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

CHAPTER XVI.

GLUM'S SHEEP HUNT.

Now once on a time when au­tumn came, it hap­pened that men had hard work to get their flocks home, and many of Glum's wethers were miss­ing. Then Glum said to Thios­tolf--

“Go thou up on the fell with my house-​car­les and see if ye can­not find out any­thing about the sheep.”

“'Tis no busi­ness of mine,” says Thios­tolf, “to hunt up sheep, and this one thing is quite enough to hin­der it. I won't walk in thy thralls' foot­steps. But go thy­self, and then I'll go with thee.”

About this they had many words. The weath­er was good, and Hall­ger­da was sit­ting out of doors. Glum went up to her and said--

“Now Thios­tolf and I have had a quar­rel, and we shall not live much longer to­geth­er.” And so he told her all that they had been talk­ing about.

Then Hall­ger­da spoke up for Thios­tolf, and they had many words about him. At last Glum gave her a blow with his hand, and said--

“I will strive no longer with thee,” and with that he went away.

Now she loved him much, and could not calm her­self, but wept out loud. Thios­tolf went up to her and said--

“This is sor­ry sport for thee, and so it must not be of­ten again.”

“Nay,” she said, “but thou shalt not avenge this, nor med­dle at all what­ev­er pass­es be­tween Glum and me.”

He went off with a spite­ful grin.