettir.
+
+The king considered.
+
+"I see you are a very wicked or at all events a very unlucky man.  When
+you were here before you were the occasion of several deaths.  I do not
+desire to keep you in Norway, but as winter has set in you may tarry
+here till next spring, and then you shall be outlawed and return to
+Iceland."
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER XIX.*
+
+                        *THE WINTER IN NORWAY.*
+
+
+    _At Einar's Farm--The Bearsarks--A Visit from Snoekoll--The
+    Bearsark's Demand--Grettir Temporizes--The Bearsark has a
+    Fit--Death of Snoekoll--Dromund's History--Grettir's Arms--A
+    Pair of Tongs_
+
+
+King Olaf had decided that Grettir must leave Norway and return to
+Iceland.  If he was not a guilty man he was a most unfortunate one.
+Now, the Norse race, whether in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, or Iceland,
+believed in luck.  They said that certain men were born to ill-luck, and
+such men they avoided, because they feared lest the ill-luck that clung
+to them might attach itself to, and involve those who came in contact
+with them.
+
+It was not possible for Grettir to return that year to Iceland, for all
+the ships bound for his native land had sailed before winter set in, so
+King Olaf agreed to allow him to remain in the kingdom through the
+winter, but bound him to depart on the first opportunity next year.
+
+Somewhat sad at heart with disappointment, and with the impression that
+perhaps Olaf the king was right, and that ill-luck really did weigh on
+him, Grettir left the court, and went at Yule to the house of a bonder
+or yeoman called Einar, and remained with him awhile.  The farm was in a
+lonely place in a fiord opening back to the snowy mountains.  Einar was
+a kindly man, hospitable, and he did his best to make Grettir's stay
+with him pleasant.  He had a daughter, a fair, beautiful girl, with blue
+eyes, and hair like amber silk, and her name was Gyrid.  Perhaps the
+beautiful Gyrid was one attraction to Grettir, but if so he never spoke
+what was on his heart, because he knew it would be useless.  He was an
+unlucky man; he had made himself a name, indeed, as one of great daring,
+but he had won for himself neither home, nor riches, nor favour.
+
+Now it fell out that at this time there were some savage ruffians in the
+country who were called Bearsarks.  They were outlaws in most cases, and
+they lived in secret dens in the dense forests, whence they issued and
+swooped down on the farms, and there challenged the bonders to fight
+with them, or to give up to them whatever they needed.  These ruffians
+wore bear-skins drawn over their bodies, and they thrust their heads
+through the jaws of the beasts, so that they presented a hideous and
+frightening appearance.  Then they worked themselves into paroxysms of
+rage, when they were like madmen; they rolled their eyes, they roared
+and howled like wild beasts, and foam formed on their mouths and dropped
+on the ground.  They were wont also, when these fits came on them, to
+bite the edges of their shields, and with their fangs they were known to
+have dinted the metal quite deep.  Some folks even said they had bitten
+pieces out of solid shields. It was usually supposed that these
+Bearsarks were possessed by evil spirits, and it is probable that in
+many cases they were really mad--mad through having given way to their
+violent passions, till they knew no law, and thought to carry everything
+before them by their violence.  It was even at one time thought by the
+superstitious that they could change their shapes, and run about at will
+in the forms of bears or wolves; but this idea grew out of the fact of
+their clothing themselves in bear or wolf skins, and drawing the skull
+of the beast over their heads as a rude helmet, and looking out through
+the open jaws that thus formed a visor.
+
+One day, just after Yule, to the terror and dismay of Einar, one of the
+most redoubtable of these Bearsarks, a fellow called Snoekoll, came
+thundering up to his door on a huge black horse, followed by three or
+four others on foot, all clothed in skins; but Snoekoll, instead of
+wearing the bear's skin over his head, had on a helmet with great tusks
+of a boar protruding from it, and a boar's head drawn over the metal.
+
+It is worth remark that the crests worn later by knights, and which we
+have still on our plate and on harness, are derived from similar
+adornments to helmets.  Some warriors put wings of eagles on their
+head-pieces, others put the paws of bears or representations of lions.
+These were badges of their prowess, or marks whereby they might be
+known.
+
+Snoekoll struck the door of the farmhouse with his spear, and roared to
+the owner to come forth. At once Einar and Grettir issued from the hall,
+and Einar in great trepidation asked the Bearsark what he wanted.
+
+"What do I want?" shouted Snoekoll.  "I want one of two things.  Either
+that you give me up your beautiful daughter to be my wife, and with her
+five-score bags of silver, or else that you fight me here. If you kill
+me, then luck is yours.  If I kill you, then I shall carry off your
+daughter and all that you possess."
+
+Einar turned to Grettir and asked him in a whisper what he was to do.
+He himself was an old man whose fighting days were over, and he had no
+chance against this savage.
+
+Grettir answered that he had better consult his honour and the happiness
+of Gyrid, and not give way to a bully.  The Bearsark sat on his horse
+rolling his eyes from one to another.  He had a great iron-rimmed shield
+before him.
+
+Then he bellowed forth: "Come!  I am not going to wait here whilst you
+consider matters.  Make your selection of the two alternatives at once.
+What is that great lout at your side whispering? Does he want to play a
+little game of who is master along with me?"
+
+"For my part," said Grettir, "the farmer and I are about in equal
+predicament; he is too old to fight, and I am unskilled in arms."
+
+"I see!  I see!" roared Snoekoll.  "You are both trembling in your
+shoes.  Wait till my fit is on me, and then you will shake indeed."
+
+"Let us see how you look in your Bearsark fit," said Grettir.
+
+Then Snoekoll waxed wroth, and worked himself up into one of the fits of
+madness.  There can be no doubt that in some cases this was all bluster
+and sham.  But in many cases these fellows really roused themselves into
+perfect frenzies of madness in which they did not know what they did.
+
+Now Snoekoll began to bellow like a bull, and to roll his eyes, and he
+put the edge of the great shield in his mouth and bit at it, and blew
+foam from his lips that rolled down the face of the shield. Grettir
+fixed his eyes steadily on him, and put his hands into his pockets.
+Snoekoll rocked himself on his horse, and his companions began also to
+bellow, and stir themselves up into madness.  Grettir, with his eye
+fixed steadily on the ruffian, drew little by little nearer to him; but
+as he had no weapon, and held his hands confined, Snoekoll, if he did
+observe him, disregarded him.  When Grettir stood close beside him and
+looked up at the red glaring eyes, the foaming lips of Snoekoll, and
+heard his howls and the crunching of his great teeth against the strong
+oak and iron of the shield, he suddenly laughed, lifted his foot, caught
+the bottom of the shield a sudden kick upwards, and the shield with the
+violence of the upward shock broke Snoekoll's jaw.  Instantly the
+Bearsark stopped his bellows, let fall the shield, and before he could
+draw his sword Grettir caught his helmet by the great boar tusks, gave
+them a twist, and rolled Snoekoll down off his horse on the ground,
+knelt on him, and with the ruffian's own sword dealt him his death-blow.
+
+When the others saw the fall of their chief they ceased their antics,
+turned and ran away to hide in the woods.
+
+The bonder, Einar, thanked Grettir for his assistance, and the lovely
+Gyrid gave him also her grateful acknowledgments and a sweet smile; but
+Grettir knew that a portionless unlucky man like himself could not
+aspire to her hand, and feeling that he was daily becoming more attached
+to her, he deemed it right at once to leave, and he went away to a place
+called Tunsberg, where lived his half-brother, Thorstein Dromund.
+
+Now, to understand the relationship of Dromund to Grettir, you must know
+that his father, Asmund, had been twice married.  He had been in Norway
+when a young man with a merchant ship, and he had also gone with his
+wares to England and France, and had gained great wealth; and as he had
+many relations in Norway he was well received there in winter, when he
+came back from his merchant trips.  On one of these occasions he had met
+a damsel called Ranveig, whose father and mother were dead.  She was of
+good birth, and was wealthy. Asmund asked for her hand and married her,
+and settled on the lands that belonged to her in Norway. They had a son
+called Thorstein, who, because he was rather slow of speech and manner,
+was nicknamed Dromund; but as we meet with other Thorsteins in this
+story, to prevent confusion we will speak of him as Dromund.
+
+After a while Asmund's wife Ranveig died, and then her relatives
+insisted on taking away all her lands and possessions and keeping them
+in trust for little Dromund.  Asmund did not care to quarrel with them,
+so he left Dromund with his late wife's relatives and went home to
+Iceland, where, after a few years, he married Asdis, and by her became
+the father of Atli, Grettir, and Illugi, and of two daughters, one of
+whom he named after his first wife.
+
+Dromund grew up in Norway on his estates at Tunsberg, and became a man
+of wealth and renown, a quiet man, but one who held his own, and was
+generally respected.
+
+Now Grettir went to him, and his half-brother received him very
+affectionately, and insisted on his remaining with him all the rest of
+the winter till it was time for him to sail to Iceland.
+
+One little incident is mentioned concerning that time that deserves to
+be recorded.
+
+Grettir slept in the same apartment as did his brother.
+
+One morning Dromund awoke early, and he saw how that Grettir's arms were
+out of bed, and he wondered at their size.
+
+Presently Grettir awoke, and then Dromund said to him: "Grettir, I have
+been amused with looking at your bare arms.  What muscles you have got!
+I never saw the like."
+
+"I need strong muscles to do what I have to do."
+
+"True enough, brother," said Dromund.  "But I could wish there were a
+little more luck as well as muscle attached to those bones."
+
+"Let me look at your arms," said Grettir.
+
+Then Dromund put his arms out of bed, and when he saw them Grettir burst
+out laughing, for they were so thin and scraggy.
+
+"Upon my word, brother, I never saw such a wretched pair of tongs in my
+life," he said.
+
+"They may be a pair of tongs, old boy," answered Dromund, "but they are
+tongs that shall ever be extended to help you when in need.  And," added
+Dromund in a lower tone, "if it should ever befall you that your
+ill-luck should overmaster you, and you not die in your bed; then,
+Grettir, I promise you, if I am alive, that I shall not let this pair of
+tongs rest till, with them, I have avenged you."
+
+No more is related of their talk together.  The spring wore on, and in
+summer Grettir took ship.
+
+The brothers parted with much affection, and they never again saw each
+other's face.
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER XX.*
+
+                       *OF WHAT BEFELL AT BIARG.*
+
+
+    _Thorbiorn's Servant--Ali at Biarg--Seeking a Quarrel--A Fair
+    Answer--Atli's Dilemma--Thorbiorn's Revenge--The Slaying of
+    Atli--Atli's Grave_
+
+
+Whilst Grettir was in Norway, that ill-luck which pursued him did not
+fail to touch and trouble his Icelandic home as well.
+
+It will be remembered that Grettir had been forced to fight the
+Slowcoach, and had killed him. Now the cousin of this man was Thorbiorn
+Oxmain, who lived in the Ramsfirth.  This Thorbiorn had got a
+serving-man named Ali, a somewhat lazy man, strong, but unruly.  As he
+did his work badly, and was slow about it, his master rebuked him, and
+when rebukes failed, he threatened him.  Threats also proved unavailing,
+so Thorbiorn one day took the stick to his back, and beat him till he
+danced.  After this Ali would remain no longer in his service; he ran
+away, crossed the ridge to the Midfiord, and came to Biarg, where he
+presented himself before Atli, who asked him what he wanted.
+
+The fellow said that he was in quest of service.
+
+"But," said Atli, "you are, I understand, one of Thorbiorn's workmen."
+
+"I was so, but I have left his service because I was badly treated.  He
+beat me till I was black and blue; no one can remain with him, he is so
+rough with his men, and he exacts of them too much work.  I have come
+here because I hear that you treat your servants well."
+
+Atli replied: "I have hands enough, you had better go back to Thorbiorn,
+for I do not want you."
+
+"I will never go back to him, that I declare," said the churl.  "If you
+turn me away, I have nowhere to which I can go."
+
+So he remained for a few nights at Biarg; and Atli did not like to turn
+him out of the house.  Then one day he went to work with Atli's men, and
+worked hard and well, for he was a powerful man. So time passed.  Atli
+did not agree to pay him any wage, and he did not send him away.  He did
+not feel best pleased at having the man there, but he was too
+kind-hearted to drive him away.
+
+Not only did he remain there and work well, but he showed himself ready
+to turn his hand to anything, and was the most useful man about the
+place.
+
+Now Thorbiorn heard that his churl was at Biarg. The death of Slowcoach
+had rankled in his breast. He had felt that it was his duty to take up
+the case and demand recompense, yet he had not done so; now he was
+angered that Atli had opened his doors to his runaway servant.  He had
+covenanted with the man for a year, but the fellow was so disagreeable
+that he would have gladly dispensed with his service; but that Atli
+should have received him, and that the man should be making himself
+useful at Biarg,--that made him very angry indeed.
+
+So he mounted his horse and rode to Biarg, attended by two men, and
+called out Atli to talk with him.
+
+Atli came forth and welcomed him.
+
+Then Thorbiorn said: "You are determined to pick up fresh occasion of
+quarrel, and stir ill-will between us.  Why have you enticed away my
+servant?  You had no right to behave thus to me."
+
+Atli replied quietly: "You are mistaken.  I did not entice him away.
+The fellow came to me.  I did not know for certain that he was your
+servant, nor did I know for how long he was engaged to you. Show me that
+I have done wrong and I will make reparation.  If he is yours, reclaim
+him, I will not keep him.  At the same time I do not like to shut him
+out of my house."
+
+"I claim the man," said Thorbiorn; "I forbid him to do a stroke of work
+here.  I expect him returned to me."
+
+"Nay," said Atli, "take the man, you are welcome to him; but I cannot
+bind him hand and foot and convey him to your house.  If you can get him
+to go with you, well and good, I will not detain him."
+
+Atli had answered fairly, but this did not satisfy Thorbiorn; he knew
+that he could not drag the man back to his farm, nor could he persuade
+him to follow, so he rode home in a mighty bad temper, his heart boiling
+with anger against Atli.  And now he thought that he would at one and
+the same time punish Atli for taking away his servant, and wipe out the
+wrong of the slaying of the Slowcoach.
+
+In the evening when the men came in from work, Atli said that Thorbiorn
+had been there and had reclaimed his churl, and Atli bade the fellow
+depart and go back to his master.
+
+Then the man said: "That's a true proverb, He who is most praised is
+found most faulty at the test. I came to you because I heard so much
+good of you, and now that I have toiled for you without wages all the
+early summer, as I have worked for none else, you want to kick me out of
+doors as winter draws on.  I will not go.  You will have to beat me as
+Thorbiorn beat me to make me leave this house, and then, even, I am not
+sure but that I shall remain in spite of being beaten."
+
+Atli did not know exactly what to do.  He did not wish to ill-treat the
+fellow, and yet without ill-treatment there was no getting rid of him.
+So he let him remain on.
+
+One day a warm wet rainy mist covered the land, the hills were enveloped
+in cloud; Atli sent out some of his men to mow at a distance where there
+was some grass, and others he sent out fishing.  He remained at home
+himself with only two or three men.
+
+That day Thorbiorn rode over the ridge that divided the dales, with a
+helmet on his head, a sword at his side, and a barbed spear in his hand.
+He came to Biarg, and no one noticed his approach. He went to the main
+door, and knocked at it.  Then he drew back behind the buildings, so
+that no one might see him from the door.  In Iceland the walls of a
+house between the gables are buttressed with turf--thick walls or
+buttresses that project several feet, and are about six or nine feet
+thick.  Such buttresses stood one on each side of the hall door at
+Biarg, and behind one of these Thorbiorn concealed himself.
+
+When he had knocked at the door, a woman came to it, unbarred and looked
+up and down the terrace or platform on which the house was built, but
+saw no one.  Thorbiorn peeped from behind the wall of turf and caught a
+glimpse of her, and then backed again into his hiding-place.  The woman
+then returned into the house, and told Atli that there was no one
+outside.
+
+She had hardly spoken before Thorbiorn knocked again.  Then Atli jumped
+up and said: "There must be someone there, and I will go and see myself
+who it is."
+
+Then he went forth and looked out of the door, but saw no one, as
+Thorbiorn had again retreated behind the bank of turf.  The water was
+streaming down, so Atli did not go from under cover, but laid a hand on
+each of the door-posts, and looked up and down the valley.
+
+Just as he was looking away from where Thorbiorn was concealed, that man
+suddenly swung himself round the bank of turf, and with all his might
+drove the spear against Atli, using both his hands. The spear entered
+him below the ribs, and ran right through him.  Atli uttered no cry, and
+fell forward over the threshold.  At that the women rushed forth, and
+they took Atli up, but he was dead.
+
+Then Thorbiorn, who had run to his horse, which was tied up behind the
+house, rode out on the terrace, and halting before the door proclaimed
+that he had done this deed.
+
+Now this was a formality which, according to Icelandic law, made his act
+to be not regarded as a murder.  A murder by law was the slaying of a
+man by one who concealed his name.
+
+Then Thorbiorn rode home.
+
+The goodwife, Asdis, sent for her men, and Atli's body was laid out, and
+he was buried beside his father, old Asmund, who had died during the
+winter. There was a church in those days at Biarg, but there is none
+there now.  When I was there I asked of the farmer now living in Biarg
+where was the old churchyard, but its site was lost; so I could not tell
+where were the graves of Atli the kind-hearted, honourable man, and the
+rest of the family.
+
+Great was the lamentation through the district at the death of one so
+loved and respected, and hard things were said of Thorbiorn for what he
+had done.
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER XXI.*
+
+                        *THE RETURN OF GRETTIR.*
+
+
+    _An Old Charge--Trial in Absence--Three Messengers of
+    Ill--Grettir and his Mother--Grettir goes to Revenge Atli_
+
+
+That same summer news reached Iceland of the burning of the hostel by
+Grettir.  When Thorir of Garth heard of the death of his sons he was
+furious.  He rode to the great annual assize at Thingvalla, with a large
+retinue, and charged Grettir with having killed his boys maliciously;
+and he demanded that for this offence Grettir should be outlawed.
+
+Then Skapti the judge said: "If things are as reported, then surely
+Grettir has committed an evil deed; but we have only heard one side of
+the story, and we only know of what has happened at third hand, by
+report; there are two ways of telling every story.  Let us wait till
+Grettir returns to Iceland. There will be time enough for this action to
+be taken.  I will not give my word that Grettir is guilty till we have
+heard what he has to say for himself."
+
+But Thorir was such a powerful chieftain that he overbore all
+resistance.  It was said that he could not lawfully take action against
+a man in his absence; but this was overridden by Thorir, who by packing
+the court was able to carry out what he wanted.  Moreover, owing to the
+death of Atli there was no one to oppose him vigorously.
+
+He pushed on matters so hard that nought could avail to acquit Grettir,
+and he was proclaimed an outlaw throughout the whole of Iceland, and
+Thorir also put a price on his head of many ounces of silver, which he
+said he would pay to that man who would kill him in Norway or Iceland,
+or wherever he might find him.
+
+Towards the close of the summer Grettir arrived in a vessel off the
+mouth of the White-river, an exile from Norway.
+
+It was a still summer night when the ship dropped anchor.  A boat came
+from the shore, and was rowed to the ship.  Grettir stood watching it
+from the bows, leaning on his sword.  As it touched the side of the
+ship, he called, "What news do you bring?"
+
+"Are you Grettir, Asmund's son?" asked a man rising in the boat.
+
+"I am," replied Grettir.
+
+"Then we bear you ill news: your father is dead."
+
+Another man stood up in the boat, and said: "Grettir, he was an old man,
+and you can hardly have expected to hear that he was still alive.  But
+what I have to say concerns you as closely, and is unexpected.  Your
+brother Atli has been slain by Thorbiorn Oxmain."
+
+Then a third man rose and said: "But these tidings concern others first
+and you secondly.  What I have to say concerns you mainly.  You have
+been made an outlaw throughout the length and breadth of the land, and a
+price is set on your head."
+
+It is said that Grettir did not change colour, nor did a muscle in his
+whole body quiver; but he lifted up his voice and sang this strain--
+
+    "All at once are showered
+    Round me, the Rhymer,
+    Tidings sad--my exile,
+    Father's loss and brother's,
+    Branching boughs of battle!
+    Many a blue-blade-breaker
+    Shall suffer for my sorrow."
+
+
+The branching bough of battle is a periphrasis for a man, so also is a
+blue-blade-breaker; and it is the use of such periphrases that
+constituted poetry to Icelandic ideas.  One night Grettir swam ashore.
+He thought that his enemies would be awaiting him, and should he venture
+to land in a boat would fall on him in overwhelming numbers; so he took
+to the water and swam to a point at some distance. Then he took a horse
+that he found in a farm near where he came ashore, and he rode across
+country to the Middle-firth, and reached home in two days.  He reached
+Biarg during the night when all were asleep; so instead of disturbing
+the household, he opened a private door, stepped into the hall, stole up
+to his mother's bed, and threw his arms round her neck.
+
+She started up, and asked who was there.  When he told her, she clasped
+him to her heart, and laid her head, sobbing, on his breast, saying.
+"Oh, my son!  I am bereaved of my children!  Atli, my eldest, has been
+foully murdered, and you are outlawed; only Illugi remains."
+
+Grettir remained at home a few days in close concealment.  Even the men
+of the farm were not suffered to know that he was there.  He heard the
+story of how Thorbiorn Oxmain had basely and in cowardly manner slain
+his brother, when Atli was unarmed; and Grettir considered that it was
+his duty to avenge his death.
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER XXII*
+
+                        *THE SLAYING OF OXMAIN.*
+
+
+    _By the Boiling Spring--Grettir knocks the Nail from his
+    Spear--Oxmain places his Son in Ambush--The Fight with
+    Oxmain--Grettir's Spear-head--The Law concerning Manslaying--A
+    Rising Black Cloud_
+
+
+One fine day, soon after his return, Grettir mounted a horse, and
+without an attendant rode over the hill to the Ramsfirth, and came down
+to Thorod's-stead.  This is still a good farm, the best on the fiord,
+and it is by far the best built pile of buildings thereabouts.  It faces
+the south and is banked up with turf to the north, to shelter it against
+the cold and furious gales from the Polar Sea.  The soil is
+comparatively rich there, and there are tracts of good grass land on the
+slope of the hill by the side of the inlet of sea.  The farm buildings
+consists at present of a set of wooden gable ends painted red, and the
+roofs are all of turf, where the buttercups grow and shine luxuriantly.
+
+Grettir rode up to the farmhouse, about noon, and knocked at the door.
+Some women came out and welcomed him; they did not know who he was, or
+they would have been more sparing in their welcome.  He asked after
+Thorbiorn, and was told that he was gone to the meadow, a little way
+further down the firth, where he had gone to bind hay, and that he had
+taken with him his son, called Arnor, who was a boy of sixteen.
+
+When Grettir heard this, he said farewell to the women, and turned his
+horse's head to ride down the fiord towards a boiling spring that
+bubbles up out of the rock, throwing up a cloud of steam, and running in
+a scalding rill into the sea.  Now the rock is perhaps warm there, or
+the warm water helps vegetation; certain it is that thereabouts the
+grass grows thickly, and there it was that Thorbiorn was making his
+bundles of hay.  As Grettir rode along near the water, below the field,
+Thorbiorn saw him. He had just made up one bundle of hay, and he was
+engaged on another.  He had set his shield and sword against the load,
+and his lad Arnor had a hand-axe beside him.
+
+Thorbiorn looked hard at Grettir as he came along, and he said to the
+boy: "There is a fellow riding this way.  I wonder who he is, and
+whether he wants us. Leave tying up the hay, and let us find out what
+his errand is."
+
+Then Grettir leaped off his horse; he had a helmet on his head, and was
+girt with the short sword, and he bore a great spear in his hand that
+had a long sharp blade but no barbs.  The socket was inlaid with silver,
+and a nail went through the socket fastening it on to the staff of the
+spear.  He sat down on a stone, and knocked the nail out.  His reason
+was that he intended to throw the spear at Thorbiorn, and if he missed
+him, he thought the spear-head and the haft would come apart, and would
+be of no use to Thorbiorn to fling back at him.
+
+Oxmain said to his son: "I verily believe that is Grettir, Asmund's son,
+he is so big; I know no one else so big.  He has got occasion enough
+against us, and if he is come here it is not with peaceable intentions.
+Now we must manage cunningly.  I do not know that he has seen you; so
+you hide behind the bundle of hay, and lie hid till you see him engaged
+with me.  Then you steal up noiselessly behind with your axe, and strike
+him one blow with all your might between the shoulder-blades.  When I
+see you coming up, I will fight the more furiously so as to draw off his
+attention, that he may not be able to look round.  Have no fear, he
+cannot hurt you, as his back will be turned to you.  Get close enough to
+make sure, and you will kill him with one blow."
+
+Now Grettir came uphill into the field, and when he came within a
+spear-throw of them, he cast his spear at Thorbiorn; but the head was
+looser on the shaft than he had expected it would be, and it became
+detached in its flight, and fell off and dropped into a marshy place and
+sank, and the shaft flew on but a little way and then fell harmlessly to
+the ground.
