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

CHAPTER XLI.

SIG­MUND COMES OUT TO ICE­LAND.

There was a man whose name was Sig­mund. He was the son of Lam­bi, the son of Sigh­vat the Red. He was a great voy­ager, and a come­ly and a cour­te­ous man; tall too, and strong. He was a man of proud spir­it, and a good skald, and well trained in most feats of strength. He was noisy and bois­ter­ous, and giv­en to jibes and mock­ing. He made the land east in Horn­firth. Ski­olld was the name of his fel­low-​trav­eller; he was a Swedish man, and ill to do with. They took horse and rode from the east out of Horn­firth, and did not draw bri­dle be­fore they came to Lithend, in the Fleetlithe. Gun­nar gave them a hearty wel­come, for the bonds of kin­ship were close be­tween them. Gun­nar begged Sig­mund to stay there that win­ter, and Sig­mund said he would take the of­fer if Ski­olld his fel­low might be there too.

“Well, I have been so told about him,” said Gun­nar, “that he is no bet­ter of thy tem­per; but as it is, thou rather needest to have it bet­tered. This, too, is a bad house to stay at, and I would just give both of you a bit of ad­vice, my kins­men, not to fire up at the egging on of my wife Hall­ger­da; for she takes much in hand that is far from my will.”

“His hands are clean who warns an­oth­er,” says Sig­mund.

“Then mind the ad­vice giv­en thee,” says Gun­nar, “for thou art sure to be sore tried; and go along al­ways with me, and lean up­on my coun­sel.”

Af­ter that they were in Gun­nar's com­pa­ny. Hall­ger­da was good to Sig­mund; and it soon came about that things grew so warm that she load­ed him with mon­ey, and tend­ed him no worse than her own hus­band; and many talked about that, and did not know what lay un­der it.

One day Hall­ger­da said to Gun­nar--“It is not good to be con­tent with that hun­dred in sil­ver which thou took­est for my kins­man Bryn­jolf. I shall avenge him if I may,” she says.

Gun­nar said he had no mind to bandy words with her, and went away. He met Kolskegg, and said to him, “Go and see Njal; and tell him that Thord must be­ware of him­self though peace has been made, for, me­thinks, there is faith­less­ness some­where”.

He rode off and told Njal, but Njal told Thord, and Kolskegg rode home, and Njal thanked them for their faith­ful­ness.

Once on a time they two were out in the “town,” Njal and Thord; a he-​goat was wont to go up and down in the “town,” and no one was al­lowed to drive him away. Then Thord spoke and said--

“Well, this _is_ a won­drous thing!”

“What is it that thou see'st that seems af­ter a won­drous fash­ion?” says Njal.

“Me­thinks the goat lies here in the hol­low, and he is all one gore of blood.”

Njal said that there was no goat there, nor any­thing else.

“What is it then?” says Thord.

“Thou must be a 'fey' man,” says Njal, “and thou must have seen the fetch that fol­lows thee, and now be ware of thy­self.”

“That will stand me in no stead,” says Thord, “if death is doomed for me.”

Then Hall­ger­da came to talk with Thrain Sig­fus' son, and said--“I would think thee my son-​in-​law in­deed,” she says, “if thou slayest Thord Freed­man­son”.

“I will not do that,” he says, “for then I shall have the wrath of my kins­man Gun­nar; and be­sides, great things hang on this deed, for this slay­ing would soon be avenged.”

“Who will avenge it?” she asks; “is it the beard­less car­le?”

“Not so,” says he; “his sons will avenge it.”

Af­ter that they talked long and low, and no man knew what coun­sel they took to­geth­er.

Once it hap­pened that Gun­nar was not at home, but those com­pan­ions were. Thrain had come in from Grit­wa­ter, and then he and they and Hall­ger­da sat out of doors and talked. Then Hall­ger­da said--

“This have ye two broth­ers in arms, Sig­mund and Ski­olld, promised to slay Thord Freed­man­son; but Thrain thou hast promised me that thou wouldst stand by them when they did the deed.”

They all ac­knowl­edged that they had giv­en her this promise.

“Now I will coun­sel you how to do it,” she says: “Ye shall ride east in­to Horn­firth af­ter your goods, and come home about the be­gin­ning of the Thing, but if ye are at home be­fore it be­gins, Gun­nar will wish that ye should ride to the Thing with him. Njal will be at the Thing and his sons and Gun­nar, but then ye two shall slay Thord.”

They all agreed that this plan should be car­ried out. Af­ter that they busked them east to the Firth, and Gun­nar was not aware of what they were about, and Gun­nar rode to the Thing. Njal sent Thord Freed­man­son away east un­der Ey­jafell, and bade him be away there one night. So he went east, but he could not get back from the east, for the Fleet had risen so high that it could not be crossed on horse­back ev­er so far up. Njal wait­ed for him one night, for he had meant him to have rid­den with him; and Njal said to Bergth­ora, that she must send Thord to the Thing as soon as ev­er he came home. Two nights af­ter, Thord came from the east, and Bergth­ora told him that he must ride to the Thing, “but first thou shalt ride up in­to Thorolfs­fell and see about the farm there, and do not be there longer than one or two nights.”