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

CHAPTER LIV.

THE FIGHT AT RAN­GRIV­ER.

Now we must take up the sto­ry, and say that Gun­nar was out of doors at Lithend, and sees his shep­herd gal­lop­ing up to the yard. The shep­herd rode straight in­to the “town”; and Gun­nar said, “Why ridest thou so hard?”

“I would be faith­ful to thee,” said the man; “I saw men rid­ing down along Mark­fleet, eight of them to­geth­er, and four of them were in coloured clothes.”

Gun­nar said, “That must be Otkell”.

The lad said, “I have of­ten heard many tem­per-​try­ing words of Skamkell's; for Skamkell spoke away there East at Dale, and said that thou shed­dest tears when they rode over thee; but I tell it thee be­cause I can­not bear to lis­ten to such speech­es of worth­less men”.

“We must not be word-​sick,” says Gun­nar, “but from this day forth thou shalt do no oth­er work than what thou choos­est for thy­self.”

“Shall I say aught of this to Kolskegg thy broth­er?” asked the shep­herd.

“Go thou and sleep,” says Gun­nar; “I will tell Kolskegg.”

The lad laid him down and fell asleep at once, but Gun­nar took the shep­herd's horse and laid his sad­dle on him; he took his shield, and gird­ed him with his sword, Oliv­er's gift; he sets his helm on his head; takes his bill, and some­thing sung loud in it, and his moth­er, Ran­nveig, heard it. She went up to him and said, “Wrath­ful art thou now, my son, and nev­er saw I thee thus be­fore”.

Gun­nar goes out, and drives the butt of his spear in­to the earth, and throws him­self in­to the sad­dle, and rides away.

His moth­er, Ran­nveig, went in­to the sit­ting-​room, where there was a great noise of talk­ing.

“Ye speak loud,” she says, “but yet the bill gave a loud­er sound when Gun­nar went out.”

Kolskegg heard what she said, and spoke, “This be­to­kens no small tid­ings”.

“That is well,” says Hall­ger­da, “now they will soon prove whether he goes away from them weep­ing.”

Kolskegg takes his weapons and seeks him a horse, and rides af­ter Gun­nar as fast as he could.

Gun­nar rides across Acre­tongue, and so to Geilastof­na, and thence to Ran­griv­er, and down the stream to the ford at Hof. There were some wom­en at the milk­ing-​post there. Gun­nar jumped off his horse and tied him up. By this time the oth­ers were rid­ing up to­wards him; there were flat stones cov­ered with mud in the path that led down to the ford.

Gun­nar called out to them and said, “Now is the time to guard your­selves; here now is the bill, and here now ye will put it to the proof whether I shed one tear for all of you”.

Then they all of them sprang off their hors­es' backs and made to­wards Gun­nar. Hall­bjorn was the fore­most.

“Do not thou come on,” says Gun­nar; “thee last of all would I harm; but I will spare no one if I have to fight to my life.”

“That I can­not do,” says Hall­bjorn; “thou wilt strive to kill my broth­er for all that, and it is a shame if I sit idly by.” And as he said this he thrust at Gun­nar with a great spear which he held in both hands.

Gun­nar threw his shield be­fore the blow, but Hall­bjorn pierced the shield through. Gun­nar thrust the shield down so hard that it stood fast in the earth,[23] but he bran­dished his sword so quick­ly that no eye could fol­low it, and he made a blow with the sword, and it fell on Hall­bjorn's arm above the wrist, so that it cut it off.

Skamkell ran be­hind Gun­nar's back and makes a blow at him with a great axe. Gun­nar turned short round up­on him and par­ries the blow with the bill, and caught the axe un­der one of its horns with such a wrench that it flew out of Skamkell's hand away in­to the riv­er.

Then Gun­nar sang a song.

Once thou askedst, fool­ish fel­low, Of this man, this sea-​horse rac­er, When as fast as feet could foot it Forth ye fled from farm of mine, Whether that were right­ly sum­moned? Now with gore the spear we red­den, Bat­tle-​ea­ger and avenge us Thus on thee, vile source of strife.

Gun­nar gives an­oth­er thrust with his bill, and through Skamkell, and lifts him up and casts him down in the mud­dy path on his head.

Audulf the East­er­ling snatch­es up a spear and launch­es it at Gun­nar. Gun­nar caught the spear with his hand in the air, and hurled it back at once, and it flew through the shield and the East­er­ling too, and so down in­to the earth.

Otkell smites at Gun­nar with his sword, and aims at his leg just be­low the knee, but Gun­nar leapt up in­to the air and he miss­es him. Then Gun­nar thrusts at him the bill, and the blow goes through him.

Then Kolskegg comes up, and rush­es at once at Hal­lkell and dealt him his death-​blow with his short sword. There and then they slay eight men.

A wom­an who saw all this, ran home and told Mord, and be­sought him to part them.

“They alone will be there,” he says, “of whom I care not though they slay one an­oth­er.”

“Thou canst not mean to say that,” she says, “for thy kins­man Gun­nar, and thy friend Otkell will be there.”

“Bag­gage that thou art,” he says, “thou art al­ways chat­ter­ing,” and so he lay still in­doors while they fought.

Gun­nar and Kolskegg rode home af­ter this work, and they rode hard up along the riv­er bank, and Gun­nar slipped off his horse and came down on his feet.

Then Kolskegg said, “Hard now thou ridest, broth­er!”

“Ay,” said Gun­nar, “that was what Skamkell said when he ut­tered those very words when they rode over me.”

“Well! thou hast avenged that now,” says Kolskegg.

“I would like to know,” says Gun­nar, “whether I am by so much the less brisk and bold than oth­er men, be­cause I think more of killing men than they?”