+
+Then Thorbiorn took his shield, put it before him, drew his sword and
+ran against Grettir and engaged him.  Grettir had, as already said, the
+short sword that he had taken out of the barrow, and with that he warded
+off the blows of Thorbiorn and smote at him.  Oxmain was a very strong
+man, and his shield was covered with well-tanned hide stretched over
+oak, and the blade of Grettir fell on it, hacked into it, and sometimes
+caught so that he could not at once withdraw it.  Thorbiorn now began to
+deal more furious blows.  Now just as Grettir was wrenching his sword
+away from the shield, into which it had bitten deep, he saw someone
+close behind him with an axe raised.  Instantly he tore out his sword
+and smote back over his head to protect his back from his assailant
+behind, and the blow came on Arnor just as he was on the point of
+driving his axe in between the shoulders of Grettir, so that he
+staggered back, mortally wounded.  Thorbiorn, whose eye was on his son,
+retreated a step, lost his presence of mind for a moment, and thereupon
+down came Grettir's sword on his shield and split it in half.  Grettir
+pursued his advantage, pressed on him, and struck him down at his feet,
+dead at a blow.
+
+Then he went in search of his silver-inlaid spear-head, but could not
+find it.  So he mounted his horse again, rode on to the nearest
+farmhouse, and there told what he had done.  Many, many years after,
+about 1250, the spear-head was found in the marsh.  When I was in
+Iceland I also obtained a very similar spear-head, only not
+silver-inlaid, that was found in the volcanic sand; it had probably been
+lost in a very similar manner.
+
+It seems to us in these civilized times very horrible this continual
+slaying that took place in Iceland; but we must remember that, as
+already said, there were in those days not a single policeman, soldier,
+or officer of justice in the island.  When a trial took place, the
+prosecutor was the person aggrieved, or the nearest akin.  The court
+pronounced sentence, and then the prosecutor was required to carry out
+what the law had ordered.  He was to be constable and executioner.  Now
+the law, or custom which was the same as law, for there was no written
+code, was that when one man had been killed, the next of kin was bound
+to prosecute the slayer and obtain from him money compensation, or
+outlawry, or else he might kill the slayer himself, or one of his kin.
+This latter provision seems to us outrageous, that because A kills B,
+therefore that C, who is B's brother, may kill D, who is brother to A.
+But so the law or custom stood and was recognized as binding, and not to
+carry out the law or custom was regarded as dishonourable.  It must be
+remembered that Iceland was colonized about A.D. 900, and that Grettir
+was born only about 97 years after, and that Christianity was adopted in
+1000; that is to say, it was sanctioned by law, but no one was forced to
+become a Christian unless he liked.  Also, that there was no government
+in the island, no central authority, and that the colonists lived much
+as do the first settlers now in a new colony which is not under the
+crown, or like the diggers at the gold mines.
+
+When Grettir had slain Thorbiorn Oxmain, he went home to Biarg and told
+his mother, who said it was well that Atli's blood was wiped out by the
+death of the man who had so basely and in such cowardly fashion slain
+him; but she said she foresaw more trouble coming like a rising black
+cloud, and that this would make it more difficult for Grettir to get
+relief from his outlawry.
+
+
+
+
+                            *CHAPTER XXIII.*
+
+                             *AT LEARWOOD.*
+
+
+    _At Hvamsfiord--Iceland Scenery--An Iceland Paradise--One Lucky
+    Chance--Kuggson's Story--Onund's Voyage--In Search of
+    Uninhabited Land--The Landing--Eric's Gift--A Cold Back!--Better
+    than Nothing--An Oversight--Death of Onund--Planning a
+    Murder--Killing the Curd Bottle--The Churl's Axe--The Red
+    Stream--Hard Times--The "Wooden-tub"--The Stranded Whale--The
+    Fight over the Whale--Retreat of the Coldbackers--Before the
+    Assize--The Judgment--An Evil Act--Ill-luck follows Ill_
+
+
+After the slaying of Thorbiorn Oxmain, Grettir would not remain at home,
+lest trouble should come on his mother; so he rode across the Neck first
+of all to his brother-in-law, at Melar, at the head of the Ramsfirth, to
+ask his advice.  His brother-in-law there was called Gamli; he was not
+very rich or powerful, and he represented to Grettir that it would never
+do for him to remain in such near proximity to Thorod's-stead, in the
+same valley, at the head of the same firth.  This Grettir acknowledged,
+so he stayed there but a few days, and then rode over the high
+table-land to the Lax, or Salmon-dale, where was the watershed, and the
+river of the salmon ran west into Hvamsfiord.  One of the most
+interesting and best written of the Icelandic sagas relates to the
+history of this valley.  The Hvamsfiord is by nature wonderfully
+protected against western storms, for the entrance is almost blocked to
+the west by a countless multitude of islands, of which only one is
+moderately large, and to the north-west is not only a grassy promontory,
+but also a natural breakwater of three long narrow islands.
+
+Outside the cluster of islands are eddies and whirlpools, and the
+passage between them is not always safe; but when a vessel has passed
+through between the islets it enters as into a wide beautiful inland
+lake, the shape of which is that of a boot, with the sole to the east
+and the toe turned up north.  Moreover, along the north side of this
+sheltered firth are high and steep hills that screen from the water all
+gales sweeping from the Pole; and in the glens and under the crags of
+these hills exposed to the south are beautiful woods of birch.
+
+Formerly in Iceland the woods were much more extensive than they are
+now; for the old settlers found in them plenty of fuel, and the
+birch-trees grew to a fair size.  Now, alas, with fatal want of
+consideration, the trees have been so cut down that the woods are rare
+and the trees are small.  There is hardly a birch-tree whose top one
+cannot touch when riding through a wood on a little pony no bigger than
+a Shetlander.
+
+Exactly at the toe of the boot is a rich grassy basin, where two streams
+flow into the fiord, and here is a beautiful view from the water.  One
+sees in front the green basin, and above it rise the mountains to
+Skeggoxl, a cone covered with eternal snows and with glaciers streaming
+down its flanks.  Here, in a sweet sheltered nook, basking in the sun,
+in spring with the river-side and the marshes blazing with immense
+marigolds, and with the short grass slopes speckled with blue tiny
+gentianella, is the farm, and near it the wooden church of Hvam.  In
+another part of the basin is a settlement called Asgard, the "Home of
+the gods;" for those who settled there first thought the spot so
+delightful, so warm, that they named it after the sunny land of fable,
+where it was said that their ancestors, the hero-gods of the northern
+race, had lived in the east before ever they crossed Russia and settled
+in Norway.  Asgard to their minds was Paradise.
+
+Paradise in Iceland is not a paradise elsewhere; nevertheless, to one
+who has travelled over barren hills and between glaciers, this warm nook
+with its green grass and woods of glistening birch was a place of
+inexpressible charm.  Now, just to the east, where would come the ball
+of the toe, looking across the end of this still blue lake-like fiord,
+up the valleys to the snows of Skeggoxl, is the farm of Learwood, in a
+grassy flat by the water, backed by birchwood and hills, and screened
+from the east as well as from the north winds.  Here lived Thorstein
+Kuggson. Kuggson's mother was the daughter of Asgeir, the father of
+Audun of Willowdale, with whom Grettir had a tussle on the ice, and whom
+he afterwards upset with his foot when he was carrying curds. Kuggson
+through his father was related to the influential and wealthy family in
+the Laxdale, whose history is well known through the noble saga that
+relates the story of that valley.
+
+Grettir spent the autumn with his relative Kuggson.  Now, whilst he was
+there he fell to talking one day with Kuggson about his trial of
+strength with Audun, and Grettir said how glad he was that nothing had
+come of it.  It was said that he was a man of ill-luck; yet luck had
+befriended him on that occasion in sending Bard to interrupt the
+struggle before both lost their tempers and the quarrel became serious.
+
+Then said Kuggson: "You remind me of the story of Bottle-back, which, of
+course, you know."
+
+"It is many years since I have heard the tale," answered Grettir; "for,
+indeed, I can be little at home now, and am out of the way of hearing
+stories of one's forefathers.  Tell me the tale."
+
+Then Kuggson told Grettir
+
+
+
+                       *The Story of Bottle-Back*
+
+
+"You know very surely, Grettir, that your great-grandfather was Onund
+Treefoot.  He was so called because in the great battle of Haf's fiord,
+fought against King Harald, he had one of his legs cut off below the
+knee.  You have been told how that Onund had first to wife Asa, and that
+he settled at Cold-back; and he had by his first wife two sons, Thorgeir
+and Ufeig, who was also called Grettir, and it is after him that you are
+named.  Onund's second wife was the mother of Thorgrim Grizzlepate, your
+grandfather.
+
+"The story I am going to tell you relates to Thorgeir, the eldest son of
+Onund, and how he got the name of Bottle-back.  You might think he
+acquired the designation from a rounded back.  It was not so, he had a
+back as straight as yours.
+
+"But to understand the story of how he got the name, I must go back to
+the time when Onund, your great-grandfather, came to Iceland.  That was
+in the year of Christ 900; he was unable to remain any longer in Norway,
+because the king, Harald, was in such enmity with him.  So he resolved
+that he would come to Iceland and seek there a new home. Now this was
+somewhat late, for the colonization of this island had begun some five
+or six and twenty years before, and there had come out great numbers of
+Norwegian chiefs, who fled from the rapacity and the vengeance of King
+Harald Fairhair, who outlawed every man who took up arms against him."
+
+But the story shall be told not in Kuggson's words, but in mine.
+
+Onund sailed to Iceland from Norway in the summer of A.D. 900, and he
+had a hard voyage and baffling winds from the south that drove him far
+away to the north into the Polar Sea, till he came near the pack-ice;
+and then there came a change, and he made south, and after much beating
+about, for he had lost his reckoning, he made land, and found that he
+had come upon the north coast of Iceland, and those who knew the looks
+of the land said he was off the Strand Bay.  To the west rose the rocks
+and glaciers of the Drang Jokull, and to the east the long promontory
+that separated the Hunafloi from Skagafiord.
+
+Presently a ten-oared boat put off from shore, rowed by six men, and
+approached Onund's vessel, and the men in the boat hailed the vessel and
+asked whose it was.  Onund gave his name and inquired to whom the men
+belonged.  They said they were servant men belonging to a farm at
+Drangar, just under the mighty field of glacier of Drang Jokull. Onund
+asked if all the land was taken up by settlers, and the men answered
+that along the north coast all such land as was worth anything was taken
+already, and that most was also settled to the south.
+
+Then Onund consulted with his shipmates what was to be done, whether
+coast along the north protuberance of Iceland in search of uninhabited
+land, or go into the great bay and see whether any chance opened for
+them there.  They had arrived so late in Iceland after the main rush of
+settlers that they could not expect to get any really favourable
+quarters. The men advised against exploring the north, exposed to the
+cold gales from the Polar Sea, where the fiords would be blocked with
+ice half the year; and thought there would be no harm trying what they
+could find further south.
+
+So Onund turned his vessel in towards the head of the splendid bay
+Hunafloi; but seeing a creek that seemed fairly sheltered, having on the
+north some quaint spikes of rock, and a great mountain to the south like
+a horn, and finding that this fiord gave a turn northwards under the
+shelter of the mountains, the men with Onund's consent ran in there, and
+having anchored the vessel, entered a boat and rowed ashore.  On
+reaching the strand they were met by men who asked them who they were
+and what they did there.  Onund said he had come with peaceable
+intentions, and then he was told that all that fiord was occupied, and
+that the owner of the land was Eric Trap, a wealthy man.  Eric came to
+the beach and hospitably invited Onund and his ship's crew to his house.
+There Onund told him his difficulty.  He had come to Iceland too late,
+and he feared that he would be able nowhere to find unclaimed lands.
+
+Eric considered a while, and then said there was more land that he had
+claimed than he could well keep in hand, and that he would be pleased to
+accommodate a man of such noble family and character as was Onund.
+Onund pressed him to receive payment for the land, but this Eric
+generously refused. When he had come there, said Eric, the country had
+been unpeopled, and he had just claimed what he liked, and had claimed
+more than he wanted.  Now he desired to have neighbours, and if Onund
+would be friendly none would be better pleased than himself to have him
+near.
+
+This gratifying offer satisfied Onund, but, as the saying is, 'Don't
+look a gift-horse in the mouth,' he did not at once close with the
+offer, but asked to be allowed to see the land Eric was so ready to part
+with.
+
+Accordingly he rode with Eric along the coast, passed the headland where
+was the horn-shaped mountain, and came upon a fiord where some boiling
+springs poured up in the sea out of its depths; the mountains on the
+north came down so abruptly to the water's edge that the only habitable
+ground lay at the head of the firth and on the south side, having a
+northern aspect.  Moreover there was a lofty range to the south, so that
+in winter the sun would never light up this firth.  Onund did not much
+like it, he thought that Eric had offered him the place because he did
+not care for it himself; so he went across the mountain range and down
+into the little bay south of it.  As they rode it was over snow, a long
+descent of wintry mountain, till they reached a valley in which was a
+hot spring, a little lake, and some grass.  The situation was somewhat
+more inviting than that Onund had already seen, but it was not very
+attractive, and looking back on the long dreary slope of snow he said,
+"A cold back! a cold back! I would like to have had one warmer."  "That
+is not easily acquired," answered Eric.  "Further south there is no
+fiord for many miles till you come to one occupied by a man called
+Biarni.  That I can tell you is a fertile settlement, there are woods
+and pastures, and hot springs and good anchorage; but that is not my
+land to give you."
+
+Then Onund sang a stave:
+
+    "All across life's strands do run,
+    I who many war-wagers won,
+    Meadows green and pastures fair
+    Once were mine, and woods to spare.
+    Left behind, I rid the steed
+    That o'er wave, with wind doth speed.[#]
+    Cold--cold, icy back behind,
+    This is what alone I find,
+    Hard the lot that fate doth yield
+    To the bearer of the shield."
+
+[#] _i.e._ a ship.
+
+
+Eric answered, "Many men have lost everything in Norway, and have got
+nothing in exchange. Cold may be the back against which to lean; but
+better cold back than none at all."
+
+This was true.  Onund had not received Eric's offer graciously; but he
+now accepted it, and he called the second bay he saw--that into which he
+had descended over snow--Coldback, and that remains the name to this
+day.
+
+Eric behaved very nobly; he gave up to Onund the whole tract of land
+from the Horn-headland to the limit where Biarni's land began.  He
+received the whole of Reykjafiord, Fishless Creek, and Coldback Bay.
+
+Then Onund built himself a house at Coldback; and there was no
+difficulty about wood, for the Gulfstream flowed up past the great
+north-west promontory of Iceland, curled round into Hunafloi, and
+deposited a quantity of American timber as drift all along that coast.
+Indeed, the drift was so abundant that neither Eric nor Onund made any
+agreement about it.  Now, as it happened in the sequel, this was an
+oversight.
+
+Onund prospered at Coldback, and even set up for himself a second farm
+at the head of the firth to the north, called Reykja-firth, from the
+boiling springs that puffed and bubbled up in the sea at the entrance;
+and a hot spring is in Icelandic--Reykr.
+
+Now, a few years after Onund had settled in Iceland, his good wife Asa
+died.  He had by her two sons--the elder was called Thorgeir, and the
+younger Ufeig Grettir.  After a while Onund went courting a woman called
+Thordis, in Middle-firth, and he married her, and by her had a son
+called Thorgrim; he grew to be a big man, very strong, wise, and a
+capital man at husbandry.  When he was twenty-five years old his hair
+grew gray, and so he went by the name of Thorgrim Grizzle-pate, and he
+was the grandfather of Grettir.  After the death of Onund, his widow
+married, as already said, Audun of Willowdale, and their son was Asgeir,
+the father of Grettir's cousin Audun, with whom he had that affray on
+the ice, and then with the bottle of curds.
+
+When Onund was a very old man, then he died in his bed, and he was
+buried under a great mound, which you may see at Coldback if you go
+there.  It is called Old Treefoot's cairn.  When he was dead, then
+Thorgrim Grizzlepate and his half-brothers, Thorgeir and Ufeig Grettir,
+lived together on the best of terms at Coldback, and managed the
+property between them.
+
+In time Eric Trap of Arness died also, and left his lands to his son
+Flossi.  He had remained in friendship with Onund all his life; but
+Flossi, his son, was a grasping man, and he was often heard to grumble
+about the Coldback family, and say that they were squatters on his
+father's land, and had no title to show for the land they held.
+Thorgrim Grizzlepate and his half-brothers did not wish to quarrel with
+Flossi, so they kept out of his company; and when there were sports of
+hurling, and wrestling, and horse-fighting, strayed away, so as not to
+be involved in a quarrel with him.
+
+Now, Thorgeir was the eldest of the three brothers at Coldback, and he
+was mightily fond of fishing.  This was known to Flossi, and he made a
+plot for slaying him; for he was envious of the brothers, and wanted to
+get back all their lands into his own possession.  He had got a
+house-churl called Finn, and he and Finn had some talk together. The end
+of this talk was that Finn started secretly for Coldback armed with a
+hatchet, and he hid himself in the boat-house at Coldback.
+
+Early in the morning Thorgeir got ready to go out fishing, for the
+weather was good, the sea calm and was alive with fish.  His nets were
+in the boat, and before sunrise he left his bed and dressed, and went to
+the boat-house to start on his excursion. He had not the smallest
+suspicion of mischief, and as he was like to be on the water for a long
+time, he flung a great leather bottle of curds over his back. As already
+said, these leather bottles were no other than the hides of goats or
+sheep, sewn up and converted into receptacles for liquid.
+
+So Thorgeir went to the boat-house with the bottle of curd over his
+back, opened the door, and went in.  He did not look round, he had no
+suspicion of evil, and he did not see Finn lurking in the dark corner.
+It was, moreover, very dark in the boat-house.  Thorgeir stooped to get
+hold of the boat and thrust her out, when all at once out from the dark
+corner leaped the churl, and brought the axe down on Thorgeir's back.
+The blow made the bottle squeak, and all the curds gushed out.  That was
+enough for Finn.  He made sure he had killed Thorgeir, so he ran away as
+fast as he could back to Arness, burst into the house, and shouted to
+his master "I have killed him!  I have killed him!  And he squeaked!  he
+squeaked!"
+
+"Let me look at the axe," said Flossi.  Then, when he had the axe in his
+hand he turned it about and laughed, and said, "Verily, I did not think
+that Thorgeir had milk in his veins instead of blood. That accounts for
+it, that you have been able to slay him."
+
+This affair was a subject of much comment, and much laughter did it
+provoke.  Thorgeir had not received the smallest wound, only his bottle
+was split, and ever after he went by the name of Bottle-back.
+
+But a song was made about this event which was never forgotten.  It runs
+thus:--
+
+      "Of the days of old
+      Great tales are told
+    How heroes went forth to fight,
+      Their shields, for show
+      Were whitened as snow,
+    And their weapons were burnished bright
+      The battle began,
+      In the weapon-clang,
+    The red blood flowed apace
+      In rivers shed
+      It dyed red
+    The shields o'er all their face.
+      But nowaday
+      We tune our lay
+    To tell a different story.
+      The churls who fight
+      Bring axes white,
+    With curds and whey made gory."
+
+
+When Kuggson ceased, Grettir laughed heartily. "Ah!" said he, "that
+cannot be said now, for indeed there flows much blood."
+
+"You speak the truth," answered Kuggson; "and I wish that this red
+stream flowed less abundantly."
+
+"That may be," said Grettir; "but I would fain hear the rest of the
+story.  I have not heard it told me for a long time; and, indeed, to
+speak the truth, much of it I have clean forgotten, though I did hear it
+when I was a boy at home."
+
+"If you will hear what follows, it must be as a new story," said
+Kuggson.  Again I will tell it in my own words.
+
+
+
+                   *The Story of the Stranded Whale*
+
+
+Hard times came to Iceland, such as had not been known since it was
+settled, for the timber that had been thrown up by the sea came to an
+end, or very nearly so.  There had been great accumulations, and these
+were exhausted, and for some reason or other that cannot now be
+explained the Gulf-stream ceased to carry on its current the amount of
+timber it had formerly, the wreckage of the forests on the Mississippi,
+swept down into the great Mexican Gulf, and thence washed out over the
+vast Atlantic, borne on the warm stream to the north, to give fuel to
+those lands which were by nature unprovided with trees.  At this time
+the axe was laid against the largest and finest birch that grew in the
+forests in Iceland.  But none of that timber was big and good enough for
+building purposes.
+
+This deficiency in drift-wood continued for many seasons, and if men
+required building timber they were constrained to send to Norway for it.
+Now, it happened that about this time a great merchant vessel was
+wrecked in the fiord in the lap of which was Arness, where lived Flossi,
+and he took four or five of the chapmen to his house, and lodged them
+there well and hospitably, and the other wrecked men were quartered in
+other farmhouses near.  All winter the men were engaged in building a
+new ship out of the wreck and what other timber they could get; but they
+were not skilful over their work, and they built a badly-proportioned
+vessel, over small at the stem and stern and over big amidships; and
+this vessel was much laughed at, and men called it the Wooden-tub, and
+that bay where Flossi lived was ever after called Wooden-tub Bay,
+because this broad-beamed, comical vessel was built there.[#]
+
+[#] It is still so called, Trekyllis-vic.
+
+Now, it fell out that at the spring equinox there was a great storm from
+the north, and it lasted a week.  The waves came in huge rollers against
+the cliffs, and spouted like geysers into the air, and all the air was
+in a haze with spray, and was full of the noise of the sea.  Those who
+lived on the coast were not sorry for the storm, because they hoped it
+would blow in drift-wood and other spoils of the deep upon the shores;
+and sure enough, when it abated, a man who lived out on Reykja-ness came
+and told Flossi that there was a great whale washed ashore there. Then
+Flossi sent word to all the farms round to the north.  But hard-by where
+the whale had come ashore lived a farmer named Einar, who was a tenant
+under the brothers at Coldback, so he took a boat and rowed off to
+Coldback, and told them about the monster that was stranded.
+
+When Thorgrim and his brothers Thorgeir and Ufeig heard this, they got
+ready at once, and were twelve in a ten-oared boat, with axes and knives
+for cutting up the whale.  Another boat put off from another of their
+farms, with six men in it, and others were sure to come as soon as they
+could get ready.
+
+In the meantime, Flossi and all his company, his kindred, servants, and
+tenants, had hurried to the spot, and were already engaged in cutting up
+the whale, when round the ness came the boat of the brothers.  Now, the
+shore where the whale was cast up belonged to the brothers, and they
+called out to Flossi to assert their right to whatever was found on the
+strand.  Flossi answered that if they had any right to the drift they
+must show their claim. They had, he said, been allowed by his father to
+squat on his land, but his father had never given over to them all his
+rights, certainly not the lordship over the strand, and claim to flotsam
+and jetsam. Whilst the dispute continued, up came other boats of the
+Coldback party, and then a long boat, that contained a fellow called
+Swan, who lived in Biornfiord, to the south of Coldback, a very warm
+friend of the brothers, and a plucky, resolute man.
+
+Thorgrim was hesitating what to do, when Swan told him it would be mean
+to allow himself to be robbed.  Moreover, this assault on his rights, if
+not resisted would establish a precedent, and Flossi would claim
+everything found on their strand, even at their very doors.
+
+So a fight began.  The Coldback men came ashore, and Thorgeir
+Bottle-back mounted the carcase of the whale, to drive off the servants
+of Flossi. Among these was Finn; he was near the head of the whale, and
+stood in a foothold he had cut for himself.  Then Thorgeir Bottle-back
+said, "Ah!  I owe you a stroke of the axe, which has not been repaid as
+yet," and he smote at him, and felled him.
+
+Flossi egged on his men, and a desperate fight ensued; some fought on
+the body of the whale, some about it.  There were hardly any present who
+had other weapons save choppers and axes, and they hewed at each other
+with these.  But some had no other weapons than the ribs of the whale,
+and it is even said that some of the churls flourished great strips of
+blubber, with which they banged each other about, nearly smothering each
+other in oil, but not doing much harm.
+
+The battle was going ill with Flossi, when there arrived a contingent of
+men from Drangar, with many boats, and gave help to Flossi, and then
+those of Coldback were borne back overpowered; but they did not retreat
+till they had loaded their boats. Swan shouted to the Coldbackers to get
+on board as quickly as they could, for he saw more men coming against
+them from the north.  Flossi received a wound, but Ufeig, one of the
+three brothers, was dealt his death-wound before he could get into the
+boat, and he fell on the strand.  Thorgeir Bottle-back at once leaped
+out of the vessel, ran to his brother, heaved him up in his arms and
+plunged back through the surf with him, and lifted him into the boat,
+where he died.  It is told that in this battle one man was beaten to
+death by the rib of a whale, and that was one of the chapmen of the
+wrecked vessel.
+
+After this, the matter was brought before the assize, for the question
+of the right to the shore had to be decided one way or the other.  And
+it was decided in this manner: Flossi was condemned to outlawry for his
+high-handed proceeding, and because of the death of Ufeig Grettir; but
+the question of the rights was thus settled by the judge, Thorkel Moon.
+He said, "I cannot see that the claim made by the Coldback men is
+established, for no money passed between Onund and Eric.  I know this
+about the land that was possessed by my grandfather Ingolf, and which is
+now my own.  He received it from Steinver the Old; but then he gave her
+a mottled cloak, and that was a pledge of sale; and this has never been
+contested.  In the matter of the lands inhabited by the Coldback men, as
+far as I can learn, not even a straw was given in exchange.  However, it
+is proved that they have held the land, and have taken the drift for a
+long time; and that the original owner, Eric, did not dispute their
+doing so.  I therefore decide that a compromise shall hold good.  The
+Coldback brothers must surrender all the Reykja-firth, and content
+themselves with the land south of that.  And I also decide that they
+shall exercise full and undisputed rights to the land, to all that grows
+on it, to the sea and what it throws up, along that bit of strand that
+remains to them."
+
+
+Now when Kuggson had finished this story, then Grettir said, "You have
+not told how my grandfather and great-uncle parted."
