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

CHAPTER XV.

THIOS­TOLF GOES TO GLUM'S HOUSE.

Thios­tolf had beat­en one of Hauskuld's house-​car­les, so he drove him away. He took his horse and weapons, and said to Hauskuld--

“Now, I will go away and nev­er come back.”

“All will be glad at that,” says Hauskuld.

Thios­tolf rode till he came to Var­malek, and there he got a hearty wel­come from Hall­ger­da, and not a bad one from Glum. He told Hall­ger­da how her fa­ther had driv­en him away, and begged her to give him her help and coun­te­nance. She an­swered him by telling him she could say noth­ing about his stay­ing there be­fore she had seen Glum about it.

“Does it go well be­tween you?” he says.

“Yes,” she says, “our love runs smooth enough.”

Af­ter that she went to speak to Glum, and threw her arms round his neck and said--

“Wilt thou grant me a boon which I wish to ask of thee?”

“Grant it I will,” he says, “if it be right and seem­ly; but what is it thou wish­est to ask?”

“Well,” she said, “Thios­tolf has been driv­en away from the west, and what I want thee to do is to let him stay here; but I will not take it cross­ly if it is not to thy mind.”

Glum said--“Now that thou be­havest so well, I will grant thee thy boon; but I tell thee, if he takes to any ill he shall be sent off at once”.

She goes then to Thios­tolf and tells him, and he an­swered--

“Now, thou art still good, as I had hoped.”

Af­ter that he was there, and kept him­self down a lit­tle white, but then it was the old sto­ry, he seemed to spoil all the good he found; for he gave way to no one save to Hall­ger­da alone, but she nev­er took his side in his brawls with oth­ers. Tho­rarin, Glum's broth­er, blamed him for let­ting him be there, and said ill luck would come of it, and all would hap­pen as had hap­pened be­fore if he were there. Glum an­swered him well and kind­ly, but still kept on in his own way.