The story of Burnt Njal From the Icelandic of the Njals Saga

CHAPTER XIII.

GLUM'S WOO­ING.

Now three broth­ers are named in the sto­ry. One was called Tho­rarin, the sec­ond Ra­gi, and the third Glum. They were the sons of Olof the Halt, and were men of much worth and of great wealth in goods. Tho­rarin's sur­name was Ra­gi's broth­er; he had the Speak­er­ship of the Law af­ter Rafn Heing's son. He was a very wise man, and lived at Var­malek, and he and Glum kept house to­geth­er. Glum had been long abroad; he was a tall, strong, hand­some man. Ra­gi their broth­er was a great man-​slay­er. Those broth­ers owned in the south En­gey and Lau­gar­ness. One day the broth­ers Tho­rarin and Glum were talk­ing to­geth­er, and Tho­rarin asked Glum whether he meant to go abroad, as was his wont.

He an­swered--“I was rather think­ing now of leav­ing off trad­ing voy­ages”.

“What hast thou then in thy mind? Wilt thou woo thee a wife?”

“That I will,” says he, “if I could on­ly get my­self well matched.”

Then Tho­rarin told off all the wom­en who were un­wed­ded in Bor­garfirth, and asked him if he would have any of these--“Say the word, and I will ride with thee!”

But Glum an­swered--“I will have none of these”.

“Say then the name of her thou wish­est to have,” says Tho­rarin.

Glum an­swered--“If thou must know, her name is Hall­ger­da, and she is Hauskuld's daugh­ter away west in the dales”.

“Well,” says Tho­rarin, “'tis not with thee as the saw says, 'be warned by an­oth­er's woe'; for she was wed­ded to a man, and she plot­ted his death.”

Glum said--“May be such ill-​luck will not be­fall her a sec­ond time, and sure I am she will not plot my death. But now, if thou wilt show me any hon­our, ride along with me to woo her.”

Tho­rarin said--“There's no good striv­ing against it, for what must be is sure to hap­pen”. Glum of­ten talked the mat­ter over with Tho­rarin, but he put it off a long time. At last it came about that they gath­ered men to­geth­er and rode off ten in com­pa­ny, west to the dales, and came to Hauskuld­st­ede. Hauskuld gave them a hearty wel­come, and they stayed there that night. But ear­ly next morn­ing, Hauskuld sends Hrut, and he came thith­er at once; and Hauskuld was out of doors when he rode in­to the “town”. Then Hauskuld told Hrut what men had come thith­er.

“What may it be they want?” asked Hrut

“As yet,” says Hauskuld, “they have not let out to me that they have any busi­ness.”

“Still,” says Hrut, “their busi­ness must be with thee. They will ask the hand of thy daugh­ter, Hall­ger­da. If they do, what an­swer wilt thou make?”

“What dost thou ad­vise me to say?” says Hauskuld.

“Thou shalt an­swer well,” says Hrut; “but still make a clean breast of all the good and all the ill thou know­est of the wom­an.”

But while the broth­ers were talk­ing thus, out came the guests. Hauskuld greet­ed them well, and Hrut bade both Tho­rarin and his broth­ers good morn­ing. Af­ter that they all be­gan to talk, and Tho­rarin said--

“I am come hith­er, Hauskuld, with my broth­er Glum on this er­rand, to ask for Hall­ger­da thy daugh­ter, at the hand of my broth­er Glum. Thou must know that he is a man of worth.”

“I know well,” says Hauskuld, “that ye are both of you pow­er­ful and wor­thy men; but I must tell you right out, that I chose a hus­band for her be­fore, and that turned out most un­luck­ily for us.”

Tho­rarin an­swered--“We will not let that stand in the way of the bar­gain; for one oath shall not be­come all oaths, and this may prove to be a good match, though that turned out ill; be­sides Thios­tolf had most hand in spoil­ing it”.

Then Hrut spoke: “Now I will give you a bit of ad­vice--this: if ye will not let all this that has al­ready hap­pened to Hall­ger­da stand in the way of the match, mind you do not let Thios­tolf go south with her if the match comes off, and that he is nev­er there longer than three nights at a time, un­less Glum gives him leave, but fall an out­law by Glum's hand with­out atone­ment if he stay there longer. Of course, it shall be in Glum's pow­er to give him leave; but he will not if he takes my ad­vice. And now this match, shall not be ful­filled, as the oth­er was, with­out Hall­ger­da's knowl­edge. She shall now know the whole course of this bar­gain, and see Glum, and her­self set­tle whether she will have him or not; and then she will not be able to lay the blame on oth­ers if it does not turn out well. And all this shall be with­out craft or guile.”

Then Tho­rarin said--“Now, as al­ways, it will prove best if thy ad­vice be tak­en”.

Then they sent for Hall­ger­da, and she came thith­er, and two wom­en with her. She had on a cloak of rich blue wool, and un­der it a scar­let kir­tle, and a sil­ver gir­dle round her waist, but her hair came down on both sides of her bo­som, and she had turned the locks up un­der her gir­dle. She sat down be­tween Hrut and her fa­ther, and she greet­ed them all with kind words, and spoke well and bold­ly, and asked what was the news. Af­ter that she ceased speak­ing.

Then Glum said--“There has been some talk be­tween thy fa­ther and my broth­er Tho­rarin and my­self about a bar­gain. It was that I might get thee, Hall­ger­da, if it be thy will, as it is theirs; and now, if thou art a brave wom­an, thou wilt say right out whether the match is at all to thy mind; but if thou hast any­thing in thy heart against this bar­gain with us, then we will not say any­thing more about it.”

Hall­ger­da said--“I know well that you are men of worth and might, ye broth­ers. I know too that now I shall be much bet­ter wed­ded than I was be­fore; but what I want to know is, what you have said al­ready about the match, and how far you have giv­en your words in the mat­ter. But so far as I now see of thee, I think I might love thee well if we can but hit it off as to tem­per.”

So Glum him­self told her all about the bar­gain, and left noth­ing out, and then he asked Hauskuld and Hrut whether he had re­peat­ed it right. Hauskuld said he had; and then Hall­ger­da said--“Ye have dealt so well with me in this mat­ter, my fa­ther and Hrut, that I will do what ye ad­vise, and this bar­gain shall be struck as ye have set­tled it”.

Then Hrut said--“Me­thinks it were best that Hauskuld and I should name wit­ness­es, and that Hall­ger­da should be­troth her­self, if the Law­man thinks that right and law­ful”.

“Right and law­ful it is,” says Tho­rarin.

Af­ter that Hall­ger­da's goods were val­ued, and Glum was to lay down as much against them, and they were to go shares, half and half, in the whole. Then Glum bound him­self to Hall­ger­da as his be­trothed, and they rode away home south; but Hauskuld was to keep the wed­ding-​feast at his house. And now all is qui­et till men ride to the wed­ding.