+
+"No," said Kuggson.  "There is not much to tell about that.  The two
+brothers agreed to separate, as your grandfather wanted to marry in the
+Middlefirth. Bottle-back remained at Coldback."
+
+"Now that you have spoken so much about Coldback," said Grettir, "I will
+tell you something, though it is to my discredit."
+
+"Say on," answered Kuggson.  "Men are generally more ready to boast than
+to discredit themselves."
+
+"When I was a little boy," said Grettir, "my father suffered from a cold
+back and great pains in it, in winter, and he only got ease when it was
+rubbed with a hot flannel.  I was a bad, idle boy, and I was set in
+winter to rub his cold back.  This I resented.  I thought it was a work
+fit only for servants, and one day when my father had made me rub his
+old back till I was tired, then he said to me, 'You are growing slack;
+rub harder, that I may feel your hand.'  'Do you so want to feel my
+hand, father,' I said.  Then I saw a wool-comb hard by that the women
+had used for carding wool, and I caught it and rubbed down my father's
+back with that--so that he shrieked with pain, and I made the blood
+flow.  It was a wicked act.  I think of it now the old man is dead, and
+I am sorry."
+
+"Yes," said Kuggson, "it was an evil act.  Men say that you are an
+unlucky man.  Now, I do not wonder at your ill-luck, for none ever
+raised his hand against his father but there followed him ill in
+consequence of so doing all his days."
+
+
+
+
+                            *CHAPTER XXIV.*
+
+                         *THE FOSTER-BROTHERS.*
+
+
+    _Grettir's Promise--The Yule Ox--Holding the Boat--A Hard
+    Pull--Grettir and the Ox--Thorgeir's Hatred--The Concealed
+    Axe--Evil Sport--An Iceland Moor_
+
+
+Now, the kinsmen of Oxmain heard where Grettir was, so they resolved to
+form a party, and fall upon him at Learwood.  But Grettir's
+brother-in-law was aware of this and forewarned Grettir, so he went away
+to the north, and he followed Gilsfiord till he reached Reyk-knolls,
+where was a pleasant farm near the sea, where also were a great number
+of ever-boiling springs, that poured and squirted and fizzed out of
+mounds of red-clay.  Here lived a man called Thorgils Arison, and he
+asked this man if he would give him shelter through the winter.
+
+Arison said that he would.  "But," said he, "there is only plain fare in
+my house."
+
+"I am not choice as to my food, so long as I have a roof over my head,"
+answered Grettir.
+
+"There is one matter further," said Arison. "Somehow or other I get men
+come to me and offer to become my guests who cannot settle elsewhere,
+and I get a rough lot at times.  That comes of being too good-hearted to
+bid them pack.  Even now I have two such good-for-naughts guesting with
+me, two foster-brothers, Thorgeir and Thormod; rough, unkempt men, of
+bad tempers both, and I wot not how you will agree together.  You may
+come and put your head within my doors if you will, but on one
+condition, that there be no fighting and knocking about of my other
+guests."
+
+Grettir answered that he would not be the first to raise strife, and
+that if the foster-brothers provoked him beyond endurance he would go
+elsewhere, and not give his host annoyance by a brawl in his house.
+
+With this promise Arison was content.
+
+Thorgils Arison was a firm man, and he told the foster-brothers that he
+would have no disturbance whilst they were with him, and they also
+promised to be orderly.  Thorgeir did not like Grettir.  He scowled at
+him and contradicted him, but did not pursue his rudeness beyond bounds;
+and when Grettir was ruffled, a word from the master of the house served
+to appease the rising blood.
+
+So the early winter wore away.
+
+Now, the good man, Thorgils Arison, owned a cluster of islands in the
+firth that are called Olaf's Isles; they lie a good sea-mile and a half
+beyond the ness.  On them grass grows, and there the bonder kept his
+cattle to fatten in autumn.  Now, there was an ox on one of these isles
+that Arison said he must have home before the snows and storms of winter
+came on, as he intended to kill the beast for the feastings of Yule.  So
+the foster-brothers and Grettir volunteered to go out to the island, and
+fetch the ox home.
+
+They went down to the sea and got out a ten-oared boat, and there were
+but these three to man it.  The weather was cold, and the wind was
+shifting from the north and not settled.  They rowed hard, and reached
+the island; but the sea was running and foaming over the shore, and they
+saw it would be no easy matter to get the ox on board with such a surf.
+So the brothers told Grettir he must hold the boat, whilst they got the
+ox in.  He agreed, and went into the water, and stood amidships on the
+side out to sea, and thrust the boat towards the shore, whilst the
+brothers laboured to get the ox in.  Thorgeir took up the ox by the hind
+legs, and Thormod by the fore legs, as the beast refused to be driven on
+board, and so they carried the animal into the boat; but Grettir, who
+held the craft, had the sea up to his shoulder-blades, and he held her
+perfectly fast.
+
+When the ox was hove in, Grettir let go and got into the boat.  Thormod
+took oar in the bows, Thorgeir amidships, and Grettir aft, and so they
+made out into the open bay.  As they came out from the lee of the island
+the squall caught them, the waves leaped and foamed, and Thorgeir
+shouted "Now then, stern!  Have you gone to sleep?  Why are you
+lagging?"
+
+Grettir answered, "The stern will not lag when the rowing afore is
+good."
+
+Thereupon Thorgeir fell to rowing so furiously that both the tholes were
+broken.  So he called to Grettir, "Row on steadily whilst I mend the
+thole-pins."
+
+Then Grettir rowed so mightily, whilst Thorgeir was engaged mending the
+pins, that he wore through the oars, and when Thorgeir was ready they
+snapped like matches.
+
+"Better row with less haste and more caution," growled Thormod.
+
+Then Grettir stooped and picked out of the bottom of the boat two
+unshapen oar-beams that lay there; but as they were too big to go
+between the thole-pins, he bored large holes in the gunwales, and thrust
+the oars through, and rowed thus so mightily that every rib and plank of
+the boat creaked, and the foster-brothers were in fear lest with his
+rowing he would tear the craft to pieces.  However, they reached the
+shore in safety.
+
+Then Grettir asked whether the brothers would rather haul up the boat,
+or go home with the ox. They preferred to haul the boat ashore, and
+found that it was hung with icicles, for the water had frozen on the
+sides; but Grettir led home the ox, which was very fat, and very
+unwilling to be dragged along, so that Grettir became impatient.
+
+When the foster-brothers had finished bailing out the boat, and had put
+her under cover, they went up to the house, and on reaching it Thorgeir
+inquired after Grettir, but Arisen the bonder said he had not seen him
+or the ox.  Then he sent out men in quest of him, for he supposed
+something must have befallen him; and when they came to where the land
+dipped towards the sea they saw a strange object indeed coming towards
+them, and did not know at first whether what they saw was a human being
+or a troll.[#]  On approaching nearer they saw that this strange object
+was Grettir, who was carrying the ox on his back, and striding up the
+hill with the beast, which had the head hanging over his shoulder, the
+tongue out, and was lowing plaintively.  The sight was infinitely
+comical, and the men who saw it burst out laughing, and this made
+Grettir also laugh, so that he dropped the ox.
+
+
+[#] A troll is a mountain demon or giant.
+
+
+Now, it must be known that this story is not manifestly absurd, for the
+Icelandic cattle are very small, like Brittany cows, and bear the same
+relation to a good English ox that a pony does to a horse. Nevertheless
+the feat was only such as a strong man could have accomplished.  It had
+taken the two brothers to carry the ox down into the boat, and here was
+Grettir alone carrying him up hill.
+
+This deed of Grettir was much talked of, and this made Thorgeir, the
+elder of the foster-brothers, very jealous of Grettir, and he hated him,
+and sought to do him an injury.  One day after Yule, Grettir went down
+to the bath that was made by turning a stream of hot water from one of
+the natural boiling springs into a walled basin into which also cold
+water could be turned from a rill.  In former times the Icelanders were
+very particular about bathing, and were a clean people.  At the present
+day they never bathe at all, and such of the old baths as remain are out
+of order and full of grass and mud.
+
+Thorgeir said to his brother, "Let us go now and try how Grettir will
+start, if I set upon him as he comes away from his bath."
+
+"I do not like this," answered Thormod; "you will vex our host, and get
+no advantage over Grettir."
+
+"I will try what I can do," said the elder; and he took his axe, hid it
+under his cloak, and went down towards the bathing-place.
+
+When he had reached it he said, "Grettir, there is a talk that you have
+boasted that no man could make you take to your heels."
+
+"I never said that," answered Grettir, "but anyhow you are not the man
+to make me run."
+
+Then Thorgier swung up his axe and would have cut at Grettir; but
+Grettir suspected that the man meant mischief, and he was ready, so that
+the instant he drew out the axe and swung it, Grettir clashed forward at
+him, struck him in the chest and sent him staggering back, so that he
+sprawled his length on the ground.
+
+Then Thorgeir shouted to his brother, "Why do you stand by and let this
+savage kill me?"
+
+Thormod then laid hold of Grettir, and endeavoured to drag him away, but
+his strength was not sufficient to effect this.
+
+At that moment up came Arison, the bonder, and he bade them be quiet and
+have nought to do with Grettir.
+
+So the brothers stood up, and Thorgeir pretended it was all sport, that
+he had only proposed giving Grettir a fright; but the bonder hardly
+believed him.  As for the younger of the brothers, it was well seen that
+he had been drawn into the matter against his will.  So the winter
+passed, and peace was kept.  This little struggle with Grettir had shown
+Thorgeir that it would be ill for him to have dealings with a man so
+prompt and strong as Grettir, and he controlled himself and did not seek
+to pick a quarrel with him any more.  At the same time he did not like
+him any better.  Thorgils Arison got great credit, when it was reported
+that throughout an entire winter he had maintained such turbulent men as
+the foster-brothers and Grettir under his roof without their having
+fought.[#]
+
+
+[#] There is an entire saga relating to the history of these brothers,
+called the Foster-Brothers' Saga.
+
+
+But when spring came then they went away, all of them, away over the
+heaths and moors of the interior.
+
+When we say that Grettir was on the heaths and moors, it must not be
+supposed that the region so called was at all like the moors of Scotland
+or England.  The heaths and moors of Iceland are upland desert regions
+with only here and there a scanty growth of vegetation, a little
+whortleberry, no heath at all, but vast tracts of broken stone and mud
+and black sand, with perhaps here and there an occasional hill of yellow
+sandstone.  Most of the rock is perfectly black, and breaks into pieces
+with sharp angles.  What is called Icelandic moss is a black lichen that
+grows on the stones, and there is a very little gray moss to be seen.
+Where there is a burn or a stream a little grass may grow, but the
+amount is small indeed.
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER XXV.*
+
+                   *HOW GRETTIR WAS WELL-NIGH HUNG.*
+
+
+    _The Law-man's Judgment--Snorri's Compromise--The Compromise
+    Declined--Grettir Helps Himself--The Spy--Thirty to One--An
+    Undesirable Prisoner--The Gallows for Grettir--Thorbiorg Saves
+    Grettir--Grettir Conquers Himself_
+
+
+Now, after the slaying of Thorbiorn Oxmain, his kinsman Thorod took the
+matter up, and rode to the great assize with a large train of men.
+
+The relatives of Grettir also appeared at the assize, and they took
+advice of Skapti, the law-man; and he said that Atli was slain a week
+before the sentence of outlawry was pronounced against Grettir, that
+Thorbiorn Oxmain was guilty of that, and his relatives must pay a heavy
+fine for the murder.  But he said that Grettir was an outlaw when he
+slew Thorbiorn.  Now being an outlaw he was outside the cognizance of
+the law, he was as one not a native of the country, as one over whom the
+law had no longer jurisdiction; that, therefore, his slaying of
+Thorbiorn could not count as expiation of the slaying of Atli; that,
+moreover, no suit against an outlawed man could stand--it was illegal:
+that the only way in which Grettir could be brought into court was by
+the removal of the sentence of outlawry, when at once he could be
+prosecuted.
+
+Thorod was disconcerted at this; for he could not bring an action
+against Grettir, and the Biarg people did now bring an action against
+him for the slaying of Atli, and the court gave sentence that he should
+pay down two hundred ounces of silver as blood fine for Atli.
+
+Now, at this court, Snorri the judge proposed a compromise.  He
+suggested that the fine should be let drop, and that Grettir should be
+held scatheless, that the outlawry should be set aside, and the slaying
+of Thorbiorn be put against the slaying of Atli, and so reconciliation
+be made.
+
+Thorod did not at all want to pay down two hundred ounces of silver, and
+the Biarg family were very willing to have the outlawry done away with;
+so both parties were quite willing to accept this compromise, but Thorir
+of Garth had to be reckoned with.  Grettir was outlawed at his suit for
+the burning of his sons, and he must be brought to consent, or this
+arrangement could not take place.
+
+But Thorir was not to be moved.  In vain did the law-man Snorri urge
+him, and represent to him that Grettir, at large, an outlaw, was a
+danger menacing the country, that he was driven to desperation, Thorir
+absolutely refused to allow the sentence to be withdrawn.  Not only so,
+but he said he would set a higher price on his head than had been set on
+the head of any outlaw before, and that was three marks of silver.  Then
+Thorod, not to be behind with him, offered three more.
+
+Grettir resolved to get as much out of the way of his enemies as he
+could, so he went into that strange excrescence, like a hand joined on
+by a narrow wrist to Iceland, that extends to the north-west.  In this
+peninsula are two great masses of snow and glacier mountain, called
+Glam-jokull and Drang-jokull.  They do not rise to any great height,
+hardly three thousand feet, but they are vast domes of snow, with
+glaciers sliding from them to the firths, and these fall over the edges
+of the precipitous cliffs in huge blocks of ice that float away on the
+tide as icebergs. The largest of all the fiords that penetrates this
+region is called the Ice-firth, and it runs between these great
+mountains of snow and glaciers.  At the extremity of the estuary the
+valleys are well-wooded--that is to say, well-wooded for Iceland--with
+birch-trees, for their valleys are very sheltered, and the sea-water
+that roll in bears with it a certain amount of heat, for it has been
+affected by the Gulf-stream.
+
+One of these valleys is called Waterdale, and at the time of our story
+there lived there a man named Vermund the Slim, and his wife's name was
+Thorbiorg; she was a big, fine woman.  Another valley is Lang-dale.
+Grettir went to Lang-dale--there he demanded of the farmers whatever he
+wanted, food and clothing, and if they would not give him what he asked,
+he took it.  This was not to their taste at all, and they wished that
+they were rid of Grettir.  He could not remain long in one place, so he
+rode along the side of the Ice-firth demanding food, and sleeping and
+concealing himself in the woods.  So in his course he came to the upland
+pastures and dairy that belonged to Vermund Slim, and he slept there
+many nights, and hid about in the woods.
+
+The shepherds on the moors were afraid of him, and they ran down into
+the valleys and told the farmers everywhere that there was a big strange
+man on the heights, who took from them their curd and milk, and dried
+fish, and that they were afraid to resist his demands.  They did not
+quite know what he was, whether a man or a mountain spirit.
+
+So the farmers gathered together and took advice, and there were about
+thirty of them.  They set a shepherd to watch Grettir's movements, and
+let them know when he could be fallen upon.  Now, it fell out one warm
+day that Grettir threw himself down in a sunny spot to sleep.  The
+glistening beech leaves were flickering behind him, the rocks were
+covered with the pale lemon flowers of the dry as, and between the
+clefts of the stones masses of large purple-flowered geranium stood up
+and made a glow of colour deep into the wood.
+
+It is a mistake to suppose that Iceland is bare of flowers; on the
+contrary, there are more flowers there than grass.  Beneath Grettir the
+turf was full of tiny deep-blue gentianellas, just as if the turf were
+green velvet, with a thread of blue in it coming through here and there.
+
+The shepherd stole near enough to see that Grettir really was fast
+asleep, and then he ran and told the bonders, who came noiselessly to
+the spot.  It was arranged among them that ten men should fling
+themselves on him, whilst the others fastened his feet with strong
+cords.
+
+They made a noose, and cautiously without waking him managed to get it
+about his legs; then, all at once, ten of them threw themselves on his
+body, and tried to pin down his arms.  Grettir started from his sleep,
+and with one toss sent the men rolling off him, and he even managed to
+get to his knees. Then they pulled the noose tighter and brought him
+down, he, however, kicked out at two, whom he tumbled head over heels,
+and they lay stunned on the earth.  Then one after another rushed at
+him, some from behind.  He could not get at his weapons, which they had
+removed, and though he made a long and hard fight, and struggled
+furiously, they were too many for him, and they overcame him in the end,
+and bound his hands.
+
+Now, as he lay on the grass, powerless, they held a council over him
+what should be done.  The chief man of that district was Vermund Slim,
+but he was from home.  So it was settled that a farmer named Helgi
+should take Grettir and keep him in ward till Vermund came home.
+
+"Thank you gratefully," said Helgi; "but I have other business to attend
+to than to keep sentinel over this man.  My hands are fully occupied
+without this.  Not if I know it shall he cross my threshold."
+
+So the farmers considered, and decided that another man who lived at
+Giorvidale should have the custody of Grettir.
+
+"You are most obliging," said he; "but I have only my old woman with me
+at home, and how can we two manage him?  Lay on a man only such a burden
+as he can bear."
+
+They considered again, and came to the conclusion that one Therolf of
+Ere should have the charge of Grettir.
+
+But he replied, "No, thank you, I am short of provisions, there is
+hardly food enough at my house for my own party."
+
+Then they appointed that he should be put with another farmer; but he
+said, "If he had been taken in my land, well and good, but as he has
+not, I won't be encumbered with him."
+
+Then every farmer was tried, and all had excuses why they should not
+have the care of Grettir; and consequently, as no one would have him,
+they resolved to hang him.  So they set to work and constructed a rude
+gallows there in the wood, and a mighty clatter they made over it.
+
+Whilst thus engaged, it happened that Thorbiorg, Vermund's wife, was
+riding up to her mountain dairy, attended by five servants.  She was a
+stirring, clever woman, and when she saw so many men gathered together
+and making such a noise, she rode towards them to inquire what they were
+about.
+
+"Who is that lying in bonds there?" she asked.
+
+Then Grettir answered and gave his name.
+
+"Why, now, is it, Grettir," she said, "that you have given so much
+trouble in this neighbourhood?"
+
+"I must needs be somewhere," he answered.  "And wherever I am, there I
+must have food."
+
+"It is a piece of ill-luck that you should have fallen into the hands of
+these bumpkins," said she. Then turning to the farmers she asked what
+they purposed doing with Grettir.
+
+"Hang him," answered they.
+
+"I do not deny that Grettir may have deserved the rope," said Thorbiorg;
+"but I doubt if you are doing wisely in taking his life.  He belongs to
+a great family, and his death will not be to your quietness and content
+if you kill him."  Then she said to Grettir, "What will you do if your
+life be given you?"
+
+"You propose the conditions," said he.
+
+"Very well, then you must swear not to revenge on these men what they
+have done to you to-day, and not to do any violence more in the
+Ice-firth."
+
+Grettir took the required oath, and so he was loosed from his bonds.  He
+said afterwards that never had he a harder thing to do than to control
+his temper, when set free, and not to knock the farmers' heads together
+like nuts and crack them, for what they had done to him.
+
+Then Thorbiorg invited him to her house, and he went with her to the
+Water-firth, and there abode till her husband returned, and when Vermund
+heard all, then he was well pleased; and deemed that his wife had acted
+with great prudence and kindness. He asked Grettir to remain there as
+long as was consistent with his safety, and Grettir accepted his
+hospitality, and continued there as his guest till late in the autumn,
+when he went south to Learwood, where was Kuggson, with whom he purposed
+spending the winter.  However, he was not able to stay there, for it
+soon became known where he was, and his enemies prepared to take him.
+He accordingly left and went to a friend in another fiord, and remained
+a short while with him, but was obliged for the same reason to fly
+thence also; and so he spent the winter dodging about from place to
+place, never able to remain long anywhere, because his enemies were so
+resolved on his death, and were on the alert to fall on him wherever
+they heard he was sheltering.
+
+
+
+
+                            *CHAPTER XXVI.*
+
+                            *IN THE DESERT.*
+
+
+    _The Center of the Island--Ice, Desert, and Volcanoes--The
+    Bubble-Caves--A Dweller in the Desert--Grettir Stops the
+    Rider--Hall-mund Stronger than Grettir--Grettir Seeks Skapti's
+    Advice--Grettir's Night Fears--Grettir Builds a House_
+
+
+The island of Iceland is one-third larger than Ireland, but then the
+population is entirely confined to the coast.  All the centre of the
+island is desert and mountain.  One mighty mass of mountain covered with
+eternal snow and ice occupies the south of the island and approaches the
+sea very closely in the south-east.  Much of this is unexplored; it has
+of recent years been traversed once, across the great Vatna-jokull, but
+there are passes west of the Vatna.  The mountain masses are broken into
+three main masses.  The vast Vatna-jokull is to the east, then comes a
+pass, and next the circular Arnafells-jokull, then another pass, and
+lastly the jumble of snow mountains that form the Ball-jokull and the
+Lang-jokull, the Goatland and the Erick's-jokull. North of the
+Vatna-jokull is a vast region, as large as a big county, covered with
+lava broken up into bristling spikes and deep clefts of glass-like rock,
+which no one can possibly get across.  In the midst of it, inaccessible,
+rise the cones of volcanoes that have poured forth this sea of molten
+rock.  East and west of this mighty tract of broken-up lava come
+extensive moors also quite desert, covered with inky-black sand which
+has been erupted by volcanoes, burying and destroying what vegetation
+there was. The extent of desert may be understood when you learn that
+there are twenty thousand square miles of country perfectly barren and
+uninhabitable, and only partially explored.  There are but four thousand
+square miles in Iceland that are inhabited; the rest of the country is a
+chaos of ice, desert, and volcanoes. The great lava region mentioned
+north of the Vatna covers one thousand one hundred and sixty square
+miles, and the Vatna envelopes three thousand five hundred square miles
+in ice.  Now, here and there in this vast region there are certain
+sheltered spots where some grass grows, valleys that have escaped the
+overflow of the molten rock, or the thrust of the glacier; and during
+the ninety years that Iceland had been inhabited, every now and then a
+churl who got tired of service, or a murderer afraid of his life, ran
+away into the centre of the island, and lived a precarious existence on
+the wild birds, their eggs, and on the fish that abounded in the
+countless lakes. Probably also they stole sheep, and carried them away
+to the mysterious recesses of the desert where they had made for
+themselves homes.  They lived chiefly in caverns, of which there are
+plenty thus formed:--When the lava poured as a fiery stream out of the
+volcanoes, in cooling great bubbles were formed in it, sometimes these
+bubbles exploded, blew the fragments into the air, which fell back and
+made a mass of broken bits of rock like an exploded soda-water bottle;
+but all the bubbles did not burst, and such hardened when the rock
+became cool.  These bubbles remain as great domed halls, and some of
+them run deep underground, forming a succession of chambers.  I have
+explored one where a band of outlaws once lived, and found numbers of
+sheep-bones frozen up in ice in the place where, after they had eaten
+the mutton, they threw away what they could not devour.  At the end of
+the cave they had erected a wall so as to inclose a space as a store
+chamber.
+
+These men, living in the desert and rarely seen, were the subject of
+many tales, and it was not clearly known who and what they really were,
+whether altogether human, or half mountain-spirits. Imagination invested
+them with supernatural powers.
+
+When spring came and the snows melted, then Grettir left the farmhouse
+where he had been last in hiding, and went into the desert, to find food
+and shelter for himself.
+
+One day he saw a man on horseback alone riding over a ridge of hill.  He
+was a very big man, and he led another horse that had bags of goods on
+his back.  The man wore a slouched hat so that his face could not
+clearly be seen.
+
+Grettir looked hard at the horse and the goods on the pack-saddle, and
+thought he would probably find some of these latter serviceable to him,
+and in his need he was not particular how he got those things which he
+wanted.  So he went up to the rider and peremptorily ordered him to
+stand and deliver.
+
+"Why should I give you things that are my own?" asked the stranger.  "I
+will sell some of my wares if you can pay for them."
+
+"I have no money," answered Grettir, "what I want I take.  You must have
+heard that by report."
+
+"Then I know with whom I have to deal; you are Grettir the outlaw, the
+son of Asmund of Biarg."  Thereat he struck spurs into his horse and
+tried to ride past.
+
+"Nay, nay!  We part not like this," said Grettir, and he laid his hands
+on the reins of the horse the stranger rode.
+
+"You had better let go," said the mounted man.
+
+"Nay, that I will not," answered Grettir.
+
+Then the rider stooped and put his hands to the reins above those of
+Grettir, between them and the bit, and he dragged them along, forcing
+Grettir's hands along the bridle to the end and then wrenched them out
+of his grasp.
+
+Grettir looked at his palms and saw that the skin had been torn in the
+struggle.  Then he found out that he had met with a man who was stronger
+than himself.
+
+"Give me your name," said he.  "For, good faith! I have not encountered
+a man like you."
+
+Then the horseman laughed and sang:
+
+    "By the Caldron's side
+    Away I ride,
+    Where the waters rush and fall
+    Adown the crystal glacier wall
+    There you will find a stone
+    Joined to a hand--alone."
+
+
+This was a puzzling answer.  The meaning was that he lived near a
+waterfall that poured out of the Ice mountain, and that his name was
+Hall-mund, _hall_ is a stone and _mund_ is the hand.
+
+Grettir and he parted good friends; and as he rode away Hall-mund called
+out to Grettir that he would remember this meeting, and as it ended in
+friendliness he hoped to do him a good turn yet,--that when every other
+place of refuge failed he was to seek him "by the Caldron's side, where
+the waters rush and fall, adown the crystal glacier wall" under
+Ball-jokull, and there he would give him shelter.
