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

CHAPTER XLV.

THE SLAY­ING OF SIG­MUND AND SKI­OLLD.

Now they, Njal's sons, fare up to Fleetlithe, and were that night un­der the Lithe, and when the day be­gan to break, they came near to Lithend. That same morn­ing both Sig­mund and Ski­olld rose up and meant to go to the stud-​hors­es; they had bits with them, and caught the hors­es that were in the “town” and rode away on them. They found the stud-​hors­es be­tween two brooks. Skarphedinn caught sight of them, for Sig­mund was in bright cloth­ing. Skarphedinn said, “See you now the red elf yon­der, lads?” They looked that way, and said they saw him.

Skarphedinn spoke again: “Thou, Hauskuld, shalt have noth­ing to do with it, for thou wilt of­ten be sent about alone with­out due heed; but I mean Sig­mund for my­self; me­thinks that is like a man; but Grim and Hel­gi, they shall try to slay Ski­olld”.

Hauskuld sat him down, but they went un­til they came up to them. Skarphedinn said to Sig­mund--

“Take thy weapons and de­fend thy­self; that is more need­ful now, than to make mock­ing songs on me and my broth­ers.”

Sig­mund took up his weapons, but Skarphedinn wait­ed the while. Ski­olld turned against Grim and Hel­gi, and they fell hot­ly to fight. Sig­mund had a helm on his head, and a shield at his side, and was girt with a sword, his spear was in his hand; now he turns against Skarphedinn, and thrusts at once at him with his spear, and the thrust came on his shield. Skarphedinn dash­es the spearhaft in two, and lifts up his axe and hews at Sig­mund, and cleaves his shield down to be­low the han­dle. Sig­mund drew his sword and cut at Skarphedinn, and the sword cuts in­to his shield, so that it stuck fast. Skarphedinn gave the shield such a quick twist, that Sig­mund let go his sword. Then Skarphedinn hews at Sig­mund with his axe, the “Ogress of war”. Sig­mund had on a corse­let, the axe came on his shoul­der. Skarphedinn cleft the shoul­der-​blade right through, and at the same time pulled the axe to­wards him, Sig­mund fell down on both knees, but sprang up again at once.

“Thou hast lift­ed low to me al­ready,” says Skarphedinn, “but still thou shalt fall up­on thy moth­er's bo­som ere we two part.”

“Ill is that then,” says Sig­mund.

Skarphedinn gave him a blow on his helm, and af­ter that dealt Sig­mund his death-​blow.

Grim cut off Ski­olld's foot at the an­kle-​joint, but Hel­gi thrust him through with his spear, and he got his death there and then.

Skarphedinn saw Hall­ger­da's shep­herd, just as he had hewn off Sig­mund's head; he hand­ed the head to the shep­herd, and bade him bear it to Hall­ger­da, and said she would know whether that head had made jeer­ing songs about them, and with that he sang a song.

Here! this head shall thou, that heapest Hoards from ocean-​cav­erns won,[21] Bear to Hall­gerd with my greet­ing, Her that hur­ries men to fight; Sure am I, O fire­wood split­ter! That yon spendthrift knows it well, And will an­swer if it ev­er Ut­tered mock­ing songs on us.

The shep­herd casts the head down as soon as ev­er they part­ed, for he dared not do so while their eyes were on him. They fared along till they met some men down by Mark­fleet, and told them the tid­ings. Skarphedinn gave him­self out as the slay­er of Sig­mund; and Grim and Hel­gi as the slay­ers of Ski­olld; then they fared home and told Njal the tid­ings. He an­swers them--

“Good luck to your hands! Here no self-​doom will come to pass as things stand.”

Now we must take up the sto­ry, and say that the shep­herd came home to Lithend. He told Hall­ger­da the tid­ings.

“Skarphedinn put Sig­mund's head in­to my hands,” he says, “and bade me bring it thee; but I dared not do it, for I knew not how thou wouldst like that.”

“'Twas ill that thou didst not do that,” she says; “I would have brought it to Gun­nar, and then he would have avenged his kins­man, or have to bear ev­ery man's blame.”

Af­ter that she went to Gun­nar and said, “I tell thee of thy kins­man Sig­mund's slay­ing: Skarphedinn slew him, and want­ed them to bring me the head”.

“Just what might be looked for to be­fall him,” says Gun­nar, “for ill re­des bring ill luck, and both you and Skarphedinn have of­ten done one an­oth­er spite­ful turns”.

Then Gun­nar went away; he let no steps be tak­en to­wards a suit for manslaugh­ter, and did noth­ing about it. Hall­ger­da of­ten put him in mind of it, and kept say­ing that Sig­mund had fall­en una­toned. Gun­nar gave no heed to that.

Now three Things passed away, at each of which men thought that he would fol­low up the suit: then a knot­ty point came on Gun­nar's hands, which he knew not how to set about, and then he rode to find Njal. He gave Gun­nar a hearty wel­come. Gun­nar said to Njal, “I am come to seek a bit of good coun­sel at thy hands about a knot­ty point”.

“Thou art wor­thy of it,” says Njal, and gave him coun­sel what to do. Then Gun­nar stood up and thanked him. Njal then spoke and said, and took Gun­nar by the hand, “Over long hath thy kins­man Sig­mund been una­toned”. “He has been long ago atoned,” says Gun­nar, “but still I will not fling back the hon­our of­fered me.”

Gun­nar had nev­er spo­ken an ill word of Njal's sons. Njal would have noth­ing else than that Gun­nar should make his own award in the mat­ter. He award­ed two hun­dred in sil­ver, but let Ski­olld fall with­out a price. They paid down all the mon­ey at once.

Gun­nar de­clared this their atone­ment at the Thingskala Thing, when most men were at it, and laid great weight on the way in which they (Njal and his sons) had be­haved; he told too those bad words which cost Sig­mund his life, and no man was to re­peat them or sing the vers­es, but if any sung them, the man who ut­tered them was to fall with­out atone­ment.

Both Gun­nar and Njal gave each oth­er their words that no such mat­ters should ev­er hap­pen that they would not set­tle among them­selves; and this pledge was well kept ev­er af­ter, and they were al­ways friends.