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

CHAPTER XXII.

NJAL'S AD­VICE.

"I have thought over the suit, and it will do so. Thou shalt ride from home with two men at thy back. Over all thou shalt have a great rough cloak, and un­der that, a rus­set kir­tle of cheap stuff, and un­der all, thy good clothes. Thou must take a small axe in thy hand, and each of you must have two hors­es, one fat, the oth­er lean. Thou shalt car­ry hard­ware and smith's work with thee hence, and ye must ride off ear­ly to-​mor­row morn­ing, and when ye are come across White­wa­ter west­wards, mind and slouch thy hat well over thy brows. Then men will ask who is this tall man, and thy mates shall say--'Here is Huck­ster Hedinn the Big, a man from Ey­jafirth, who is go­ing about with smith's work for sale'. This Hedinn is ill-​tem­pered and a chat­ter­er--a fel­low who thinks he alone knows ev­ery­thing. Very of­ten he snatch­es back his wares, and flies at men if ev­ery­thing is not done as he wish­es. So thou shalt ride west to Bor­garfirth of­fer­ing all sorts of wares for sale, and be sure of­ten to cry off thy bar­gains, so that it will be noised abroad that Huck­ster Hedinn is the worst of men to deal with, and that no lies have been told of his bad be­haviour. So thou shalt ride to North­wa­terdale, and to Hrut­firth, and Laxriverdale, till thou comest to Hauskuld­st­ede. There thou must stay a night, and sit in the low­est place, and hang thy head down. Hauskuld will tell them all not to med­dle nor make with Huck­ster Hedinn, say­ing he is a rude un­friend­ly fel­low. Next morn­ing thou must be off ear­ly and go to the farm near­est Hrut­st­ede. There thou must of­fer thy goods for sale, prais­ing up all that is worst, and tin­ker­ing up the faults. The mas­ter of the house will pry about and find out the faults. Thou must snatch the wares away from him, and speak ill to him. He will say--'Twas not to be hoped that thou wouldst be­have well to him, when thou be­havest ill to ev­ery one else. Then thou shalt fly at him, though it is not thy wont, but mind and spare thy strength, that thou mayest not be found out. Then a man will be sent to Hrut­st­ede to tell Hrut he had best come and part you. He will come at once and ask thee to his house, and thou must ac­cept his of­fer. Thou shalt greet Hrut, and he will an­swer well. A place will be giv­en thee on the low­er bench over against Hrut's high-​seat. He will ask if thou art from the North, and thou shalt an­swer that thou art a man of Ey­jafirth. He will go on to ask if there are very many fa­mous men there. 'Shab­by fel­lows enough and to spare,' thou must an­swer. 'Dost thou know Reykiardale and the parts about?' he will ask. To which thou must an­swer--'I know all Ice­land by heart'.

"Are there any stout cham­pi­ons left in Reykiardale?' he will ask. 'Thieves and scoundrels,' thou shalt an­swer. Then Hrut will smile and think it sport to lis­ten. You two will go on to talk of the men in the East­firth Quar­ter, and thou must al­ways find some­thing to say against them. At last your talk will come to Ran­griver­vale, and then thou must say, there is small choice of men left in those parts since Fid­dle Mord died. At the same time sing some stave to please Hrut, for I know thou art a skald. Hrut will ask what makes thee say there is nev­er a man to come in Mord's place; and then thou must an­swer, that he was so wise a man and so good a tak­er up of suits, that he nev­er made a false step in up­hold­ing his lead­er­ship. He will ask--'Dost thou know how mat­ters fared be­tween me and him?'

"'I know all about it,' thou must re­ply, 'he took thy wife from thee, and thou hadst not a word to say.'

"Then Hrut will ask--'Dost thou not think it was some dis­grace to him when he could not get back his goods, though he set the suit on foot?'

"'I can an­swer thee that well enough,' thou must say, 'Thou chal­lengedst him to sin­gle com­bat; but he was old, and so his friends ad­vised him not to fight with thee, and then they let the suit fall to the ground.'

“'True enough,” Hrut will say. 'I said so, and that passed for law among fool­ish men; but the suit might have been tak­en up again at an­oth­er Thing if he had the heart.'

"'I know all that,' thou must say.

“Then he will ask--'Dost thou know any­thing about law?”

"'Up in the North I am thought to know some­thing about it,' thou shalt say. 'But still I should like thee to tell me how this suit should be tak­en up.'

"'What suit dost thou mean?' he will ask.

"'A suit,' thou must an­swer, 'which does not con­cern me. I want to know how a man must set to work who wish­es to get back Un­na's dow­er.'

"Then Hrut will say--'In this suit I must be sum­moned so that I can hear the sum­mons, or I must be sum­moned here in my law­ful house'.

"'Re­cite the sum­mons, then,' thou must say, and I will say it af­ter thee.'

"Then Hrut will sum­mon him­self; and mind and pay great heed to ev­ery word he says. Af­ter that Hrut will bid thee re­peat the sum­mons, and thou must do so, and say it all wrong, so that no more than ev­ery oth­er word is right.

"Then Hrut will smile and not mis­trust thee, but say that scarce a word is right. Thou must throw the blame on thy com­pan­ions, and say they put thee out, and then thou must ask him to say the words first, word by word, and to let thee say the words af­ter him. He will give thee leave, and sum­mon him­self in the suit, and thou shalt sum­mon af­ter him there and then, and this time say ev­ery word right. When it is done, ask Hrut if that were right­ly sum­moned, and he will an­swer 'there is no flaw to be found in it'. Then thou shalt say in a loud voice, so that thy com­pan­ions may hear--

"'I sum­mon thee in the suit which Un­na Mord's daugh­ter has made over to me with her plight­ed hand.'

“But when men are sound asleep, you shall rise and take your bri­dles and sad­dles, and tread soft­ly, and go out of the house, and put your sad­dles on your fat hors­es in the fields, and so ride off on them, but leave the oth­ers be­hind you. You must ride up in­to the hills away from the home pas­tures and stay there three nights, for about so long will they seek you. Af­ter that ride home south, rid­ing al­ways by night and rest­ing by day. As for us we will then ride this sum­mer to the Thing, and help thee in thy suit.” So Gun­nar thanked Njal, and first of all rode home.