+
+After this Grettir went to the house of his friend the law-man Skapti,
+and asked his advice, and whether he would house him for the ensuing
+winter.
+
+"No, friend," answered Skapti, "you have been acting somewhat lawlessly,
+laying hands on other men's goods, and this ill becomes a well-born man
+such as you.  Now, it would be better for you not to rob and reive, but
+get your living in other fashion, even though it were poorer fare you
+got, and sometimes you had to go without food.  I cannot house you, for
+I am a law-man, and it would not be proper for me who lay down the law
+to shelter such a notorious law-breaker as yourself.  But I will give
+you my advice what to do.  To the north of the Erick's-jokull is a
+tangle of lakes and streams.  The lakes have never been counted they are
+in such quantities, and no one knows how to find his way among them.
+These lakes are full of fish, and swarm with birds in summer.  There is
+also a little creeping willow growing in the sand, and some scanty
+grass.  It is only one hard day's ride over the waste to Biarg, so that
+your mother can supply you thence with those things of which you stand
+in absolute need, as clothing, and you can fish and kill birds for your
+subsistence, and will have no need to rob folk and exact food from the
+bonders, thereby making yourself a common object of terror and dislike.
+One more piece of advice I give you--Beware how you trust anyone to be
+with you."
+
+Grettir thought this advice was good--only in one point was it hard for
+him to follow.  He was haunted with these fearful dreams at night which
+followed the wrestle with Glam, and in the long darkness of winter the
+dreadful eyes stared at him from every quarter whither he turned his, so
+that it was unendurable for him to be alone in the dark.
+
+Still--he went.  He followed up the White River to the desert strewn
+with lakes from which that river flowed, and there found himself in
+utter solitude and desolation.
+
+A good map of Iceland was made in 1844, and on that fifty-three lakes
+are marked, but the smaller tarns were not all set down.  In such a
+tangle of water and moor Grettir might be in comparative security.  He
+settled himself on a spot of land that runs out into the waters of the
+largest of the sheets of water, which goes by the name of the Great
+Eagle Lake, and thereon he built himself a hovel of stones and turf, the
+ruins of which remain to this day, and I have examined them.
+
+
+
+
+                            *CHAPTER XXVII.*
+
+                       *ON THE GREAT EAGLE LAKE.*
+
+
+    _The Ruins of the Hut--Erick's-jokull--A Craving for
+    Companionship--A Traitor--Grim Tries to Kill Grettir--Redbeard
+    Undertakes the Task--Redbeard's Stratagem--A Base
+    Fellow--Grettir sinks to the Bottom--Caught in his own
+    Trap--Grettir attacked by Thorir--The Attack Baffled--The
+    Guardian of Grettir's Back--A Summer with Hallmund_
+
+
+Grettir was settled now on the Great Eagle Lake.  This lake is shaped
+like the figure 8, only that the spot of land between the upper and
+lower portion of the lake does not run quite across. On one side of this
+spot the rock falls away precipitously into the water, whereas it slopes
+on the other. If I had had a spade and pick, and if there had been more
+grass on the moor so as to allow of a longer stay, I would have dug
+about the foundations of Grettir's hut, and, who can tell!  I might
+perhaps have found some relic of him.  There is no record of anyone else
+having inhabited it since he was there, and in the middle of the 13th
+century, when the Saga of Grettir was committed to writing, there
+remained the ruins of his hut, but no one lived at the place.  Now there
+is no human habitation for many miles; the lake was a day's journey on
+horseback from the nearest farm, where I had spent the night.  You must
+get some idea of the place where now for some years Grettir was to live.
+
+The moor is made up of rock split to fragments by the frost, and with
+wide tracts between the ridges of rock strewn with black volcanic ash
+and sand.  It lies high; when I camped out there at the end of June,
+there was no grass visible, only angelica shoots, and a little trailing
+willow, so that my horses had to feed on these.  The willow does not
+rise above the surface of the ground, but its roots trail long distances
+under the surface, groping for nutriment; and for fuel one has to dig
+out these roots with one's fingers, and employ those which are dryest.
+Every dip in the moor is filled with a lake, and every lake has in it a
+pair of swans; in addition there are abundance of other wild fowl, and
+on the moor are ptarmigan that live on the flowers of the whortle or
+blae-berry.
+
+Above the rolling horizon of moor, to the south rises the great snowy
+dome of Erick's-jokull.  This is in reality a huge volcano, with
+precipitous sides of black lava towering up like an immense giant's
+castle.  The great crater has been choked up with the snow of centuries,
+and the snow in falling had piled up a vast cupola of snow and ice
+standing high above the black walls, and sliding and falling over the
+edges in a succession of avalanches.  When, at eleven o'clock at night,
+I looked out of my tent at Erick's-jokull, the scene was sublime.  The
+sun had just gone under the northern horizon of snow and hill, but shone
+on the great dome of Erick's-jokull, turning it to the purest and most
+delicate rose colour, and the walls of upright basalt that sustained the
+dome were of the purple of a plum.  Grettir obtained nets and a boat
+from home, and such things as he wanted for his hut.  One great
+advantage of his present situation was that three different roads or
+rather tracks led to it from Biarg, so that those who wanted to come to
+him from home could select their way and avoid observation, till they
+got among the lakes, when they were in a labyrinth in which anyone might
+easily be lost, and any one could escape a pursuer. It is true that it
+was a long and arduous day's ride from Biarg to the Eagle Lake, but the
+whole of the course along each of the ways lay through uninhabited land.
+
+Now, when other outlaws heard that Grettir was on the Eagle Lake Heath,
+they had a mind to join themselves to him, and Grettir was not unwilling
+to have a companion, so lonely did he feel on this waste, and also so
+fearful was he of being by himself in the dark.
+
+There was a man called Grim, who was an outlaw; and Grettir's enemies
+made a bargain with him, that he should go to the Eagle Lake Heath,
+pretend to be friends with Grettir, seek opportunity, and kill him. They
+on their side undertook, if he would do this, to get his sentence of
+outlawry reversed, and to furnish him liberally with money.
+
+Accordingly he went to the moor, and after some trouble, found Grettir,
+and asked if he might live with him.
+
+Grettir replied, "I do not much relish such company as yours, for you
+have got into outlawry through very infamous deeds.  I mistrust you;
+nevertheless I will suffer you to remain if you work hard and be
+obedient. I do not want idle hands here."
+
+Grim said he was willing, and prayed hard that he might dwell there, and
+carried his point.  He remained with Grettir the whole of the winter;
+there was not much friendship between them.  Grettir mistrusted him all
+along, and was never parted from his weapons, night or day, and Grim did
+not venture to attack him whilst he was awake.
+
+But one morning, when Grim came in from fishing, he went into the hut
+and stamped his foot and made a noise, seeing that Grettir lay in his
+bed asleep; and he was desirous to know how soundly he slept. Grettir
+did not start and open his eyes, but lay quite still.  Then Grim made
+more noise, thinking that if Grettir were awake he would chide him; but
+Grettir made no motion.  Then Grim made sure that he was fast asleep,
+and he stepped to his side.  Now, the short sword that had been taken
+out of the barrow of Karr the Old hung above the bed-head.  Grim leaned
+over Grettir and laid hold of the sword, and put both hands to it to
+draw it out of the sheath. At that instant Grettir started up, caught
+Grim round the waist and flung him backwards so that he was stunned, and
+the sword fell from his hand.  So Grettir made him confess that he had
+been bribed to set on him and murder him.  And then Grettir would have
+no more of him, and resolved to live entirely alone.  Yet--directly he
+was alone, his dreams, and his horror of the dark, returned on him. Now,
+Thorir of Garth heard of an outlaw named Thorir Redbeard, a very big
+man, who for murder had been outlawed, and was therefore in hiding
+somewhere.  Thorir of Garth sent out messengers in search of him, and at
+last brought about a meeting, and then he offered him a great deal of
+money if he would kill Grettir.  Redbeard said it was no easy task, for
+that Grettir was wise and wary.
+
+"It is because it is no easy task that I set you to do it," said Thorir
+of Garth.  "You are no milksop to do easy jobs."
+
+This flattered Redbeard, and he undertook to do what was required.  He
+came out on the Eagle Lake Heath in the autumn after that winter when
+Grim had been with Grettir and made the attempt on his life.  Grettir
+was feeling uneasy and troubled, as the days grew shorter, with the eyes
+that he thought stared at him from every quarter, and although his
+judgment prompted him to refuse hospitality to Redbeard, yet his dread
+of being alone in the dark induced him to disregard his doubts.  So he
+reluctantly admitted Redbeard to be an inmate of his cot.
+
+"Now, mind this," said Grettir.  "I let a man be with me here last
+winter, and he lay wait for my life.  If I find that you are false, then
+I shall not spare you."
+
+Redbeard said he wished for nothing else; and so Grettir received him,
+and found him to be a very powerful man, and so energetic that he was of
+the greatest assistance to Grettir.
+
+Redbeard was with him all that winter (1019-1020) and found no occasion
+on which he could take Grettir unawares.  Then set in the next winter
+1020-1021, and Redbeard had begun to loathe his life on the heath, and
+no wonder, for he saw no one save Grettir; the cold and desolation of
+the spot was surpassingly wretched.  Now he became impatient to kill
+Grettir and get away.
+
+One night a great storm broke over the moor whilst he and Grettir were
+asleep.  The roar of the wind woke Redbeard and he ran outside the hut,
+down to the water-side, and with a huge stone he smashed the
+fishing-boat, so that it sank; and the oars and bits he had broken off
+he threw away into the lake.  So did he with the nets.
+
+When he came in Grettir was awake also, and he asked how fared the boat.
+
+"She has broken from her mooring," answered Redbeard, "and has been
+dashed to bits on the rocks."
+
+Then Grettir jumped up, and taking his weapons ran out to the end of the
+spit of land on which his hut was built, and saw how the nets were
+drifting in the waves and were entangled with the oars.
+
+"Jump in, swim out, and bring them to shore," said he to Redbeard.  The
+man shook his head and answered:
+
+"I can do anything save swim.  I have not held back from any other work
+you have set me, but swim I cannot."
+
+Then Grettir laid his weapons down by the waterside and prepared to jump
+in.  But he mistrusted Redbeard, so he said, "I will get in the nets, as
+you cannot; but I trust you will not deal treacherously by me."
+
+Redbeard answered, "I should be a base fellow and unworthy to live if I
+were false to you now--after you have housed me so long."
+
+Then Grettir put off his clothes, and went into the water, and swam out
+to the nets.
+
+He swept them up together and brought them towards the land, and cast
+them up on the bank; but the moment he attempted to land Redbeard caught
+up the short sword, drew it hastily and ran at Grettir and smote at him,
+just as he was heaving himself up out of the water.  The blade would
+have cut into his neck, or between his shoulder-blades, had not Grettir
+instantly let go, and fallen backwards into the water and sunk like a
+stone.  Sinking thus headlong he reached the bottom, and instead of
+rising to the surface again he clung to the rocks under water, and
+groped his way along as close as he could to the bank, so that Redbeard
+might not see him till he had reached the back of the creek and got
+aland.
+
+Now, Redbeard stood at the end of the promontory, looking into the
+water, much puzzled.  He had not cut Grettir with the sword, and yet
+Grettir was gone down, and did not rise.  He thought he must have struck
+his head against a stone, and so have sunk, and he looked out into the
+water wondering where and when he would rise.  Meanwhile Grettir had
+come ashore behind him and was approaching stealthily.  Redbeard was
+unaware of his danger till Grettir had his arms about him, had heaved
+him over his head and dashed him down on the rocks, so that his skull
+was broken.  After that Grettir resolved not to take another outlaw into
+his house, though he could hardly endure to be alone.
+
+Thorir of Garth did not hear of the death of Redbeard till next summer
+at the great assize; and then he was so angry, and so resolved to make
+an end of Grettir, that he collected a body of resolute men, his
+servants and others whom he hired for the purpose, to the number of
+nearly eighty, to sweep the Eagle Lake Heath and take and kill Grettir.
+
+One day, when Grettir was out on the moor, he saw a large body of armed
+men riding towards the lake.  He had time to fly to a hill that rises at
+a little distance, where there is a rift in the rock that traverses the
+top of the hill.  When I read the account in the saga I could not quite
+understand what follows, but no sooner was I on the spot than all
+appeared quite clear.  One could see, at once, that Grettir, taken by
+surprise, would run to this very spot and no other.  It was the nearest
+available place of vantage, with stone and crag.  The situation was not
+the best that might have been chosen, as it left Grettir's back
+unprotected; however, he had no time to seek a better.
+
+[Illustration: GRETTIR ATTACKED IN THE RIFT BY THORIR'S PARTY.]
+
+Thorir came with his men to the bottom of the hill, and shouted to
+Grettir and taunted him.
+
+Grettir replied, "Though you may have put the spoon to your lips you
+have not swallowed the broth."
+
+Then Thorir egged on his men to go up the slope at Grettir, but this was
+not easy.  It was steep, and the rocks were close on either side so that
+Grettir could not be surrounded.  Only one man could get at him from
+before at once.  Several attempts were made, but all failed; some of the
+assailants were killed, some wounded.  Then Thorir broke up his party
+into two, and sent one detachment round to the back of the rocks, to
+fall on Grettir from behind. Grettir saw the manoeuvre, and did not see
+how to meet it.  All he could do would be to sell his life dearly.  He
+could not hold out long when assailed simultaneously from before and
+behind.
+
+Thorir bade the attack slacken till he thought those sent to the rear
+would be ready, and then he ordered a grand, and, as he believed, a
+combined assault.  Grettir fought with desperation, expecting every
+moment to be cut down from behind, but to his surprise and that of
+Thorir he was left unmolested in the rear.
+
+Thorir called off his men, and went round the hill to inquire why the
+attack from behind had not taken place.  To his amazement he came on a
+discomfited party bleeding, faint, and baffled, and to find that twelve
+men had fallen in it.[#]
+
+
+[#] At the time, or rather shortly after I had been on the spot, I
+wrote, "There is a nook like a sentry-box in the side of the cleft, and
+it was in this that Hallmund ensconced himself, so that he could hew
+down anyone who attempted to pass through this cleft to get at Grettir's
+back, whilst remaining himself screened from observation. I could not
+understand the saga account before I saw the spot, and how it was that
+those attacking Grettir from behind did not see Hallmund. The sight of
+the place made all plain."
+
+
+Then he bade a retreat.  "Oft," he said, "have I heard that Grettir is a
+man of marvel for prowess, but I never knew before that he was a wizard,
+and able to kill as many at his back as he does in front of him."
+
+When he numbered his men, Thorir found that he had lost eighteen.  Then
+he and his retinue rode away, and they carried on them many and grievous
+wounds.
+
+Now Grettir was no less perplexed with the event than was Thorir, and
+when the latter had withdrawn he went through the rift in the rocks to
+see why he had not been fallen on from the rear,--and he lighted on a
+tall strong man leaning against the rocks, sore wounded.
+
+Grettir asked his name, and the tall man replied that he was Hallmund.
+
+"Do you remember meeting me on the heath one day?" asked the wounded
+man, "when you tried to stop my horse, and I pulled the reins through
+your hands so as to skin the palms'?  Then I promised if I had the
+chance to back you up."
+
+"Indeed," said Grettir, much moved, "I remember that right well, and now
+I thank you with all my heart, for this day you have saved my life."
+
+Then Hallmund said, "You must now come with me, for time must drag with
+you solitary here on the heath."
+
+Grettir said he was glad to accept the offer; so they went together
+south to the Ball-jokull, and there Hallmund had a great cave, and his
+daughter, a big muscular girl, lived there with him; there the girl
+applied plasters to the wounds of her father and healed him.
+
+Grettir remained with them in the cave all the ensuing summer.  But when
+summer came to an end, he wearied of being so long in the desert, and
+longed to see and be with his fellow-men in inhabited parts once more;
+so he bade farewell to Hallmund, and went away to the west to Hit-dale
+that opens on the Marshland, through which six or seven large rivers
+flow.  Here he had a friend named Biorn living at Holm.
+
+
+
+
+                           *CHAPTER XXVIII.*
+
+                             *ON THE FELL.*
+
+
+    _The Hollow of Fairwood Fell--Above the Shale Slide--The
+    Outlaw's Lair--The Boaster--A Dandified Warrior--Hunter and
+    Hunted--A Skin-dressing--Sadder and Wiser_
+
+
+Biorn when asked by Grettir to give him shelter declined to do so, not
+that the will was lacking, but that he had not the power to protect him.
+"You have made," he said, "enemies on all sides, and if I were to take
+you under my roof all your enemies would become mine also, and I would
+be involved in endless and bitter quarrels.  I cannot give you direct
+assistance and shelter, but indirectly I will do what I can for you.
+There is a long hill, called Fairwood Fell, that runs in front of my
+house on the other side of the river, and ends just above the marshes.
+Now, in one place there is a steep shale slide, and above this is a
+hollow through the mountain, that might very well be made into a dry and
+comfortable place of abode.  From the entrance every one who passes
+along the highway, all who come across the marshes, can be seen.  I can
+supply you with a few necessaries to fit the place up, but when there
+you must shift for yourself.  I must not risk too much by supporting
+you."
+
+Grettir consented to this.  So he went up to Fairwood Fell and built up
+the cave, and hung gray wadmal before the entrance, so that no one below
+could notice that there was anything peculiar or anyone living there.
+In this eagle's nest among the rocks Grettir spent the time from the
+autumn of 1022 to the spring of 1024, that is, two winters. Whatever
+fuel he wanted, all he had to eat, everything he wanted, had to be
+carried up this slippery and steep ascent by him.  Down the shale slide
+he came when short of provisions, and went over the marshes to this or
+that farm and demanded or carried off, sometimes a sheep, sometimes
+curds, dried fish, in a word what he required; and a very great nuisance
+the men of the district found him.  Heartily did they wish they were rid
+of him, yet they could not drive him from his place of abode, for it was
+so difficult of access and so easy of defence.
+
+Now, some years ago, in the summer of 1862, the year after I was in
+Iceland, a very similar lair which Grettir inhabited a little later in
+the east of Iceland was explored by an Icelandic farmer.  This is his
+description of it: "The lair stands in the lower part of a slip of
+stones beneath some sheer rocks. It is built up of stones, straight as a
+line 4-3/4 ells long and 10 inches wide, and is within the walls 7/8 of
+an ell deep.  Half of it is roofed over with flat stones, small thin
+splinters of stone are wedged in between these to fill up the joints,
+and these are so firmly fixed that they could not be removed without
+tools. One stone in the south wall is so large that it requires six men
+to move it.  The north wall is beginning to give way.  On the outside
+the walls are overgrown with black lichen and gray moss."
+
+Something like this was the den of Grettir on the Fairwood Fell, but it
+was less built up, as he had the natural rock for two of the sides and
+for the roof.
+
+Whilst Grettir was there, there came a ship into harbour, in which was a
+man named Gisli, a merchant, very fond of wearing smart clothes, and an
+inordinately vain man.  He heard the farmers talking about Grettir, and
+what a vexation it was to them to have him in their neighbourhood.
+
+"Don't talk to me about Grettir," said Gisli; "I've had battles with
+harder men than he.  I hope he may came in my way, that I may dress his
+skin for him."
+
+The farmer to whom he said this shook his head. "You don't know of whom
+you are speaking.  If you were to kill him you would be well off,--six
+marks of silver were set on his head, and Thorir of Garth has added
+three more, so that there stand on him nine marks of silver."
+
+"All things can be done for money," said Gisli; "and as I am a merchant
+I'll see to it.  And when we meet--I'll dress his skin for him."
+
+The farmer said it would be well not to talk about the matter.  Gisli
+agreed.  "I will abide this winter in Snowfell-ness," he said.  "If his
+lair is on my road thither I'll look out for him, and dress his skin as
+I go along."
+
+Now, whether he talked in spite of the caution given him, or whether
+some one overheard what he said, who was a friend of Biorn of Holm, is
+uncertain.  Any how Gisli's threat reached the ears of Biorn, who at
+once warned Grettir to be on his guard against the merchant.
+
+"If he comes your way," said Biorn, "teach him a lesson; but don't kill
+him."
+
+"No," said Grettir with a grim smile, "I'll merely dress his skin for
+him."
+
+Now it happened one day that Grettir was looking out of the entrance to
+his lair, when he saw a man with two attendants riding along the
+highway.  His kirtle was of scarlet, and his helmet and shield flashed
+in the sun.  Then it occurred to him that this must be the dandified
+Gisli, of whom he had heard, so he came running down the shale descent
+to the road. He reached the man, and at once he went to his horse,
+clapped his hand on a bundle of clothes behind the saddle, and said,
+"This I am going to take."
+
+"Nay, not so," answered Gisli, for it was he. "You do not know whom you
+are addressing."
+
+"Nor do I care," said Grettir.  "I have little respect for persons.  I
+am in poor and lowly condition myself, so low that I am driven to be a
+highway robber."
+
+Then Gisli drew his sword, and called to his men to attack Grettir, who
+gave way a little before them. But he soon saw that Gisli kept behind
+his servants, and never risked himself where the blows fell; so Grettir
+put the two churls aside with well-dealt strokes, and went direct upon
+the merchant, who, seeing that he was menaced, turned and took to his
+heels.  Grettir pursued him, and Gisli in his fear cast aside his
+shield, then, a little further, threw away his helmet, and so as he ran
+he cast away one thing after another that he had with him.  There was a
+heavy purse of silver at his girdle.  This encumbered him, and as he ran
+he unbuckled his belt and dropped it and the purse with it.  Grettir did
+not purposely come up with him; he could have outstripped him had he
+willed, but he let the fellow run a couple of horse lengths before him.
+The end of the Fell is above an old lava bed that has flowed from a
+crater called Eldborg or the Castle of Fire, and like an old ruined
+castle it looks.  Gisli ran over this lava bed, jumping the cracks, then
+dived through a wood of birch that intervened between the lava and the
+river Haf.  The stream was swollen with ice, and ill to ford.  Gisli
+halted hesitating before plunging in, and that allowed Grettir to run in
+on him, seize him and throw him down.
+
+"Are you the Gisli who were so eager to meet Grettir Asmund's son?"
+asked the outlaw.
+
+"I have had enough of him," gasped the fallen man.  "Keep my saddle-bags
+and what I have thrown away, and let me go free."
+
+"Hardly yet," said Grettir grimly.  "I think something was said about
+skin-dressing, that is not to be overlooked."
+
+Then Grettir drew him back to the wood, took a good handful of birch
+rods, pulled Gisli's clothes up over his head, and laid the twigs
+against his back in none of the gentlest fashion.  Gisli danced and
+skipped about, but Grettir had him by his garments twisted about his
+head and neck, and continued to flog till the poor fellow threw himself
+down on the ground screaming.  Then Grettir let go, and went quietly
+back to his lair, picking up as he went the purse and the belt, the
+shield, casque, and whatever else Gisli had thrown away, also he had the
+contents of his saddle-bags.
+
+Gisli never came back to Fairwood Fell to ask for them.  When he got on
+his legs he ran up the river to where it was not so dangerous, swam it,
+and reached a farmhouse, where he entreated to be taken in.  There he
+lay a week with his body swollen and striped; after which he went home,
+and much was he laughed at for his adventure with Grettir.
+
+
+
+
+                            *CHAPTER XXIX.*
+
+                       *THE FIGHT ON THE RIVER.*
+
+
+    _Angry Farmers--A Large Band of Men--The Marshmen are Driven
+    Back--The Attacking Party Reinforced--Fighting in
+    Desperation--Wearied but Unwounded--The Song of Victory_
+
+
+Now, whilst Grettir was on Fairwood Fell, favoured by Biorn of Hit-dale,
+his presence after a while became unendurable to the bonders who lived
+in the marshes.  He had been for two winters in his den on the hill, and
+when they saw that he intended to remain there a third winter, and rob
+them of sheep and whatever he needed, then they took counsel together
+how they might rid themselves of the annoyance.
+
+One day in the winter of 1023, Grettir came down from his place of
+vantage, and went over the marshes to a farm called Acres, and drove
+away from it two bullocks fit for slaughtering, and several sheep, and
+he had got on with them some way over the marshes, on his way to his
+lair, before the farmer at Acres was aware of his loss; he had taken six
+wethers beside from another farm named Brookbend. This angered the
+farmers greatly, and they sent a message to the chief man of the
+district, Thord at Hitness, and urged him to waylay Grettir before he
+could reach his den.  Thord shrank from doing anything; however, they
+pressed him so much that at last he consented to let his son Arnor go
+with them.  Then messengers were sent throughout all the country side,
+to every farmer who was concerned.  And it was so planned that two
+bodies of men should march to the taking of Grettir, one on the right,
+the other on the left bank of the Hit River, so as to take him for
+certain.
+
+Grettir was soon aware that the country was roused.  He was not alone,
+he had two men with him--one the son of the farmer at Fairwood Fell,
+with whom he was on good terms, the other a farm-servant. They advised
+him to desert the cattle and sheep and run for it, cross the river and
+take refuge in his place of vantage; but this Grettir was too proud to
+do.
+
+Presently he could see coming on behind him a large band of men, about
+twenty in all, under Thorarin of Acres and Thorfin of Brookbend.  Now,
+as these were pursuing him over the marshes, up the opposite side of the
+river came Arnor, the son of Thord of Hitness, and with him a farmer
+named Biarni of Jorvi.
+
+Grettir managed to reach the river before his enemies came up with him,
+and he had also time to secure a place of vantage.  This was a ness of
+rock that ran out into the river, or round which the river swept, so
+that he was protected by the water on all sides but one.  Grettir said
+to the two men with him, that they must guard his back, see that none
+came up the sides in his rear, and then he took his short-sword in both
+his hands, planted his feet wide apart on the rock, and prepared to sell
+his life dear.
+
+The party headed by Thorarin of Acres and Thorfin of Brookbend came up,
+twenty in all,--but more were coming, for Thorarin had begun the pursuit
+before all the farmers were collected, and he knew that a body of some
+twenty or thirty more would arrive before long.  Thorarin himself was an
+old man, and he did not enter into the fray, but urged on his men.
+
+The fight was hard.  Grettir was not easily reached where he stood, and
+he smote at all who approached.  Some of the Marshmen fell, and several
+were wounded.  In vain did they attempt to dislodge him by combined
+rushes, he drove them over the edge into the water, or cut them down
+with his sword.  At last his arm was weary, and he called to the
+farmer's son to step into his place.  He did so, and held the ground
+valiantly, whilst Grettir rested.  Then the party drew back,
+discomfited.  At that moment up came the fresh body of men under Thrand,
+the brother of Thorarin of Acres, and Stonewolf of Lavadale.  These
+egged on their men eagerly, and they thought they would obtain an easy
+victory, for Grettir had been fighting for some time, and was weary.
+
+Then Thorarin of Acres called out and advised delay.
+
+"For," said he, "the third party of men under Arnor and Biarni of Jorvi
+have not come up on the other side of the river."
+
+This piece of advice was rejected by the newcomers.  What did they want
+with more men? They were a large party, fresh and untired, and Grettir
+had but two men with him, and they were wearied with fighting.  So the
+signal was given for the onslaught.
+
+Then Grettir saw that he must either jump into the river, swim across,
+and desert the sheep and bullocks he had driven there, or use almost
+superhuman exertions to defend himself.
+
+His position was, indeed, desperate; for, even if he did hold his own
+against this second body of men, a third was on its way up the other
+bank of the river to intercept him on his way up to the Fell.  For one
+moment he hesitated, and then was resolved.  No, he would not run.  He
+would die there, and die only after having strewn the ground with his
+foes.  Foremost among his assailants was Stonewolf of Lavadale, and
+Grettir made a sudden rush at him, and with a tremendous stroke of his
+sword he clove his head down to the shoulders. Thrand, who sprang
+forward to avenge him, Grettir struck on the thigh, and the blow took
+off all the muscle, and he fell, crippled for life.  Then Grettir fell
+back to his place of safety, and dared others to come on.  They sprang
+out on the neck of rock, but would not meet his weapon, one after
+another fell or was beaten back.
+
+Then Thorarin cried out, and bade all draw off.
+
+"The longer ye fight," said he, "the worse ye fare.  He picks out what
+men among you he chooses."
+
+The party withdrew, and there were ten men fallen, and five had received
+mortal wounds, or were crippled; and hardly one of the two parties was
+without some hurt or other.
+
+Grettir, moreover, was marvellously wearied, but had received no wounds
+to speak of.
+
+Now, hardly had the men withdrawn, carrying their dead and wounded, than
+up came the third detachment under Arnor and Biarni, on the other side
+of the river.  There can be no question but that, had they crossed and
+fallen on Grettir, he could not have defended himself longer, so
+overcome was he with weariness; but Arnor knew that his father had
+entered on the matter reluctantly, and he was discouraged by the
+ill-success of the other companies. Consequently, he neither waded
+through the river at the ford, a little higher, nor did he maintain his
+ground and cut off Grettir's retreat.  Instead, he withdrew with all his
+men, and left Grettir to recover his strength, and cross and escape to
+the Fell. This conduct of Arnor provoked much comment; and he was
+accused of cowardice, an accusation that clung to him through life.
+Even his father rebuked him, for the father saw what discredit he had
+brought upon himself.
+
+The point on the river Hit where this affray took place is still shown;
+and is called Grettir's-point to this day.
+
+When the fight was over Grettir and the two men went to the Fell, and as
+they passed the farm the farmer's daughter came out of the door, and
+asked for tidings.
+
+Then Grettir sang:--
+
+    "Brewer of strong barley-corn,
+    Pourer forth of drinking-horn,
+    Lo! to-day the Stonewolf fell,
+    Ne'er again his head be well.
+    Many more have got their bane,
+    Many in their blood lie slain;
+    Little life has Thorgils now,
+    After that bone-breaking blow.
+    Eight upon the river's bank
+    In their gore expiring sank."
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER XXX.*
+
+                          *A MYSTERIOUS VALE.*
+
+
+    _The Dome of Snow--Cold Dale--A Fair Valley--The Mottled
+    Ewe--With Thorir and his Daughters--The Stone on
+    Broad-shield--Thorir's Cave_
+
+
+In the spring of 1024 Grettir went away from Fairwood Fell; for he had
+been there so long, and had preyed for such a time on the bonders of the
+marshes, that he himself saw that it would be best for him to remove
+into quite another part of the island.  So he visited his friend
+Hallmund once more, under the ice of Ball-jokull, and Hallmund advised
+him where to go.  He could not give him hospitality himself that winter,
+because his stock of goods was run so short that it would hardly suffice
+for his daughter and himself; but he told him of a valley unknown to
+anyone, save a friend of his called Thorir and himself.  And he informed
+him how it was to be reached.
+
+Now, as already said, there are passes in Iceland between the several
+blocks of ice mountains, and such a pass exists between Goatland-jokull
+and a curious domed snowy mountain called Ok.  The pass is called the
+Cold Dale, because it lies for many hours ride between ice mountains,
+and under the precipitous Goatland-jokull, whose rocks are crowned with
+green ice that falls over incessantly in great avalanches.  It is seven
+hours' ride from one blade of grass to another through that dale.  I
+went through it on midsummer-day, and saw the bones of horses lying
+about that had died unable to get through; perhaps becoming lame or
+exhausted on the way.
+
+Half through this long trough of the Cold Dale stands up a buttress of
+rock, or rather a sort of ness, projecting from Goatland-jokull, so
+precipitous that hardly any snow rests on it, and this is called the
+Half-way Fell.
+
+Now, Hallmund told Grettir he must go through the Cold Dale till he
+reached the Half-way Fell, and there he must strike up over the snow and
+glaciers of Goatland-jokull, due south, and he would all at once drop
+into a valley known to few.
+
+So Grettir went up the moor till he struck the White River, that flowed
+out of the Eagle Lakes he knew so well, and under the cliffs and icy
+crown of Erick's-jokull, then he climbed over broken trachyte rocks for
+several hundreds of feet, till he found himself in the Cold Dale, and
+along that he trudged till he had reached Half-way Fell, standing up
+like a wall as though to stop the pass.  There he turned to the left,
+and as at this point Goatland is no longer precipitous, but slopes in a
+series of steps to the Cold Dale, he climbed up through the snow, a long
+and tedious ascent, till he stood on the neck of the mountain, and there
+he saw that the snow slopes fell away rapidly to the south, and he
+descended and soon beheld before him a valley in which were a great many
+boiling springs that threw up clouds of steam, and he saw also, what
+greatly pleased him, that there was rich and abundant grass in this
+valley. This is what the saga says: "The dale was long and somewhat
+narrow, locked up by glaciers all round, in such a manner that the ice
+walls overhung the dale.  He scrambled down into it, as best he could,
+and there he saw fair hillsides grass-grown and set with bushes.  Hot
+springs were there, and it appeared to him that it was the earth-fires
+which prevented the ice walls from closing in on the valley.  A little
+river ran down the dale, with level banks.  The sun rarely shone into
+the valley; but the number of sheep there could hardly be reckoned, they
+were so many; and nowhere had he seen any so fat and in such good
+condition."
+
+Grettir did not see Thorir, Hallmund's friend, at first; so he built
+himself a hut of such wood as he could get, and with turf.  He killed
+the sheep he wanted, and found that there was more meat on one of them
+than on two elsewhere.
+
+The Saga says:--
+
+"There was one ewe there, brown mottled, with a lamb, and she was a
+beauty.  Grettir killed the lamb, and took three stone of suet off it,
+the meat was some of the best he had ever eaten.  But when the mottled
+ewe missed her lamb, she went up on Grettir's hut every night, and
+bleated so plaintively as to trouble his sleep, and made Grettir quite
+troubled that he had killed her lamb."
+
+Now Grettir noticed that at evening the sheep ran in one direction, and
+once or twice he heard a call; so he went after the sheep one evening,
+and was led by them to the hut where Thorir dwelt.  He was a strange
+man, who had spent so many years away from the society of his fellow-men
+as not to care any more to meet them, so he did not welcome Grettir very
+warmly.  However he had three daughters, and they were glad to have
+someone to talk to, and as the winter crept on Thorir himself became
+more amiable, and so the winter did not pass as drearily as Grettir had
+feared it would.  He sang his songs and related stories, and the party
+played draughts with knuckle-bones of sheep.
+
+When spring came, however, he was fain to go; and he did not leave by
+the way he came, but followed the little river, and it led him out
+between rock and glaciers into a piece of desert, covered with lava beds
+that have poured out of a volcano, or rather two that stand opposite
+this entrance to Thorir's valley.  These two volcanoes are quite unlike
+each other, though side by side, one, called Hlothu-fell has upright
+walls, like Erick's-jokull, and a crater filled up and brimming over
+with ice; but the other Skialdbreith, or the Broad-shield, is like a
+conical round silver shield laid on the ground. The entrance to Thorir's
+Dale is completely hidden by a round snowy mountain that blocks it, and
+then a second snowy mountain stands further out in front of the opening,
+so that not a sign of any valley can be seen from anywhere.
+
+So difficult did Grettir think it would be to find it, that he ascended
+on Broad-shield and set up a stone there with a hole in it, so that
+anyone looking through this hole would see directly into the narrow
+entrance of Thorir's Dale.  This stone still stands where Grettir had
+placed it; but has sunk on one side, so that by looking through the hole
+the eye is no longer directed to the entrance.
+
+No one had ever visited Thorir's Dale since Grettir left it till the
+year 1654, when it was explored by two Icelandic clergymen, and an
+account of their expedition in Icelandic is to be found in the British
+Museum.[#]  The valley as far as I know has not been explored since.  It
+is marked on the map of Iceland, but apparently from the description
+left by the two clergymen, not from any visit made to it by the
+map-maker.
+
+
+[#] I have given a translation of it in my _Curiosities of Olden Times_,
+London, Hayes, 1869.
+
+
+When the two men visited the valley they went to it in the same way as
+did Grettir.  They found no hot springs, and the valley was utterly
+barren; but then they had no time to descend it, they only looked down
+on it from above.  They found the cave with a door, and a window to it,
+which was probably the habitation of Thorir and his daughters.
+
+
+
+
+                            *CHAPTER XXXI.*
+
+                        *THE DEATH OF HALLMUND.*
+
+
+    _Grim's Fish Disappear--The Thief Wounded and Tracked--Death of
+    Hallmund_
+
+
+Now, there was a man called Grim, who was an outlaw for his ill-deeds,
+and he thought that as Grettir no longer abode in his hut on the Eagle
+Lake, he might go there and occupy it.  This did not please Hallmund,
+for Grettir had left him his nets, and he was wont to fish in the lake.
+
+Grim had supplied himself with nets, and he one day caught a hundred
+char, large red-fleshed fish, delicious eating; so he piled them up
+outside his hut.  Next morning to his great surprise all his char had
+disappeared.  Then he went fishing again, and caught even more fish, and
+he brought them to land, and heaped them up as before.
+
+Next morning they also had disappeared.
+
+He could not understand it; so he fished again, and had on this occasion
+extraordinary luck: he must have netted nearly three hundred fish.  He
+brought them home, and put them in the same place as before; but he did
+not go to sleep this time: he remained within, and watched his store
+through a peep-hole in the door.
+
+During the night he heard someone who trod heavily coming along the
+ness, and then he saw a man picking up his fish, and putting them into a
+basket he had on his back.  Grim watched till he had filled the basket,
+which he now heaved upon his shoulders.  Instantly Grim threw open the
+door, rushed out, and whilst the man was still stooping adjusting his
+load, he swung up a very sharp axe he held, holding it in both hands,
+and smote at the man's neck.  The axe hit the basket, and that somewhat
+broke its force, but it glanced aside and sank into the shoulder.  Then
+the man started aside, and set off running with the basket to the south,
+skirting a lava field that had flowed out of Erick's-jokull, and which
+now goes by the name of Hallmund's Lava-bed.
+
+Grim ran after him, and saw that he was making for Ball-jokull; but the
+man, who was of great size and strength, though wounded and losing
+blood, ran on, and did not stay till he reached a cave in the face of
+the cliff, above which was the ice, and with long icicles hanging over
+the front.  Into this he entered.  There was a fire burning inside, and
+a young woman sitting by it.
+
+Grim heard her welcome the man, and call him her father, and name him
+Hallmund.  He cast his basket of fish down, and groaned aloud.
+
+Then the girl saw that blood was flowing from him, and she asked him
+what had happened.
+
+Hallmund told what had befallen him, and said that he was wounded to the
+death, and that he trusted Grettir would avenge him, for he had no other
+friend to do so.
+
+After that Hallmund began a lay, and sang the history of his life, the
+achievements he had wrought, and he sang on till his breath failed, and
+either he was unable to finish his lay, or Grim could not remember all
+of it.  A good deal, however, of Hallmund's death-song has been retained
+and is given in the saga.
+
+But Hallmund's hope or expectation that Grettir would avenge him was
+disappointed, for Grim managed to get away from Iceland, and did not
+return to it again during the lifetime of Grettir.
+
+
+
+
+                            *CHAPTER XXXII.*
+
+                 *OF ANOTHER ATTEMPT AGAINST GRETTIR.*
+
+
+    _Thorir raises a Party against Grettir--Grettir plays the
+    Herdsman--A Daring Trick--Thorir a Laughing-Stock_
+
+
+Now, during the summer, tidings came to Thorir of Garth that Grettir was
+somewhere about on Reekheath in the north-east.  There was his lair
+which was examined a few years ago, and which remains in tolerable
+condition, as already mentioned when his lair at Fairwood Fell was
+described.  Now, Thorir of Garth, when he got this tidings was resolved
+to make another attempt to kill him; and no wonder, for with singular
+audacity Grettir had come into his neighbourhood.  Grettir no doubt
+thought that he had preyed long enough on men who had not harmed him,
+and that now he would prey on the goods and cattle of the man who had
+made an outlaw of him, and who pursued him with such remorseless
+hostility.  Thorir gathered a number of men together and went in pursuit
+of Grettir. Grettir was not at that time in his den but out on the moor,
+and he was near a mountain-dairy that stood back somewhat from the
+wayside, and there was another man with him, when they spied the party
+of Thorir, all armed, coming along.  They had not been observed, so they
+hastily led their horses into the shed attached to the dairy, and
+concealed themselves.  Thorir came along, went to the dairy, looked
+about to see if anyone were there who could inform him if Grettir had
+been seen, noticed only a couple of horses tied up, but supposed they
+belonged to the farmer whose summer dairy this was, and, without looking
+further, went on.
+
+As soon as Thorir and his band had gone out of sight, Grettir crept from
+his place of hiding, and said to his companion:
+
+"It is a pity they should have come such a ride to see me, and should be
+disappointed.  You watch the horses, and I will go on and have a word
+with them."
+
+"You surely will not be so rash?" exclaimed the other man.
+
+"I cannot let them come all this way without exchanging words with me,"
+said Grettir, and leaving the horses under the care of his comrade, he
+strode away over the moor to a place where he was sure he could be
+observed.  Now, Grettir had a slouched hat on and a long staff in his
+hand, and at the dairy he had found some clothes belonging to the
+herdsman usually there, and these he had put on.
+
+Directly Thorir and his party saw a man with a staff striding about on
+the moor they rode to him. None of them knew Grettir's face, for,
+indeed, they had not been given the chance.  So they thought this great
+rough man was the herdsman, and they asked him if he had seen the outlaw
+Grettir.
+
+"What sort of man is he?" asked Grettir.  "Is he armed?"
+
+"Armed indeed is he, with a casque on his head, a long sword, and also a
+short one in his girdle."
+
+"Is he riding?"
+
+"Most certainly he is."
+
+"Then," said Grettir, "you had better get you along after him due south;
+he has gone that way not so long agone."
+
+When they heard this Thorir and his party struck spurs into their
+horses, put them into a gallop, and away they went as hard as they could
+in the direction indicated.  Now, Grettir knew the country very well,
+and he was well aware that south of where he stood were impassable bogs.
+Thorir and his fellows were too eager in pursuit to attend to the nature
+of the ground over which they rode; besides, they thought that if
+Grettir had ridden that way they could ride it as well.  They were
+speedily mistaken, for in they floundered into a bottomless morass; some
+of the horses were in to their saddles; the men got off and got out with
+difficulty, and they had much ado to get their horses out at all.
+Indeed, some were wallowing there more than half the day. Many curses
+were heaped on the churl who had befooled them, but they could not find
+him when the went after him to chastise him.
+
+Grettir hastened back to the dairy, mounted his horse, and rode to Garth
+itself, whilst the master was floundering in the bog.  As he came to the
+farm he saw a tall, well-dressed girl by the door, and he asked who she
+was.  He was told this was Thorir's daughter.  Then Grettir sang a stave
+to her, the meaning of which was that he who came there was the man whom
+Thorir was vainly pursuing.
+
+Much laughter was occasioned by this failure of Thorir to take Grettir
+when he was in his own neighbourhood, and by his being so deceived and
+befooled by Grettir when he had him in his power.
+
+
+
+
+                           *CHAPTER XXXIII.*
+
+                            *AT SANDHEAPS.*
+
+
+    _A Deadly Enemy--In the Service of Steinvor--The Way to
+    Church--Crossing the Quivering Flood--The Priest's Caution--A
+    Weird Tale--The Old Hag--The Stream-churl--Steinvor's Husband's
+    Death--The Foundation of the Story--The Troll-woman of
+    Grettir--The Basaltic Troll-wife--The Search under
+    Goda-foss--Grettir's Dive--The Fight with the
+    Stream-churl--Runes of the Fight--A Bag of Bones_
+
+
+The summer was passing away, and Grettir could not remain without
+shelter through the winter; so he considered what was best to be done.
+He could not ask any farmer in the north-east to shelter him, because
+they were all afraid of Thorir of Garth, who would have pursued with
+implacable animosity the man who befriended and housed the outlaw.
+Moreover, Thorir had his spies everywhere, and Grettir found he had to
+shift quarters repeatedly to escape his deadly enemy.
+
+Now, when the first snows fell Grettir sent his man away with his horses
+across country to Biarg, and he went further away from where Thorir was;
+but never stayed long anywhere, nor gave his real name.  He had no
+relatives in this part of the island, and no friends.
+
+Now, a little before Yule--that is Christmas--he came to a farm called
+Sandheaps, on that river which is called the Quivering Flood.  This farm
+belonged to a widow woman called Steinvor, who had recently lost her
+husband.
+
+Grettir came and offered his services; he said his name was Guest, that
+he was out of work, and that he had come there because he heard she was
+short of hands.
+
+Steinvor looked at him, and saw that he was a very powerfully-built man,
+and that there was a certain dignity and nobility in his face; so she
+accepted him, against the opinion of the rest in the house, who were
+frightened at the appearance of Grettir, and did not know what to make
+of him, whether he were an ordinary human being or a wild man, half
+mountain-goblin or troll.
+
+It came to pass on Christmas-eve that the widow Steinvor was very
+desirous to go to church, but the church was on the further side of the
+river, and there was no bridge.
+
+Grettir heard Steinvor lament that she could not go to church, so he
+said bluntly: "You can go.  I will attend you and see you over the
+water."
+
+Then she made ready for worship, and took her little daughter with her.
+Now, at times the river froze hard across, and then it was possible to
+cross on the ice.  At other times it might be traversed at a ford.  But
+when Grettir came to the side of the Quivering Flood, it was plain to
+him that by the ice the water could not be crossed.  For there had been
+a rapid thaw, and now the river was overflowed and very full of water;
+and, moreover, it was rolling down great masses of ice.
+
+When Steinvor saw the condition of the river, she said, "There is
+plainly no way across for horse or man."
+
+"I suppose there is a ford somewhere," said Grettir.
+
+"Yes," answered Steinvor, "there is a ford at this place; but I do not
+see how it is to be traversed."
+
+"I will carry you across," said Grettir.
+
+"Carry over the little maiden first," said the widow.  "She is the
+lightest."
+
+"I don't care about making two journeys when one will suffice," answered
+Grettir.  "Come, jump up; I will carry you in my arms."
+
+[Illustration: FORDING THE QUIVERING FLOOD.]
+
+The widow crossed herself, and said, "That will never do.  How can you
+manage such a burden?"
+
+But without more ado Grettir caught up Steinvor on his arm, and then he
+picked up the little girl and set her on her mother's lap, and strode
+into the water; they were on his left arm, but he kept the right free.
+They were so frightened that they durst not cry out.  He waded on in the
+river, and the water foamed up to his breast; and then he saw a great
+ice-floe coming bearing down upon him.  He put out his right hand, gave
+the mass of ice a thrust, and it was whirled past them by the current.
+Then he waded further, and the water washed about his shoulders, and
+that was the deepest point.  After that the river shallowed, and he bore
+the mother and child safely to the shore and set them down.
+
+Now Grettir turned to go back, and he took up a great stone and set it
+on his head, and so waded back.  If he had tried to go through the water
+without a stone he would have been washed away; but the great stone on
+his head enabled him to stand firm and resist the current of the water.
+Those who have not been through an Icelandic river can hardly imagine
+the intensity of the cold.  I have ridden through these rivers, my horse
+swimming under me, and when I reached the further side have thrown
+myself off and lain on the sand for a quarter of an hour before I could
+recover from the numbness caused by the deadly cold; for some of these
+rivers are as broad as the Thames at London Bridge, and the water is
+milky because full of undissolved snow.
+
+When Steinvor reached the church every one was astonished to see her,
+and asked how she had managed to get across the Quivering Flood.  But
+when the priest heard the story, he called Steinvor aside, and said:
+
+"Mind and do not say too much about your new man; do not talk about his
+strength, and set folk a-wondering who he may be.  I have my own
+opinion, and I think you will do well to house him, and say nothing to
+anyone about his being in any way remarkable."
+
+And now there comes into the saga of Grettir a story which is certainly
+untrue, but how it comes in can be made out pretty easily.
+
+The real truth was, as the saga writer confesses, that Grettir remained
+hidden at Sandheaps all that winter, and no one in the country round
+knew that he was there.  But then, the saga writer did not feel
+satisfied with such a dull winter, in which nothing happened; so, to
+fill out his story and say something interesting, he worked into his
+history a wonderful tale.  The story, which I tell in my own words, is
+this:--
+
+
+
+                    *The Story of the Stream-Troll*
+
+
+There is on the Quivering Flood some miles below Sandheaps a mighty
+foss, or waterfall.  The whole river pours over a ledge in a thundering,
+magnificent cascade.  The stream in the middle is broken by an island.
+You can hear the roar of the falling water for a long way around, and
+see the spray thrown up from the fall like a cloud or column of steam
+rising high into the air.  This waterfall is called Goda-foss, and was
+long supposed to be the finest in the island; but there is another,
+which I was the first to see, on the Jokull-river, called Detti-foss,
+which is infinitely finer, but which is in a region of utter desert of
+sand and volcanic crater, many miles from any human habitation.
+
+It happens that there is a curious black lava rock standing near the
+river, higher up than the fall, which bears a quaint resemblance to an
+old woman, and this stone is called The Old Hag; and the story goes that
+it is a troll-woman turned to stone.
+
+Now, you must know that throughout Norway and Iceland, and, indeed,
+wherever the Scandinavian race is found, a superstition exists that
+every river has its spirit, that lives in the river; and it was held
+that these river-spirits demanded a sacrifice of a human life, at least
+once a year.  If a sacrifice were not given to them, then they took some
+man or woman, when crossing the water, and carried the victim away.  And
+in heathen times there can be no doubt whatever that human sacrifices
+were offered to every river; generally an evildoer or a prisoner was
+thrown in and drowned, to propitiate the Stream-churl, as he was called,
+so that he should not snap at and carry off other and more valuable
+lives.  Wherever there was a cataract, there the Stream-churl was
+believed to live, hidden away behind the curtain of falling water.  If
+the stream was small, then this spirit or demon was small; if, however,
+it were a mighty river, then the spirit was a great troll or giant.
+Even to this day in Iceland and Norway, the ignorant and superstitious
+believe that there are these Stream-churls, and tell stories about them,
+and cannot but suspect that, when anyone is drowned, it is the
+Stream-churl exacting his toll.
+
+Now, it is quite certain that Steinvor, although she was a Christian,
+believed in there being a great Stream-churl living under Goda-foss; and
+as she had lost her husband and one of her servants who had been drowned
+in the Quivering Flood, she held that they had been carried off by the
+Troll of the waterfall.
+
+There had been, as it happened, something mysterious about the death of
+Steinvor's husband.  Two years before Grettir came to Sandheaps, on
+Christmas-eve, he had disappeared.  She had gone off to see some friends
+at a distance, and when she returned home next day she heard that her
+husband had not been seen--he was gone, and not a trace of him remained.
+It occurred to her that in all probability he had gone across the river
+to church, and had been carried off by the river--that is, by the
+Stream-churl. But she could be certain of nothing, and she was greatly
+distressed because she could not give his body burial.  A year passed
+and not a word about her husband could she hear.  His body had not be
+found anywhere washed up by the river, supposing he had been drowned.
+
+Next year she lost one of her men-servants in the same way.  He
+vanished, and none knew how or whither he had gone.  If he had run away,
+she would probably have had tidings of him; but she heard none, and his
+body was also never found.
+
+I have no doubt that she told Grettir about this, and also that she
+believed that the Stream-churl who lived under Goda-foss had carried off
+both her husband and the servant.  I believe also that, to satisfy her,
+Grettir undertook to look, and that he actually dived under the fall,
+and came up and searched between the sheet of falling water and the
+rock, and found--nothing.
+
+That is the foundation of a wonderful story which has found its way into
+the saga.  It did not satisfy those who told the tale of Grettir that he
+should have spent the winter at Sandheaps and done nothing--that he
+should have dived under Goda-foss and found nothing.
+
+So by degrees old nursery tales got mixed up with this incident about
+Grettir's search for the Stream-churl, and all was worked into a
+wonderful story, which you shall hear.
+
+On that night on which Grettir had carried Steinvor across the river, he
+returned to the farm, and lay down in his bed.
+
+When midnight arrived, then a great din was heard outside, and presently
+the hall door was thrown open and in through it came a gigantic woman, a
+Troll-wife, with a trough in one hand and a huge chopper in the other.
+
+As she entered she peered about her, and saw Grettir where he lay, and
+she ran at him.  Then he jumped up and went to meet her, and they fell
+a-wrestling terribly, and struggled together so furiously, that all the
+panelling of the hall side was broken.
+
+She was the stronger, and she dragged Grettir towards the door, and
+forth towards the entrance, in spite of all his efforts.  She had got
+him as far as the entrance, when there he made a final struggle, and in
+the struggle the door-posts and fittings were torn from their place, and
+fell outwards.
+
+Then the Troll-woman laboured away with him towards the river, and right
+down towards the gulfs.
+
+Grettir was exceedingly weary, yet he saw that his only chance was to
+make a last effort, or be flung by her over the edge into the deep,
+boiling river.
+
+All night they contended in such fashion, and ever was he drawing nearer
+to the edge.  But just as she was preparing to fling him into the water,
+he got his right hand free, and he swiftly seized his short-sword, and
+struck off her arm; and at that moment the sun rose, and the Troll-woman
+was turned into stone.  There she stands with her amputated arm-socket,
+as a mass of black basalt or lava to this day.
+
+If the reader will recall the story of Grettir's struggle with Glam at
+Thorod's-stead, in the valley of Shadows, he will see that this is only
+the same story over again almost in every particular,--except that the
+first fight was with a man, and this is with a woman.  The reason why
+this story was concocted and put in here, was to account for the stone
+figure which stands by the river, and which is called the Troll-wife.
+So far the story carries its character on its face.
+
+Now we will go on to the next part of the tale. It did not satisfy
+people that Grettir should have dived under Goda-foss and found nothing,
+so the story was thus told:
+
+When the goodwife, Steinvor, came from church, she thought that her
+house had been rudely handled; so she went to Grettir and asked him what
+had occurred.  Then he told her all, and she prayed him to go and make a
+search for her husband's bones, under Goda-foss.
+
+Grettir consented, but he asked that the priest might be sent for.  His
+name was Stone.  Steinvor sent for him, and Stone was curious to know
+whether his suspicions about this stranger were true.  So he asked him
+questions, but Grettir answered that if the priest wanted to know who he
+was, he must find out.  The priest laughed at the story of the
+Troll-wife, and said he did not believe a word about the struggle.
+
+Then Grettir said, "Well, priest, I see that you have no faith in my
+tale; now I propose that you accompany me to Goda-foss, and we will
+search for the Troll himself, and see if we can recover the bones of
+Steinvor's husband."
+
+The priest, Stone, agreed, and they went together to the side of the
+waterfall, and they had a rope with them.
+
+Stone shook his head, and he said, "It would be too risky for anyone to
+venture down there."
+
+"I will go," said Grettir.  "But you mind the rope."
+
+The priest drove a peg into the sward on the cliff, and heaped stones
+over it, so as to make the end firm, and then he seated himself by the
+heap.
+
+Then Grettir made a loop in the end of the rope, and put a stone through
+the loop, and threw the stone down, and the end of the rope went to the
+bottom of the gulf.
+
+"How are you going down?" asked Stone.
+
+"I shall dive," said Grettir.
+
+Then he stripped, but girt on a short-sword, and so leaped off the cliff
+into the foss.  The priest saw only the soles of his feet as he went
+into the water, and then saw no more.
+
+Now, Grettir had gone in below the fall, and he dived and went under the
+curtain of water and came up near the rock.  The whirlpool below the
+falls was so strong that he had a desperate struggle with the water
+before he could reach the rock.
+
+When he rose, he saw that the water fell over a lip of rock, quite
+clear, and that in the face of the rock was a cavern, and that smoke
+issued from this cave, and mingling with the spray and foam passed away,
+and was not discerned beyond.
+
+Grettir climbed over the stones into the cave, and there he saw a great
+fire flaming from amidst brands of drift-wood; and there was the
+Stream-churl seated there, a great Troll with a hideous face.  When he
+saw Grettir he roared and jumped up, and caught a glaive that was near
+him, and smote at the newcomer.  Grettir hewed back at him with his
+short-sword, and smote the handle of the glaive and broke it.  Then the
+giant stretched back for a sword that hung up to a peg against the side
+of the cave, but as he was thus leaning back Grettir smote him across
+the breast, and cut through to the ribs, and gashed open his belly.  The
+blood poured forth out of the cave and mingled with the stream.  When
+the priest saw the bloody foam beneath the fall, he was so frightened
+that he ran away, for he made sure that Grettir was dead.
+
+Grettir remained in the cave, standing across the giant, till he had
+killed him.  Then he took up a flaming brand and searched the cave
+through.  He found nothing more than dead men's bones, and these he put
+together into a bag, threw that over his shoulder, and went again into
+the water.
+
+He rose beyond the foss and looked up, but could see nothing of the
+priest; so he caught the rope, and by means of that he swarmed up to the
+top of the cliff.
+
+Then he sat down, and with a sharp knife he cut runes on a staff.  And
+what he wrote was this:
+
+    "Down into the gulf I went,
+    Where the rocks are widely rent;
+    Where the swirling waters fall
+    O'er the black basaltic wall;
+    Where, with voice of thunder, leap
+    In the foaming darkling deep.
+    There the stream with icy wave
+    Washes the grim giant's cave."
+
+He had cut as much as he could on one stick, so now he took another, and
+on that he cut:
+
+    "Dreadful dweller in the cave
+    Underneath the falling wave,
+    Fierce at me he brandished glaive;
+    Full of rage at me he drove,
+    Desperate we together strove.
+    Lo!  I smote his halft in twain,
+    Lo!  I smote and he was slain,
+    Bleeding from each riven vein."
+
+
+Then Grettir carried the bag of bones and the staves to the church, and
+laid them in the porch.
+
+Next morning when the priest came to the church he found the bag of
+bones and the staves.
+
+Such is the story.
+
+Now, it is clear that a good bit of it is simply transferred from the
+story of Grettir going down into the cairn of Karr the Old.
+
+The real truth of the tale is no more than what has been stated, that
+Grettir went under the waterfall and found nothing.  It is, of course,
+possible that he may have hoaxed the priest; but I think it more
+probable that all this marvellous matter is simply tacked on to one
+simple fact, and that it was taken, partly from the story of Grettir in
+the barrow of Karr, and partly from that of his struggle with Glam.
+
+What the saga writer does admit is that the versions of the story do not
+quite agree, and that--in spite of this wonderful achievement, folks did
+not know that Grettir was at Sandheaps that winter.
+
+
+
+
+                            *CHAPTER XXXIV.*
+
+                    *HOW GRETTIR WAS DRIVEN ABOUT.*
+
+
+    _Thorir comes too Late--The Needle of Basalt--The Island of
+    Drangey--The Terrors of the Dark--Brother holds to Brother_
+
+
+After a while rumours reached Thorir of Garth that either Grettir, or
+someone very like Grettir,--a tall, powerful man with reddish hair, and
+one who gave no account of whence he came,--was lodging at Sandheaps,
+and Thorir made ready to go there after him.  Fortunately Grettir, or
+rather the housewife Steinvor, heard of his intention, and so Grettir
+made off out of the valley of the Quivering Flood before Thorir came
+there in quest of him.
+
+He escaped to Maddervales, in the Horg-river Dale.  This is a noble
+valley of the Horg River, with chains of snowy peaks on each side, of
+peculiar shape, barred with precipices of basalt, on which lie slopes of
+snow.
+
+Some way up this valley are some very remarkable spires of basaltic
+rock, one of which that is like a needle is said to have been climbed by
+Grettir whilst staying in this valley.  It is not so said in the saga,
+but I was told so on the spot, and the tale goes that when he climbed to
+the top he slipped his belt round the needle, and there it hangs round
+it still--but no one has been up since to find if it be there where he
+left it.
+
+He could not remain long there, for Gudmund the Rich, who was farmer at
+Maddervales, was afraid to house him for long.  Thorir of Garth would
+come and burn his house if he harboured Grettir.  However, he kept him
+for some little while, and then he gave him advice what he should do.
+
+It had come to such a pass with Grettir now that no one dared to shelter
+him for long, and Thorir had spies everywhere to inform him where
+Grettir was.
+
+Gudmund the Rich said to Grettir: "You can find no safety anywhere that
+men dwell; for if there be not treachery, yet the news flies about that
+you are there.  So I advise you to go where you shall be alone."
+
+"Where shall I go?" asked Grettir.  "I am hunted like a dog."
+
+"There is an island," answered Gudmund, "lying in the Skagafirth, called
+Drangey.  It is a place excellent for defence, as no one can reach it
+without a ladder.  If you could get upon Drangey, no one could come on
+you unawares.  You would see anyone who came by boat to the island, and
+you could pull up a rope-ladder, without which no one would be able to
+ascend."
+
+"I will try that," said Grettir; "but I have become so fearsome in the
+dark that not even at the risk of my life can I endure to be alone."
+
+"Well," said Gudmund, "that is my counsel. Trust none but yourself.
+Treachery lies where least expected."
+
+Grettir thanked him for his advice, and went away west to see his
+mother.  And he was most joyfully welcomed by her and his young brother
+Illugi at Biarg.  There he remained some nights--not many; for Ramsfirth
+was only over a brow of hill, and the tidings of his return home was
+sure in a few days to reach the relatives of Oxmain, when he would again
+be set on.
+
+I said, after giving an account of Grettir's adventure at
+Thorhall's-stead with Glam, that there must have been something of fact
+in that story, and not pure fiction; and now it has been seen how that
+event coloured and affected his whole after life, leaving his nerves so
+shaken, that he could not drive off the impression then made on him, and
+he was ready to run serious risks rather than be subject to the terrors
+that came on him in the dark when alone.
+
+He told his mother and Illugi how it was with him, and how that he had
+been advised to go to Drangey, but that he could not; he dare not, in
+the long winter night, be on that lonely islet by himself.
+
+Then Illugi his brother said, "Grettir, I will be with you."
+
+"Brother holds to brother as hand clasps hand," answered Grettir, and so
+they parted.  All that summer he wandered about in wild places, shifting
+his quarters repeatedly, and living how he could.
+
+
+
+
+                            *CHAPTER XXXV.*
+
+                             *ON THE ISLE.*
+
+
+    _Illugi will go to Drangey--Asdis gives Consent--Asdis
+    prophesies Woe--Within Sight of Drangey--Glaum becomes Grettir's
+    Servant--Thorwald rows Grettir to Drangey--Thorbiorn Hook--The
+    Bonders visit the Island--Grettir in Possession--An Inaccessible
+    Spot_
+
+
+When summer was now over, and the first snow of winter began to fall,
+when the days were rapidly shortening, and the sun had gone out of the
+north to the south, where it began to move in a rapidly narrowing arc,
+Grettir returned to Biarg and remained there a while.  "But," says the
+saga, "so great grew his fear in the dark that he durst go nowhere as
+soon as dusk set in."  We can see that the many years strain on his
+nerves had broken them.  Hunted about as a wild beast, always forced to
+be on his guard, never able to sleep without fear of being murdered in
+his sleep, the trial had told on him.  This was now the winter of 1028.
+He was aged but thirty-one; his strength of body was not abated, only
+his nervous force.  He had been in outlawry altogether fifteen years,
+three for the slaying of Skeggi, then he had been outlawed by King Olaf
+in 1016.  On his return to Iceland he had been outlawed in 1017; this
+was the eleventh year of his outlawry at the suit of Thorir of Garth, an
+outlawry not only unjust, but according to general opinion illegal,
+because he had been tried and sentenced in his absence, and without any
+witnesses having been called to establish his guilt--condemned on
+hearsay evidence, and he never allowed to defend himself.
+
+Now Illugi, Grettir's sole surviving brother, was aged fifteen, and was
+a very handsome, honest-looking boy.
+
+"Grettir," said he, "you know what I said.  I will go with you to
+Drangey, if you will take me. I know not that I will be of much help to
+you, but this I know, that I will be ever true to you, and will never
+run from you so long as you stand up. Besides, I shall like to be with
+you, for here at home we are ever in anxiety for news about you, always
+fearing the worst; but if I am at your side, I shall know how you fare."
+
+"I would rather have you with me than anyone else," answered Grettir.
+"But I cannot take you unless our mother consent."
+
+Then said Asdis, "Now I can see that I have the choice of evils.  I can
+ill spare Illugi; yet I know your trouble, Grettir, and that something
+must be done for you.  It grieves me, my sons, to see you both leave me;
+yet I will not withhold my youngest from you, Grettir.  It is right that
+brother should help brother."
+
+That rejoiced Illugi.  Then Asdis gave her sons what things she thought
+they might want on the island, and they made them ready to depart.
+
+She led them outside the farm inclosure, and then she took farewell of
+them, saying, "My two sons! There you depart from me, and I dreamed last
+night that you left me for ever, and would fall together. What is fated
+none may fly from.  Never shall I see you again, either of you.  Be it
+so, that one fate overtake you both.  In my dream I saw your bones
+whitening on Drangey.  Be careful and watchful. My dreams have troubled
+me greatly.  Above all beware of witchcraft.  None can cope with the
+craft of the old."
+
+When she had said this she wept sore.
+
+Then said Grettir, "Weep not, mother, for if we be set on with weapons
+it will be said of thee that thou hadst men and not girls for thy
+children.  Live on well, and be hale."
+
+So they parted.  Grettir and Illugi went to their relatives and visited
+them, never, however, staying long in any place, and so on by Swine
+Lake, a long sheet of water in a shallow basin, to the Blend River. This
+river is of the colour of milk and water, because it is so full of
+undissolved snow, and milk and water is called Bland, _i.e._ Blend, in
+Icelandic.  Another river enters it that is called the Black Stream,
+because of the dark colour of the water.  Grettir turned up the valley
+of the Black River and then over a pass by a pretty lake lying in a
+mountain lap, down into a broad marshy valley in which are three or four
+rivers, and boiling springs pouring forth clouds of steam on the
+hill-slopes.  The valley is commanded by a beautiful mountain peak,
+called the Measuring Peak, because the natives thereabouts reckon
+distances from it.
+
+Grettir and Illugi went down this valley till they reached the sea, and
+now there opened before them a glorious view of the fiord, extending out
+north about forty miles, and from ten to fifteen miles across, between
+mountains and precipitous cliffs.  A little way back from the eastern
+shore stood up the Unadals Jokull, crowned with perpetual snows and with
+glaciers rolling down the sides, and on the west, close to the sea,
+seeming to rise in a wall out of it and running up into fantastic peaks,
+was the range of Tindastoll, famous for its cornelians and agates and
+other precious stones.  In the offing, fifteen miles out, right in the
+midst of the fiord, stood up the isle of Drangey with sheer cliffs,
+about which the sea perpetually danced and foamed.
+
+Grettir and Illugi skirted the shore on the west. The wind was blowing
+cold, and snow was driving before it, as they passed a farm.  The farmer
+stood in his door, and saw a great man stride by with an axe over his
+shoulder, his hood thrown back, and his wild red hair blowing about in
+the gale.  "Verily," said the farmer, "that must be a strange fellow not
+to cover his head with his hood in such weather as this."  Near this
+little farm the brothers stumbled upon a tall, thin man, dressed in rags
+and with a very big head.  They asked each other's names, and the fellow
+called himself Glaum.  He was out of work, and he went along with the
+brothers chatting, and telling them all the gossip of the neighbourhood.
+Then Glaum asked if they were in want of a servant, and Grettir gladly
+accepted him, and the man became thenceforth his constant attendant. But
+the fellow was a sad boaster, and most people thought him both a fool
+and a coward.  He was not fond of work, and he spent his time strolling
+about the country picking up and retailing news.
+
+Grettir and his brother and Glaum reached a farm called Reykir as the
+day closed in, where was a hot spring in the farm paddock.  The farmer's
+name was Thorwald; and Grettir asked him to put him across in a boat to
+Drangey.  Thorwald shook his head and said, "I shall get into trouble
+with those who have rights of pasturage on the island. I had rather
+not."
+
+Then Grettir offered him a bag of silver which his mother had given him,
+and at the sight of this, Thorwald raised his eyebrows and thought that
+he might perhaps do what was asked.  The distance was just five miles.
+
+So on a moonshiny night Thorwald got three of his churls and they rowed
+Grettir and the two who went with him over.  On reaching his destination
+Grettir was well pleased with the spot, for it was covered with a
+profusion of grass, and the sides were so precipitous that it seemed a
+sheer impossibility for anyone to ascend it without the aid of the
+rope-ladder that hung from strong staples at the summit. In summer the
+place would swarm with sea-birds, and at the time there were eighty
+sheep left on the island for fattening.
+
+A good many farmers had rights of pasturage on the island.  Hialti of
+Hof was one, whose brother's name was Thorbiorn Hook, of whom more
+hereafter. Another was Haldor, who lived at Head-strand; he had married
+the sister of these brothers.  Biorn, Eric, and Tongue-stone were the
+names of three others.
+
+Thorbiorn Hook was a hard-headed, ill-disposed fellow.  His father had
+married a second time, and there was no love lost between the stepmother
+and Thorbiorn.  It is said that one day as The Hook was sitting at
+draughts, she passed, and looking over his shoulder laughed, because he
+had made a bad move. Thorbiorn Hook thereupon said something abusive and
+insulting; this so enraged her that she snatched up a draught-man, and
+pressing it against his eye-socket, drove the eyeball out.  He started
+to his feet, and with the draught-board struck her over the head such a
+blow that she took to her bed, and died of the injury.  The Hook now
+went from bad to worse, and leaving home settled at Woodwick on the
+fiord, a small farm.  It will be understood from this story that he was
+a violent and brutal fellow, and that, indeed, the life in his father's
+house had not been of an orderly description.
+
+As many as twenty farmers claimed rights to turn out their sheep on
+Drangey in summer.  The way they managed it is the way still employed by
+their successors.  They take the sheep out in boats, and then put them
+over their shoulders, with the feet tied under their chins, and so they
+climb the rope-ladder, carrying the sheep up on their backs. Though all
+these farmers claimed rights on Drangey, The Hook and his brother had
+the largest share, that is to say, the right to turn out more sheep than
+the rest.
+
+Now, about the time of the winter solstice, that is just before Yule,
+the bonders made ready to visit the island, and bring home their sheep
+for slaughtering for the Christmas feasting.  They rowed out in a large
+boat, and on nearing the island were much surprised to see figures
+moving on top of the cliffs.  How anyone had got there without their
+knowledge puzzled them, for Thorwald had kept his counsel, and told no
+one what he had done for Grettir.  They pulled hard for the
+landing-place, where hung the ladder, but Grettir drew it up before they
+landed.
+
+The bonders shouted to know who were on the crags, and Grettir, looking
+over, told his name and those of his companions.  The farmers then asked
+how he had got there? who had put him across?
+
+Grettir answered, "If you very much wish to know, it was not one of you
+below now speaking to us.  It was someone else, who had a good boat and
+a pair of lusty arms."
+
+"Let us fetch our sheep away," called the bonders, "then you come to
+land with us.  We will not make you pay for the sheep you have eaten,
+and we will do you no harm."
+
+"Well offered," answered Grettir; "but he who takes keeps hold; and a
+bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.  Believe me, I will not leave
+this island till the time of my outlawry is expired, unless I be carried
+from it dead."
+
+The bonders were silenced, it seemed to them that they had got an ugly
+customer on Drangey, to get rid of whom would be no easy matter; so they
+rowed home, very ill-satisfied with the result of their expedition.
+
+The news spread like wildfire, and was talked about all through the
+neighbourhood.  Thorir of Garth was the more embittered, because he
+could see no way in which Grettir could be reached and overmastered in
+this inaccessible spot.
+
+
+
+
+                            *CHAPTER XXXVI.*
+
+                      *OF GRETTIR ON HERON-NESS.*
+
+
+    _Grettir goes to Heron-ness--At the Games--The Hook's
+    Challenge--Amongst Strangers--The Oath of Safe-conduct--An old
+    Formula--A Surprise for the Bonders--Regretting the Oath--The
+    two Brothers--Grettir returns to Drangey_
+
+
+Winter passed, and at the beginning of summer the whole district met at
+an assize held on the Herons'-ness, a headland in the Skaga-firth,
+between the rivers that discharge into the fiord. It is, in fact, the
+seaward point of a large island in the delta of the river that divides
+about eight miles higher up, inland.  The gathering was thronged, and
+the litigations and merry-makings made the assize last over many days.
+Grettir guessed what was going on by seeing a number of boats pass to
+the head of the fiord.  He became restless, and at last announced to his
+brother that he intended being present at the assize, cost what it
+might.  Illugi thought it was sheer madness, but Grettir was resolute.
+He begged his brother and Glaum to watch the ladder and await his
+return.
+
+Now, Grettir was on very good terms with the farmer at Reykir, and with
+some others on that side of the firth, and they were not unwilling to
+help him.  Sometimes his mother sent things to the brothers that she
+thought they would need, and then there were not wanting men to take
+these over to the island.  So Grettir got put across by his friend
+Thorwald to the mainland, and he borrowed of him a set of old clothes,
+and thus attired he went along the coast boldly to Heron-ness.  He had
+on a fur cap, which was drawn closely over his eyes, and concealed his
+face, so that no one might recognize him.  Now, in parts of Iceland, the
+flies are such torments that men have to wear literally cloth helmets,
+with only nose and eyes showing, the cloth fitting tight to the head,
+and round over the ears and neck, exactly like a helmet, or a German
+knitted sledging cap.  When I was in Iceland, when the flies were
+troublesome, I put my head into a butterfly net, and buckled it round my
+neck tightly with a leather strap.  Now, Grettir's cap was something
+like those I have described, and no one was surprised at his wearing it,
+as the whole of that valley is one vast marsh, and is infested with
+flies that blacken the air and madden men and beasts.
+
+Grettir thus attired sauntered between the booths erected on the
+headland, till he reached the spot where games were going on.
+
+Now, Hialti and Thorbiorn Hook were the chief men in these sports.  Hook
+was specially noisy and boisterous, and drove men together to the
+sports, and whether men liked it or not, he insisted on their
+attendance.  He would take this man and that by the hands and drag him
+forth to the field, where the wrestling and other games went on.
+
+Now, first wrestled those who were weakest, and then each man in turn,
+and great fun there was. But when most men had tried their strength
+except the very strongest, it was asked who would be a match for Hialti
+and The Hook.  These two being the strongest and the roughest of all,
+went round inviting each man in turn to wrestle with them, but all
+declined.
+
+Then Thorbiorn Hook, looking round, spied a tall fellow in the shabbiest
+and quaintest of suits, sitting by himself, speaking to no one.
+Thorbiorn walked up to him, laid his hands on his shoulders and asked
+him to wrestle.
+
+The man sat still, and The Hook could not drag him from his seat.
+
+"Well!" exclaimed The Hook, "no one else has kept his place before me
+to-day.  Who are you?"
+
+"Guest," answered Grettir shortly.
+
+"A wished-for guest thou wilt be, if thou furnish some entertainment to
+the company," said Thorbiorn Hook.
+
+Grettir answered, "I am indisposed to make a fool of myself before
+strangers.  How am I to know, supposing that I give you a fall, that I
+shall not be set upon by you or your kindred, and be unfairly treated?"
+
+Then many exclaimed that there should be fair play.
+
+"It is all very well your saying Fair-play now; but will you say
+Fair-play, and stick to it, supposing I get the better of this man.  You
+are all akin, or friends, and I am a stranger to you all."
+
+Again he was assured that no one would resent what he did.
+
+"But see," said Grettir, "I have not wrestled for many years, and have
+lost all skill in the matter."
+
+Yet they pressed him the more.
+
+Then he said, "I will wrestle with whom you will, if you will swear to
+show me no violence so long as I am among you as a guest."
+
+This all agreed to, and an oath of safe conduct was made, the form of
+which is so curious that it must be given.
+
+A man named Hafr recited the terms of the oath, and the rest agreed to
+it.
+
+"Here set I peace among all men towards this man Guest, who sits before
+us, and in this oath I bind all magistrates and well-to-do bonders, and
+all men who bear swords, and all men whatsoever in this district,
+present or absent, named or unnamed. These are to show peace to, and
+give free passage to the aforenamed stranger, that he may sport,
+wrestle, make merry, abide with us and depart from us, without stay,
+whether he go by land or flood. He shall have peace where he is, in all
+places where he may be till he reaches his house whence he set out, so
+long and no longer.
+
+"I set this treaty of peace between him and us, our kinsmen male and
+female, our servants and children.  May the breaker of this compact be
+cast out of the favour of God and good men, out of his heavenly
+inheritance and the society of just men and angels.  May he be an
+outcast from land to its farthest limits, far as men chase wolves, as
+Christians frequent churches, as heathen men offer sacrifices, as flame
+burns, earth produces herb, as baby calls its mother, and mother rocks
+her child; far as fire is kindled, ships glide, lightnings flicker, sun
+shines, snow lies, Finns slide on snow-shoes, fir-trees grow, falcons
+fly on a spring day with a breeze under their wings; far as heaven
+bends, earth is peopled, winds sweep the water into waves, churls till
+corn; he shall be banished from churches and the company of Christian
+men, from heathen folk, from house and den, from every house--save hell!
+Now let us be agreed whether we be on mountain or shore, on ship or
+skate, on ground or glacier, at sea or in saddle, as friend with friend,
+as brother with brother, as father with son, in this our compact.  Lay
+we now hand to hand, and hold we true peace and keep every word of this
+oath."
+
+Now, this formula is very curious.  It must have been brought by the
+Icelandic settlers with them from Norway, for parts of it are
+inappropriate to their land.  There are no Finns there, nor do fir-trees
+grow there, nor is any corn tilled.  But all that about Christians is of
+later origin.
+
+After a little hesitation the oath was taken by all.
+
+Then said Grettir, "You have done well, only beware of breaking your
+oath.  I am ready to do my part, without delay, to fulfil your wishes."
+
+Thereupon he flung aside his hood and garments, and the assembled
+bonders looked at each other, and were disconcerted, for they saw that
+they had in their midst Grettir Asmund's son.  They were silent, and
+thought that they had taken the oath somewhat unadvisedly, and they
+whispered the one into another, to find if there were not some loophole
+by which they might evade the obligation to observe the oath.
+
+"Come now," said Grettir, "let me know your purpose, for I shall not
+long stand stripped.  It will be worse for you than for me if you break
+your oath, for it will go down in story to the end of time that the men
+of Heron-ness swore and were perjured."
+
+He received no answer.  The chiefs moved away; some wanted to break the
+truce, and argued that an oath taken to an outlaw was not legally
+binding; others insisted that the oath must be observed. Then Grettir
+sang:
+
+    "Many trees-of-wealth (_men_) this morn,
+    Failed the well-known well to know,
+    Two ways turn the sea-flame-branches (_men_),
+    When a trick on them is tried;
+    Falter folk in oath fulfilling,
+    Hafr's talking lips are dumb."
+
+
+Then Tongue-stone said, "You think so, do you, Grettir?  Well, I will
+say this of you, you are a man of dauntless courage.  Look how the
+chiefs are deep in discussion how to deal with you."
+
+Then Grettir sang:
+
+    "Shield-lifters (_men_) rubbing of noses,
+    Shield-tempest-senders (men) shake beards,
+    Fierce-hearted serpent's-lair-scatterers (_men_),
+    Lay their heads one 'gainst another,
+    Now that they know, are regretting
+    The peace they have sworn to to-day."
+
+
+In these staves a number of periphrases for men or warriors are
+used--and the use of these periphrases constitute the charm of these
+verses.
+
+Then Hialti of Hof burst away from the rest, and said, "No, never, never
+shall it be said of us men of Heron-ness, that we have broken an oath
+because we have found it inconvenient to keep it.  Grettir shall be at
+full liberty to go to his place in peace, and woe betide him who lays
+hand on him, to do him an injury.  But an oath no longer binds us should
+he venture ashore again."
+
+All except Thorbiorn Hook, Hialti's brother, agreed to this, and felt
+their minds and consciences relieved, that he had spoken out as a man of
+honour.  And thus was seen how of those two brothers, rude and violent
+though both were, Hialti had some nobleness in him that was lacking in
+the other.
+
+The wrestling began by Grettir being matched with Thorbiorn Hook, and
+after a very brief struggle Grettir freed himself from his antagonist,
+leaped over his back, caught him by the belt, lifted him off his legs,
+and flung him over his back.  This is a throw called "showing the white
+mare," among Cornish wrestlers of the present day, and a very dangerous
+throw it is, for it sometimes breaks the back of the man thrown.  The
+Hook, however, picked himself up, and the wrestling continued with
+unabated vigour, and it was impossible to tell which side had the
+mastery, for, though Grettir was matched against both brothers, and
+after each bout with one brother fell to with the other, he was never
+thrown down. After all three were covered with blood and bruises the
+match was closed, the judges deciding that the two brothers conjointly
+were not stronger than Grettir alone, though they were each of them as
+powerful as two ordinary able-bodied men.
+
+Grettir at once left the place of gathering, rejecting all the
+entreaties of the farmers that he would leave Drangey.  And, so, after
+all but The Hook had thanked him for his wrestling and praised his
+activity and strength, he departed.  He was put across from Reykir to
+his island, and was received with open arms by Illugi.
+
+There now they abode peaceably, and Grettir told his brother and his
+churl Glaum the story of what had taken place at the assize, and thus
+the summer wore away.
+
+There was much talk through the island of Iceland about this adventure,
+and all good men approved the conduct of the men of the Skagafiord that
+they had kept the oath they had so inconsiderately taken.
+
+
+
+
+                           *CHAPTER XXXVII.*
+
+                          *OF HOERING'S LEAP.*
+
+
+    _The Piebald Ram--In want of Fire--Not born to be
+    Drowned--Thorwald aids Grettir--A Stratagem--Hoering climbs the
+    Cliff--Hoering's Leap_
+
+
+The smaller farmers began seriously to feel their want of the islet
+Drangey for pasture in summer, and, as there seemed no chance of their
+getting rid of Grettir, they sold their rights to Thorbiorn Hook, who
+set himself in earnest to devise a plan by which he might possess
+himself of the island.
+
+When Grettir had been two winters on the island, he had eaten all the
+sheep except one piebald ram, with magnificent horns, which became so
+tame that he ran after them wherever they went, and in the evening came
+to the hut Grettir had erected and butted at the door till let in.
+
+The brothers liked this place of exile, as there was no dearth of eggs
+and birds, besides which, some drift-wood was thrown upon the strand,
+and served as fuel.
+
+Grettir and Illugi spent their days in clambering among the rocks, and
+rifling nests, and the occupation of the thrall was to collect drift
+timber and keep up the fire in the hut.  He was expected to remain awake
+and watch the fire whilst the others slept. He got very tired of his
+life on the islet, became idle, morose, and reserved.  One night,
+notwithstanding Grettir's warnings to him to be more careful, as they
+had no boat, he let the fire go out. Grettir was very angry, and told
+Glaum that he deserved a sound thrashing for his neglect.  The thrall
+replied that he loathed the life he led; and that it seemed it was not
+enough to Grettir that he should keep him there as a prisoner, he must
+also maltreat him.
+
+Grettir consulted his brother what was best to be done, and Illugi
+replied that the only thing that could be done was to await the arrival
+of a boat from the friendly farmer at Reykir.
+
+"We shall have to wait long enough for that," said Grettir.  "The
+bonders have taken it ill that he has favoured us, and he is now
+unwilling to be seen visiting Drangey.  The only chance is for me to
+swim ashore and secure a light."
+
+"Do not attempt that!" exclaimed Illugi.  "That is what you did in
+Norway, and that led to all your misfortune."
+
+"This case is different," answered Grettir.  "Then I brought fire for
+ill-conditioned men, now it is for ourselves.  Then I knew not who was
+on the other side, but now I can get the fire for the asking from
+Thorwald."
+
+"But the distance is so great!" remonstrated Illugi.
+
+"Do not fear for me," said Grettir; "I was not born to be drowned."
+
+From Drangey to Reykir is, as already said, about five English miles.
+
+Grettir prepared for swimming, by dressing in loose thin drawers and a
+sealskin hood; he tied his fingers together, that they might offer more
+resistance to the water when he struck out.
+
+The day was fine and warm.  Grettir started in the evening, when the
+tide was in his favour, setting in; and his brother anxiously watched
+him from the rocks.  At sunset he reached the land, after having floated
+and swum the whole distance.  Immediately on coming ashore, he went to
+the warm spring and bathed in it, before entering the house.  The hall
+door was open, and Grettir stepped in.  A large fire had been burning on
+the hearth, so that the room was very warm; Grettir was so thoroughly
+exhausted that he lay down beside the hot embers, and was soon fast
+asleep.  In the morning he was found by the farmer's daughter, who gave
+him a bowl of milk, and brought her father to him.  Thorwald furnished
+him with fire, and rowed him back to the island, astonished beyond
+measure at his achievement, in having swum such a distance.
+
+Now, the farmers on the Skagafiord began to taunt Thorbiorn Hook with
+his unprofitable purchase of the island, and Hook was greatly irritated
+and perplexed what to do.
+
+During the summer, a ship arrived in the firth, the captain of which was
+a young and active man called Hoering.  He lodged with Thorbiorn Hook
+during the autumn, and was continually urging his host to row him out to
+Drangey, that he might try to climb the precipitous sides of the island.
+The Hook required very little pressing; and one fine afternoon he rowed
+his guest out to Drangey, and put him stealthily ashore, without
+attracting the notice of those on the height.  For in some places the
+cliffs overhung, so that a boat passing beneath could not be seen from
+above.  Now Hoering had lain in the bottom of the boat, covered with a
+piece of sailcloth, so that the brothers saw nothing of him as the boat
+was approaching the islet.
+
+They saw and recognized Thorbiorn Hook and his churls, and at once drew
+up the ladder.  Now it was whilst they were watching at the
+landing-place that Thorbiorn put Hoering out on another point, where the
+cliffs seemed possible to be climbed by a very skilful man, and then
+came on to the usual landing place, and there shouted to Grettir.
+Grettir replied, and then Thorbiorn began the usual arguments to
+persuade the outlaw to leave the isle.  He promised to give him shelter
+in his house the winter, if he would do so.  All was in vain.  What he
+sought was to divert Grettir's attention so as to allow time and
+occasion for Hoering to climb the cliffs unobserved and unresisted.
+
+The discussion went on but led to nothing.  In the meantime Hoering had
+managed most cleverly to get up by a way never ascended by man before or
+after; and when he came to the top and had his feet on the turf, he saw
+where the brothers stood with their backs turned towards him, and he
+thought that now an opportunity had come for him to make himself a great
+name.  Grettir suspected nothing, and continued talking to Thorbiorn,
+who was getting, or feigning to get, angry, and used big and violent
+words.
+
+Now, as luck would have it, Illugi chanced to turn his head, and he saw
+a man approaching from behind.
+
+Then he cried out, "Brother!  Brother!  Here comes a man at us with
+uplifted axe!"
+
+"You go after him," said Grettir.  "I will watch at the ladder."
+
+So Illugi started to his feet and went to meet Hoering, and when the
+young merchant saw that he was discovered, he fled away across the
+islet, and Illugi went after him.  And when Hoering came to the edge he
+leaped down, hoping to fall into the sea; but he had missed his
+reckoning, and he went upon some skerries over which the waves tossed,
+and broke every bone in his body, and so ended his life.  The spot is
+called Hoering's Leap to this day.
+
+Illugi came back, and Grettir asked him what had been the end of the
+encounter.  Illugi told him.
+
+"Now, Thorbiorn," shouted Grettir; "we have had enough of profitless
+talk.  Go round to the other side of the island and gather up the
+remains of your friend."
+
+The Hook pushed off from the strand and returned home, ill pleased with
+the result of the expedition, and Grettir remained unmolested on Drangey
+the ensuing winter.
+
+
+
+
+                           *CHAPTER XXXVIII.*
+
+              *OF THE ATTEMPT MADE BY GRETTIR's FRIENDS.*
+
+
+    _The New Law-man--The Outlawry almost at an End_
+
+
+The ensuing summer, that is to say, the summer of 1031, at the great
+annual assize at Thingvalla, all Grettir's kin and friends brought up
+the matter of outlawry, and contended that he ought to have his sentence
+done away with.  They said that no man could be an outlaw all his life,
+that was not a condition contemplated by their laws.  They said that he
+had been outlawed first in 1011 for the slaying of Skeggi, and that he
+had been in outlawry ever since, which made nineteen years.
+
+The old law-man was dead, and now there was another at the assize, whose
+name was Stein.  He laid down that no man might by law be in outlawry
+more than twenty years.  Now, when they came to reckon since 1011 it was
+nineteen years.  It was true that he had been outlawed thrice, once for
+Skeggi, then by King Olaf, and lastly by the court for the burning of
+the sons of Thorir of Garth, still--the fact remained that for nineteen
+years he had been an outlaw, and Stein laid down that by next assize,
+that is to say in one year, his outlawry would have expired.
+
+Thereat Grettir's kinsfolk were pleased, for they thought that he would
+only have to spend one winter more on Drangey, and afterwards his
+troubles would be at an end; Thorir of Garth and his other foes could no
+more pursue him, and the price set on his head would fall away.
+
+But on the other hand, Thorir of Garth, who had not become more
+charitable and forgiving as he grew old, became still more incensed and
+impatient to have Grettir killed before this year would expire, also
+Thorbiorn Hook cast about how he might be avenged for the deprivation of
+his rights over Drangey.  The men who had sold their claims came to
+Thorbiorn, and told him he must do one of two things: get rid of Grettir
+and assert his rights by turning out sheep on the islet, or they would
+regard the sale as quashed, by his non-usance of the pasture, and they
+would reclaim their shares of the island as soon as Grettir's outlawry
+was at an end, and he left the place.
+
+
+
+
+                            *CHAPTER XXXIX.*
+
+                           *OF THE OLD HAG.*
+
+
+    _The Hook's Foster-mother--The Hag's Request--The Witch in the
+    Boat--The Hag's Dooming--An Unlucky Throw--Working Bane--The
+    Magic Runes_
+
+
+Now it was so, that Thorbiorn Hook had a foster-mother, a woman advanced
+in age, and of a very malicious disposition.  When the people of Iceland
+accepted Christianity, she, in her heart, remained a heathen, and would
+not be baptized and have anything to do with the new religion.  She had
+always been reckoned a witch, but with the introduction of Christianity
+witchcraft had been made illegal, and anyone who had recourse to sorcery
+was severely dealt with.  The old woman had not forgotten her
+incantations and strange ceremonies, whereby she thought to be able to
+conjure the spirits of evil, and send ill on such as offended her.
+
+When Thorbiorn Hook found that he could contrive in no way to get
+Grettir out of Drangey, and when he saw that if his expulsion were
+delayed, and Grettir left of his own accord, he would forfeit the money
+he had paid for the rights of pasturage on the island, he went to his
+foster-mother, and told her his difficulty, and pretty plainly let her
+understand that as he could get help nowhere else, he did not mind
+having recourse to the black art.
+
+"Ah!" cackled she, "I see how it is, when all else fails, man's arms and
+man's wit, then you come to the bed-ridden crone and seek her aid.
+Well, I will assist you to the best of my power, on one condition, and
+that is, that you obey me without questioning."
+
+The Hook agreed to what she said, and so all rested till August without
+the matter being again alluded to.
+
+Then one beautiful day the hag said to Thorbiorn, "Foster-son, the sea
+is calm and the sky bright, what say you to our rowing over to Drangey
+and stirring up the old strife with Grettir?  I will go with you and
+hear what he says, then I shall be able to judge what fate lies before
+him, and I can death-doom him accordingly."
+
+The Hook answered, "It is waste of labour going out to Drangey.  I have
+been there several times and never return better off than when I went."
+
+"You promised to obey me without questioning," said the crone.  "Follow
+my advice and all will be well for you and ill for Grettir."
+
+"I will do as you bid me, foster-mother," said Thorbiorn, "though I had
+sworn not to go back to Drangey till I was sure I could work the bane of
+Grettir."
+
+"That man is not laid low hastily, and patience is needed; but his time
+will come, and may be close at hand.  What the end of this visit will be
+I cannot say.  It is hid from me, but I know very well that it will lead
+to his or to your destruction."
+
+Thorbiorn ran out a long boat, and entered it with twelve men.  The hag
+sat in the bows coiled up amongst rugs and wadmal.  When they reached
+the island, at once Grettir and Illugi ran to the ladder, and Thorbiorn
+again asked if Grettir would come to his house for the winter.
+
+Grettir made the same reply as before, "Do what you will, in this spot I
+await my fate."
+
+Now Thorbiorn saw that this expedition also was likely to be resultless,
+and he became very angry. "I see," he said, "that I have to do with an
+ill-conditioned churl, who does not know how to accept a good offer when
+made.  I shall not come here again with such an offer."
+
+"That pleases me well," said Grettir, "for you and I are not like to
+come to terms that will satisfy both."
+
+At that moment the hag began to wriggle out of her wraps in the bows.
+Grettir had not perceived her hitherto.  Now she screamed out, "These
+men may be strong, but their strength is ebbing.  They may have had
+luck, but luck has left.  See what a difference there is between men.
+Thorbiorn makes good offers, and such they blindly, foolishly reject.
+Those who are blinded and cast away chances do not have chances come to
+them again.  And now Grettir"--she raised her withered arms over her
+head--"I doom you to all ill, I doom you to loss of health, to loss of
+wisdom and of foresight.  I doom you to decline and to death.  I doom
+your blood to fester, and your brain to be clouded.  I doom your marrow
+to curdle and chill.  Henceforth, so is my doom, all good things will
+wane from you, and all evil things will wax and overwhelm you.  So be
+it."  As she spoke a shudder ran over Grettir's limbs, and he asked who
+that imp was in the boat.  Illugi told him he fancied it must be that
+old heathen woman, the foster-mother of Thorbiorn Hook.
+
+"Since the powers of evil are with our foes," said Grettir, "how may we
+oppose them?  Never before has anything so shaken me with presentiment
+of evil as have the curses of this witch.  But she shall have a reminder
+of her visit to Drangey."
+
+Thereupon he snatched up a large stone and threw it at the boat, and it
+fell on the bundle of rags, in the midst of which lay the old hag.  As
+it struck there rose a wild shriek from the witch, for the stone had hit
+and broken her leg.
+
+"Brother!" exclaimed Illugi, "you should not have done this."
+
+"Blame me not," answered Grettir gloomily.  "It had been well had the
+stone fallen on her head.  But I trow the working of her curse is begun,
+and what I have done has been because my understanding and wit are
+already clouded."
+
+On the return of Thorbiorn to the mainland the crone was put to bed, and
+The Hook was less pleased than ever with his trip to the island.  His
+foster-mother, however, consoled him.
+
+"Do not be discouraged," she said.  "Now is come the turning-point of
+Grettir's fortunes, and his luck will leave him more and more as the
+light dies away up to Yule.  But the light dies and comes again.  With
+Grettir it will not be so, it will die, and die, till it goes out in
+endless night."
+
+"You are a confident woman, foster-mother," said Thorbiorn.
+
+When a month had elapsed, the old woman was able to leave her bed, and
+to limp across the room.
+
+One day she asked to be led down to the beach. Thorbiorn gave her his
+arm, and she had her crutch, and she hobbled down to where the water was
+lapping on the shingle.  And there, just washed up on the beach, lay a
+log of drift-timber, just large enough for a man to carry upon his
+shoulder.  Then she gave command that the log should be rolled over and
+over that she might examine each side.  The log on one side seemed to
+have been charred, and she sent to the house for a plane, and had the
+burnt wood smoothed away.
+
+When that was done she dismissed every one save her foster-son, and then
+with a long knife she cut runes on the wood where it had been
+planed--that is to say, words written in the peculiar characters made of
+strokes which Odin was supposed to have invented.  Then she cut herself
+on the arm, and smeared the letters she had cut with her blood. After
+that she rose and began to leap and dance, screaming a wild spell round
+the log, making the most strange and uncouth contortions, and waving her
+crutch in the air, making with it mysterious signs over the log.
+Presently, when the incantation was over, she ordered the log to be
+rolled back into the sea.  The tide was now ebbing, and with the tide
+the log went out to sea further and further from land till Thorbiorn saw
+it no more.
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER XL.*
+
+                     *HOW THE LOG CAME TO DRANGEY.*
+
+
+    _Food for the Winter--Cast up by the Sea--The Log comes back
+    again--The Worst is come--An ugly Wound--The Hag's
+    Revenge--Grettir sings his Great Deeds--Presage of Evil_
+
+
+In the meantime Grettir, Illugi, and the churl Glaum were on Drangey
+catching fish and fowl for winter supplies.  The fish in Iceland are
+beaten hard with stones and then dried in the wind, that makes them like
+leather; but it preserves them for a very long time, and they form the
+staple of food, as the people have no corn, and consequently no bread.
+They put butter on these dry fish, and tear them with their teeth.  What
+Grettir did with the fowl he caught was to pickle them with salt water
+from the sea, and when the frost and snow came on then he would take
+them out of pickle and freeze them.  Now, the whole of the sheep had
+been eaten some time ago, except the old mottled ram, which Grettir
+could not find in his heart to kill; and, as may be supposed, he and his
+brother suffered from want of change of food.  Especially deficient were
+they in any green food; and we know, though he did not, that the eating
+of green food is a very essential element of health.  He had nothing for
+consumption but salted birds and dried fish--no milk, no bread, no
+vegetables.  Such a diet was certain to disorder his health.
+
+The day after that on which the hag had charmed the piece of timber, the
+two brothers were walking on the little strand to the west of the island
+looking for drift-wood.
+
+"Here is a fine beam!" exclaimed Illugi.  "Help me to lift it on to my
+shoulder, and I will carry it up the ladder."
+
+Grettir spurned the log with his foot, saying, "I do not like the looks
+of it, Little brother.  Runes are cut on it, and what they portend I do
+not know. There may be written there something that may bring ill.  Who
+can tell but this log may have been sent with ill wishes against us."
+They set the log adrift, and Grettir warned his brother not to bring it
+to their fire.
+
+In the evening they returned to their cabin, and nothing was said about
+the log to Glaum.  Next day they found the same beam washed up not far
+from the foot of the ladder.  Grettir was dissatisfied, and again he
+thrust it from the shore, saying that he hoped they had seen the last of
+it, and that the stream and tide would catch it and waft it elsewhere.
+And now the equinoctial gales began to rage.  The fine Martinmas summer
+was over.  The weather changed to storm and rain; and so bad was it that
+the three men remained indoors till their supply of firewood was
+exhausted.
+
+Then Grettir ordered the thrall to search the shore for fuel.  Glaum
+started up with an angry remonstrance that the weather was not such as a
+dog should be turned out in, with unreason, not considering that a fire
+was as necessary to him as to his master.  He went to the ladder,
+crawled down it, and found the same beam cast at its very foot.
+
+Glad not to have to go far in his search, Glaum shouldered the log,
+crept up the ladder, bore it to the hut, and throwing open the door,
+cast it down in the midst.
+
+Grettir jumped up, "Well done," said he, "you have been quick in your
+quest."
+
+"Now I have brought it, you must chop it up," said Glaum.  "I have done
+my part."
+
+Grettir took his axe.  The fire was low and wanted replenishing, and
+without paying much attention to the log, he swung his axe and brought
+it down on the log.  But the wood was wet and greasy with sea-weed, and
+the axe slipped, glanced off the beam, and cut into Grettir's leg below
+the knee, on the shin, with such force that it stuck in the bone.
+
+Grettir looked at the beam; the fire leaped up, and by its light the
+runic inscription on it was visible.  Grettir at once saw evil.  "The
+worst is come upon us," he said sadly, as he cast the axe away, and
+threw himself down by the fire.  "This is the same log that I have twice
+rejected.  Glaum, you have done us two ill turns, first when you
+neglected the fire and let it go out, and now in that you have brought
+this beam to us.  Beware how you commit a third, for that I foresee will
+be your bane as well as ours."
+
+Illugi bound up his brother's wound with rag; there was but a slight
+flow of blood, but it was an ugly gash.  That night Grettir slept
+soundly.  For three days and nights he was without pain, and the wound
+seemed to be healing healthily, the skin to be forming over it.
+
+"My dear brother," said Illugi, "I do not think that this cut will
+trouble you long."
+
+"I hope not," answered Grettir.  "But none can see where a road leads
+till they have gone through to the end."
+
+On the fourth evening they laid them down to sleep as usual.  About
+midnight the lad, Illugi, awoke hearing Grettir tossing in his bed as
+though suffering.
+
+"Why are you so uneasy?" asked the boy.
+
+Grettir replied that he felt great pain in his leg, and he thought, he
+said, that some change must have taken place in the condition of the
+wound.
+
+Illugi at once blew up the embers on the hearth into a flame, and by its
+light examined his brother's leg.  He found that the foot was swollen
+and discoloured, and that the wound had reopened, and looked far more
+angry than he had seen it yet. Intense pain ensued, so that poor Grettir
+could not remain quiet for a moment, but tossed from side to side.  His
+cheeks were fevered, and his tongue parched.  He could obtain no sleep
+at all.
+
+Illugi never left him, he sat beside him holding his hand, or bringing
+him water to slake his unquenchable thirst.
+
+"The worst approaches, and there is no avoiding it," said Grettir.
+"This sickness is sent by the old witch in revenge for the stone I had
+cast at her."
+
+"I misliked the casting of that stone," said Illugi.
+
+"It was ill that it did not fall on her head," said Grettir.  "But what
+is done may not be undone."  Then he heaved himself up into a sitting
+posture and sang, supporting himself against his brother's shoulder, a
+lay, of which only fragments have come down to us.  A good deal of the
+lay refers to incidents in Grettir's life, of which no record remains in
+the saga, and many staves have fallen away and been lost.  So we give
+but a few verses:--
+
+    "I fought with the sword in the bye-gone day,
+      In the day when I was young;
+    When the Rovers I slew in old Norway,
+      The land with my action rung.
+
+    "I entered the grave of Karr the Old,
+      I rived his sword away;
+    I strove with the Troll at Thorod's-stead,
+      Before the break of day.
+
+    "With Thorbiorn Oxmain in the marsh
+      I fought, and his blood I shed;
+    Against Thorir of Garth have I stood in arms,
+      Who long would have me dead.
+
+    "For nineteen years, I a hunted man,
+      On mountain, on moor, and fen;
+    For nineteen years had to shun and flee
+      The face of my fellow men.
+
+    "For nineteen years all bitter to bear
+      Both hunger and cold and pain;
+    And never to know when I laid me down,
+      If I might awake again.
+
+    "And now do I lie with a burning eye,
+      As a wolf is fain to die;
+    Whilst the skies are dripping and ocean roars,
+      And the winds sob sadly by--"
+
+
+The song was probably composed before, as otherwise it is not easy to
+account for its preservation. His head was burning, his thoughts
+wandered, and he ceased singing.  He seemed to be dozing off.  But
+presently he started and shivered, and looked hastily about him.
+
+"Let us be cautious now," he said, "for Thorbiorn Hook will make another
+attempt.  To me it matters little--but to you, brother.  Glaum, watch
+the ladder by day, and draw it up at night.  Be a faithful servant, for
+now all depends on you.  Illugi will not leave me, so we are in your
+hands."
+
+
+
+
+                             *CHAPTER XLI.*
+
+                        *THE END OF THE OUTLAW.*
+
+
+    _The Shadow of Death--Thorbiorn and his Foster-mother--The Hook
+    sails for Drangey--Out in the Gale--The Unguarded Ladder--Glaum
+    is Captured--The Brothers' last Evening--Defending the
+    Hut--Grettir Wounded--Illugi Taken--The Notch in the
+    Sword--Illugi vows Vengeance--Death of Illugi_
+
+
+The weather became daily worse, and a fierce north-east wind raged over
+the country, bearing with it cold and sleet, and covering the fells with
+the first snows of winter.  Grettir inquired every night if the ladder
+had been drawn up, according to order.  Glaum answered churlishly, "How
+can you expect folk to live out in such a storm as this?  Do you think
+they are so eager to kill you that they will jeopardize their lives in
+trying to do this?  It is easy to see that a little cut was all that
+lacked to let your courage leak out."
+
+Grettir answered, "Go! and do not argue with us; guard the ladder as you
+have been bidden!"
+
+So Illugi drove the churl from the hut every morning, notwithstanding
+his angry remonstrances; and Glaum was in the worst of humours.
+
+The pain became more acute, and the whole leg inflamed and swollen,
+signs of mortification appeared, and wounds opened in different parts of
+the limb, so that Grettir felt that the shadow of death hung over him.
+Illugi sat night and day with his brother's head on his shoulder,
+bathing his forehead, and doing his utmost to console the fleeting
+spirit. A week had elapsed since the wound had been made.
+
+Now, Thorbiorn Hook was at home, ill-pleased at the failure of all his
+schemes for dispossessing Grettir of the island.
+
+One day his foster-mother came to him, and asked whether he were ready
+now to pay his final visit to the outlaw?
+
+Thorbiorn replied that he had paid quite as many visits to him as he
+liked, and that he should not go to Drangey again till Grettir left it;
+and then, with a sneer he asked his foster-mother whether she wanted to
+have her second leg broken, and was not satisfied with the fracture of
+one.
+
+"I will not go to Drangey myself," answered the old woman.  "That is
+unnecessary.  I have sent him my salutation, and by this he has received
+it.  Speed away now to Drangey, and find how he relishes my message.
+But I warn you, you must go now or you will be too late."
+
+Thorbiorn would not listen; he said that her advice last time had led to
+no advantage when he followed it, and that the weather was too bad to go
+out in.
+
+"You need go but this once," said the crone. "The storm is of my
+sending, and is sent to work my ends."
+
+Finally he allowed himself to be persuaded.  So he got together men, and
+asked his neighbours to help him; and a large vessel was manned.  That
+is to say, the other farmers consented to lend him men, but none of them
+would accompany him themselves.  The Hook took twelve of his own men;
+his brother, Hialti, lent him three; Erick of Gooddale sent one man;
+Tongue-stone furnished him with two; another, named Halldor, let him
+have six.  Of all these, the only two whose name need be mentioned are
+Karr and Vikarr.
+
+Thorbiorn got a large sailing-boat for his purpose, and started from
+Heron-ness.  None of the men were in good spirits, as the weather was
+bad; moreover, they had no liking for their leader.  By dusk the boat
+was afloat, the sail spread, and they ran out to sea.  As the wind was
+from the north-east, they were under the lee of the high cliffs, and
+were not exposed to the full violence of the storm.
+
+Heavy scuds of rain and sleet swept the fiord; the sky was overcast with
+whirling masses of vapour, charged with snow, and beneath their shadow
+the waters of the firth were black as ink.  For one moment the clouds
+were parted by the storm, the rowers looked up, and saw the heavens
+tinged with the crimson rays of the northern light.  A flame ran along
+the cordage, and finally settled on the masthead of the vessel, swaying
+and dancing with the motion of the boat.  It was that electric spark,
+which is called in the Mediterranean S. Elmo's fire.
+
+A line of white foam marked the base of Drangey; and now and then a
+great wave from the mouth of the fiord boomed against the crags, and
+shot in spouts of foam high into the air.  Along the western shore of
+the firth, which was exposed to the full brunt of the gale, the mighty
+billows were beaten into white yeasty heaps of water.  From the top of
+Drangey one tiny spark shone from the window of the hovel where lay the
+dying outlaw.
+
+Now let us look again at Grettir.
+
+He had been in less pain that day.  Illugi had not left him, but
+remained faithful at his post.
+
+The thrall, Glaum, had been sent out as usual to collect fuel and to
+watch the ladder, and to draw it up at nightfall.  But instead of doing
+as he was bidden, the fellow laid himself down at the head of the steps,
+under a shelter-hut of turf that had been there erected, and went to
+sleep.
+
+When Thorbiorn and his party reached the shore, they found to their
+content that the ladder had not been removed.
+
+"Good luck attends on those who wait," said The Hook "Now, my fellows!
+the journey will not prove as bootless as you expected.  Up the ladder
+with you! and let us all be cautious and bold!"
+
+So they ascended, one after the other, The Hook taking the lead.  On
+reaching the top he looked into the shelter-hut, and there found Glaum,
+asleep and snoring.  Thorbiorn struck him over the shoulders, and asked
+him who he was.
+
+Glaum turned on his side, rubbed his eyes, and growled forth, "Can you
+not leave a poor wretch alone?  Never was a man so ill-treated as am I.
+I may not even sleep out here in the cold."
+
+The Hook then knew who this was.  "Fool!" shouted he.  "Look up, and see
+who are come.  We are your foes, and intend to kill every one of you."
+
+Glaum started now to his feet full awake, and shrieked with dismay when
+he saw the black figures crowding up from the ladder and surrounding
+him.
+
+"Make no noise," said Thorbiorn Hook.  "I give you the choice of two
+things; answer the questions I put to you truthfully, or die at once."
+
+The churl answered sullenly that he would speak, and he had nothing to
+conceal.
+
+"Then tell me where the brothers are?"
+
+"In the hovel I left them, where there is a fire. Not out in the cold.
+Grettir is sick and nigh on death, and Illugi is with him."
+
+The Hook asked for particulars, and then Glaum told him about the log,
+and how Grettir was wounded.  Thereat the Hook burst out laughing, and
+said, "Woe to the man that leans on a churl! That is a true proverb.
+Shamefully have you betrayed your trust, Glaum."
+
+Thereupon Glaum was dragged along to the cabin where Grettir lay, and
+they treated him so roughly, that what with their blows and what with
+fear, he was nearly senseless when he reached it.
+
+Illugi had been sitting by the fire with his brother's head in his lap,
+whilst Grettir lay in some sheepskins beside the hearth.  All that
+evening the sick man's eyes had been wandering about the roof, watching
+the light play among the rafters, as the firewood blazed up or
+smouldered away.  Illugi saw that his fingers plucked at the wool of the
+sheep-skins, riving it out, and that he knew was a bad sign.  He felt
+sure that Grettir would die that night, and he watched his face
+intently, and could not bear to withdraw his eyes from him, for he loved
+him dearly. Presently Grettir turned his head, and smiled when he saw
+how he was watching him, and said that he felt easier, and would sleep.
+In a few moments his eyes closed.
+
+As he dozed, his face became calmer than Illugi had seen it before; the
+muscles relaxed, and the wrinkles furrowed in his brow by care and
+suffering were now smoothed quite away.  Grettir's face was never
+handsome, but it was grave and earnest, and the sorrow and trial he had
+passed through had left its trace on his features.  His breath now came
+more evenly in sleep.
+
+All at once there sounded a crash at the door, and the sleeper opened
+his eyes dreamily.
+
+"It is only the old ram, brother," said Illugi. "He is butting, because
+he wants to come in."
+
+"He butts hard! he butts hard!" muttered Grettir, and at that moment the
+door burst open.  They saw faces looking in.
+
+Illugi was on his feet in a moment.  He seized his sword, flew to the
+doorway and defended it bravely, so that no one could pass through.
+
+Thorbiorn called to some of the men to get upon the roof, and he was
+obeyed.  The hovel was low, and in a moment four or five were on top of
+it tearing off the turf that covered it.  Grettir tried to rise to his
+feet, but could only stagger to his knees. He seized his spear and drove
+it through the roof, so that it struck Karr in the breast, and the wound
+was his death.
+
+Thorbiorn Hook called to the men to act more warily--they were
+twenty-five in all against two men, and one dying.
+
+So the men pulled at the gable ends of the house and got the ridge-piece
+out, that it broke and fell, and with it a shower of turfs, into the
+hut.
+
+Grettir drew his short-sword--the sword he had taken from the barrow of
+Karr the Old--and smote at the men as they leaped upon him from the
+wall. With one blow he struck Vikarr over the left shoulder, as he was
+on the point of springing down. The sword cut off his arm.  But the blow
+was so violent, that Grettir, having dealt it, fell forward, and before
+he could raise himself Thorbiorn Hook struck him between the shoulders,
+and made a fearful wound.
+
+Then cried Grettir, "Bare is the back without brother behind it!" and
+instantly Illugi threw his shield over him, planted one foot on each
+side of him as he lay on the floor, and defended him with desperate
+courage.
+
+[Illustration: ILLUGI DEFENDS THE DYING GRETTIR.]
+
+The mist of death was in Grettir's eyes; he attempted in vain to raise
+himself, but sank again on the sheep-skins, which were now drenched in
+blood.
+
+No one could touch him, for the brave boy warded off every blow that was
+aimed at his brother.
+
+Then Thorbiorn Hook ordered his men to form a ring round and close in on
+them with their shields and with beams.  They did so, and Illugi was
+taken and bound; but not till he had wounded most of his opponents, and
+had killed three of Thorbiorn's men.
+
+"Never have I seen one braver of your age," said The Hook.  "I will say
+that you have fought well."
+
+Then they went to Grettir, who lay where he had fallen, unable to resist
+further, for he had lost consciousness.  They dealt him many a blow, but
+hardly any blood flowed from his wounds.  When all supposed he was dead,
+then Thorbiorn tried to disengage the sword from his cold fingers,
+saying that he considered Grettir had wielded it long enough.  But the
+strong man's hand was clenched around the handle so firmly that his
+enemy could not free the sword from his grasp.
+
+Several of the men came up, and tried to unweave the fingers, but were
+unable to do so.  Then the Hook said, "Why should we spare this wretched
+outlaw?  Off with his hand!"  And his men held down the arm whilst
+Thorbiorn hewed off the hand at the wrist with his axe.
+
+After that, standing over the body, and grasping the hilt of the sword
+in both hands, he smote at Grettir's head; the edge of the blade was
+notched by the blow.
+
+"Look!" laughed Thorbiorn.  "This notch will be famous in story for many
+generations; for men will point to it and say, 'This was made by
+Grettir's skull.'"  He struck twice and thrice at the outlaw's neck,
+till the head came off in his hands.
+
+"Now have I slain a notable man!" exclaimed Thorbiorn.  "I will take
+this head with me to land, and claim the price that was set on it; and
+none shall deny that it was my hand that slew that Grettir whom all else
+feared."
+
+The men present said he might say what he liked, but that they believed
+Grettir was already dead when he smote him.
+
+Thorbiorn now turned to Illugi, and said, "It is a pity that a brave lad
+like you should die, because you are associated with outlaws and
+evil-doers."
+
+"I tell you this," said Illugi, "that I will appear before you at the
+great assize, and there will charge you with having practised witchcraft
+to effect my brother's death."
+
+"You hearken to me, boy," said Thorbiorn.  "Put your hand to mine, and
+swear that you will not seek to avenge the death of your brother, and I
+will let you go; but if you will not take this oath, you shall die."
+
+"And hearken to me, Thorbiorn," said lllugi. "If I live, but one thought
+shall occupy my heart night and day, and that will be how I may best
+avenge my brother.  Now that you know what to expect of me--take what
+course you will."
+
+Thorbiorn drew his companions aside to ask their advice; but they
+shrugged their shoulders, and replied that, as he had planned the
+expedition, he must carry it out as he thought best.
+
+"Well," said The Hook, "I have no fancy for having the young viper lying
+in wait to sting me wherever I tread.  He shall die."
+
+Now, when Illugi knew that they had determined on slaying him, he smiled
+and said, "You have chosen that course which is best to my mind.  I do
+not desire to be parted from my brother."
+
+The day was breaking.  They led Illugi to the east side of the island,
+and there they slew him.
+
+It is told that they neither bound his eyes nor his hands, and that he
+looked fearlessly at them when they smote him, and neither changed
+colour nor even blinked.
+
+Then they buried the brothers beneath a cairn in the island, but they
+took the head of Grettir and bore it to land.  On the way they also slew
+the thrall Glaum.
+
+
+
+
+                            *CHAPTER XLII.*
+
+                     *HOW ASDIS RECEIVED THE NEWS.*
+
+
+    _A Charge of Witchcraft--A Heroic Mother--Thorbiorn's
+    Sentence--Burial of the Brothers_
+
+
+Had the old hag, Thorbiorn's foster-mother, any hand in the death of
+Grettir?  Certainly none. It was true that Grettir was wounded in the
+way described, by his own axe, but the condition of the wound was due to
+the scorbutic condition of his blood, through lack of green food.  This
+the Icelanders did not understand; they could not comprehend how a wound
+could seem to be healing well and then break out and mortify afterwards,
+and they supposed that this was due to witchcraft. Then, again,
+Grettir's kin could not take the case of Grettir's murder into court,
+because Thorbiorn had acted within the law when killing him; but by
+charging him with the practice of witchcraft they made him amenable to
+the law.  So, partly, no doubt, in good faith, they trumped up against
+Thorbiorn the accusation of having effected Grettir's death by
+witchcraft.
+
+Now, it must be told how that, one day after the slaying of Grettir,
+Thorbiorn Hook at the head of twenty armed men rode to Biarg, in the
+Midfirth-dale, with Grettir's head slung from his saddlebow. On reaching
+the house he dismounted and strode into the hall, where Grettir's mother
+was seated with a servant.  Thorbiorn threw her son's head at her feet,
+and said: "See!  I have been to the island and have prevailed."
+
+The lady sat proudly in her seat, and did not shed a tear; but lifting
+her voice in reply, she sang:
+
+    "Milk-sop--as timid sheep
+    Before a fox all cow'ring keep;
+    So did you--nor could prevail
+    So long as Grettir's strength was hale.
+    Woe is on the Northland side,
+    Nor can I my loathing hide!"
+
+
+After this The Hook returned home, and folk wondered at Asdis, saying
+that only a heroic mother could have had sons so heroic.  When Yule was
+over The Hook rode east away to Garth, and told Thorir what he had done,
+and claimed the money set on Grettir's head.
+
+But Thorir was crafty, and just as the Biarg folk sought a charge
+against Thorbiorn for his deed, so did Thorir, that he might escape
+having to pay the silver.  He answered, "I do not deny that I offered
+the money on Grettir's head, promising it to whomsoever should slay
+Grettir, but I will pay nothing to him who compassed his death by
+witchcraft; and if what the men who went with you say be true, you did
+not slay him with a sword, but hacked off his head after he was dead."
+
+This made Thorbiorn Hook very angry, and when summer came he brought his
+suit against Thorir for the money.  But simultaneously Grettir's kin
+brought a charge against Thorbiorn for having practised witchcraft.
+Also they had a summons against him for the slaying of Illugi.  Now, the
+case was tried, and hotly discussed, and it ended this way:--It was
+judged that Thorbiorn had struck off the head of a man who was already
+dead, and that he had brought about the death of that man by witchcraft;
+thereupon it was judged that he should receive nothing of the money, and
+that he should be outlawed from Iceland.
+
+So he went away and never returned.
+
+Now, Grettir and Illugi were brought to land, and their bones lie at
+Reykir, where was the friendly farmer who had helped them when they were
+at Drangey.  But Grettir's head was buried at Biarg. There is now no
+church or churchyard there, but there is a mound in the _tun_ where his
+head is said to lie.  I obtained leave to dig there, and I examined the
+spot, but found only a great stone under the turf, and this we had not
+the appliances to move. And perhaps it was as well; for if Grettir's
+head be there, it were better that there it should rest undisturbed.
+
+
+
+
+                            *CHAPTER XLIII.*
+
+                      *HOW DROMUND KEPT HIS WORD.*
+
+
+    _Thorbiorn Hook in Norway--Dromund on Thorbiorn's Track--The
+    Varangians--Grettir's Sword--Grettir is Avenged_
+
+
+Now, after that Thorbiorn Hook had been outlawed, he found that he had
+gotten to himself no advantage, but great harm by what he had done upon
+Drangey.  He was forced to leave Iceland; and he saw, withal, that never
+again might he set foot therein again with safety, for all the relatives
+of the Biarg family would seek his life.  Accordingly he made over his
+farm at Woodwick to his brother Hialti, and also all his rights over the
+island of Drangey, such as they were.  Then he collected together what
+moveable goods he had, and went on board ship and sailed for Norway.
+
+On reaching Norway he bragged much of what he had done in having slain
+Grettir, of whom tales were told in Norway; and, as may well be
+understood, he told the tale of the slaying of Grettir in his own way,
+magnifying his heroism, and saying nothing about such matters as
+lessened the greatness of his deed.
+
+During the early winter tidings reached Thorstein Dromund at Tunsberg
+that his brother Grettir was dead, and also that the man who slew him
+was in the north of the country.  When Dromund heard the tidings he was
+very sorrowful, and he called to mind the words he had said to Grettir
+when they showed each other what sort of arms they had. Dromund
+considered that he was bound to avenge his brother's death on his
+murderer.
+
+Thorbiorn Hook also was aware that there was a half-brother of Grettir
+in Norway, and when he knew that he was wary, for he suspected that
+Dromund would seek his life.  And, indeed, Thorstein Dromund sent spies
+to watch Thorbiorn Hook; but the latter was so careful of himself that
+Dromund was not able to attempt anything against him all that winter.
+No sooner did the soft, warm, spring breezes begin to blow, than The
+Hook got away out of Norway by the earliest opportunity.  He had heard
+much talk how that the Emperors of the East, at Constantinople, kept a
+guard of Norsemen about them, and paid them well, and how that this
+guard was held in high esteem.  So Thorbiorn Hook considered he could
+not do better than go to Constantinople, and try his fortune there.  But
+before he left Norway he talked of his intention, and this was reported
+to Dromund at Tunsberg.  So Dromund put his lands and affairs into the
+hands of his kinsmen, and got ready for journeying in search of Hook,
+whom he had never seen.
+
+He sailed away after him, and wherever he came he made inquiries after
+the ship in which Thorbiorn Hook had been, and he was always just too
+late. He never could catch the ship up.  And then finally Thorbiorn left
+the vessel and journeyed overland, and Thorstein lost his traces.
+
+However, Dromund knew that Thorbiorn Hook was going to Constantinople,
+so he travelled thither also, and reached the imperial city.  Now there
+were a great many Norsemen and Icelanders there in the company called
+the Varangians, who acted as a bodyguard to the Emperor, and among these
+men were some twenty or more called Thorbiorn, and which among them was
+the murderer of Grettir, Thorstein Dromund did not know.  The Hook, as
+may well be imagined, did not tell anyone what his nickname was; not
+that he imagined he was pursued, but because it was not a pretty and
+flattering name. Thorstein also offered himself as a soldier in the
+guard, and was enrolled.  He also merely gave his name as Thorstein, and
+told no one of his nickname of Dromund, lest the man he pursued should
+take alarm and leave.
+
+So time passed, and Thorstein Dromund could not find out his man; and he
+lay awake in bed many nights musing on what he had undertaken, on the
+sad lot of Grettir, and on his ill-success in finding the murderer of
+his half-brother.  Now, it fell out that on a certain day the order came
+to the Varangian guard that they were to be ready, as they were about to
+be sent on an expedition of importance.
+
+It was usual, before any such an expedition, that all the men of the
+guard should burnish up their weapons and armour, and show them, that
+they were in condition.
+
+So was it on this occasion also.  They were assembled in the guard-room,
+and each produced his weapon.  Then Thorbiorn held forth his
+short-sword--the very weapon that Grettir had taken from the tomb of
+Karr the Old, the sword with which he The Hook had hewed off Grettir's
+head.
+
+Now, when Thorbiorn held forth the sword all the other guardsmen praised
+it, and said it was an excellent weapon; but it had one grievous
+blemish, for that there was a notch in the edge.
+
+"Oh!" laughed Thorbiorn, "that notch is no blemish at all.  It is a
+memorial of one of my greatest achievements."
+
+"What was that?" asked one of the Varangians.
+
+"With this sword," answered Thorbiorn, "I slew the man who was esteemed
+the greatest and most powerful champion of his time; a man who was in
+outlawry for twenty years, who had in his time fought and beaten off as
+many as thirty or forty who attacked him.  But I was too much for him.
+When I went against him, then he had to give way. We fought for an hour
+without flagging, and finally I smote him down.  Then I took from him
+his own sword, and with it I smote off his neck; and thus got the sword
+its notch."
+
+"And his name?" asked Thorstein Dromund.
+
+"His name was Grettir the Strong."
+
+There was a pause; and in that pause the sword was handed to Dromund for
+him to look at.
+
+"Thus is Grettir avenged!" suddenly exclaimed Dromund.  He struck across
+the table at Thorbiorn with Grettir's own sword; and so great was the
+stroke that it smote through his skull to the jaw-teeth, and The Hook
+fell without a word, dead.
+
+It was said, in after times, that Grettir was wonderful in his life, and
+wonderful in his death--for in life no man had been his equal in
+strength, and had had a sadder span of life; and in death he was
+wonderful--for of all Icelanders he was the only one who was avenged far
+away from home by the shores of the Bosphorus, in the City of the
+Emperors.
+
+
+
+
+                              *EPILOGUE.*
+
+
+    _Date of Grettir's Death--Mention of Grettir in other
+    Sagas--Historical Basis of the Grettir Story_
+
+
+In the Icelandic annals the death of Grettir is set down as having
+occurred in 1033, but the dates are not quite correct, and the real date
+should be 1031.
+
+Grettir is mentioned in other Icelandic sagas. He is spoken of and his
+pedigree given in the Landnama Book, the Icelandic Domesday, the most
+reliable book for history they have.  The persons spoken of in the saga
+of Grettir are heard of in several other quite independent sagas, and in
+no case is there any serious anachronism.
+
+Grettir, it will be recalled, was taken by the farmers in the Ice-firth.
+This incident is also related in the saga of the Foster-brothers; so is
+another incident about a contest concerning a dead whale I have not
+related, as likely to break the continuity of the history.  In the saga
+of Thord, the hero is said to have blessed the Middle-firth in these
+words: "Let the man who grows up in this vale never be hung."  And this
+blessing was thought to have had something to do with the saving of
+Grettir's neck in the Ice-firth.  The story of Gisli has been told whom
+Grettir whipped.  Now, in the Viga-styr saga, the most ancient of all
+Icelandic sagas, we hear of this same Gisli, and his character is
+painted in the same colours as in the saga of Grettir, but no mention is
+made of the whipping administered by Grettir.  The murder of Atli, the
+brother of our outlaw, and the consequent slaying of Thorbiorn Oxmain is
+spoken of in the saga of Bard.  The circumstance of Grettir having lived
+in a cave on the farm in Hit-dale is spoken of in the saga of Biorn. In
+the history of Grettir mention is made of the strife which took place
+between Biorn and Thord, but the full particulars of what is there
+alluded to casually are given in the saga of Biorn of Hit-dale. In our
+saga, Grettir is spoken of as meeting Bard wounded after a hard fight,
+in which he had avenged the death of his brother, but no particulars are
+given. In the saga of the Heath-fights we recover the whole story.  Thus
+one saga explains and supports another.
+
+It is therefore impossible to set down the story of Grettir as fabulous.
+It is historical; but the history has been somewhat embellished, partly
+by family vanity which led to the undue glorification of their hero, and
+partly by superstition which imagined the marvellous where all was
+really natural.
+
+
+
+                                THE END.
+
+
+
+
+                          Transcriber's note:
+
+    The source book's pages had variant headers.  These headers have
+    been collected into the introductory paragraph at the start of
+    each chapter.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GRETTIR THE OUTLAW ***
+
+
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