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

CHAPTER LVI.

GUN­NAR AND GEIR THE PRIEST STRIVE AT THE THING.

There was a man named Skap­ti. He was the son of Thorod. That fa­ther and son were great chiefs, and very well skilled in law. Thorod was thought to be rather crafty and guile­ful. They stood by Gizur the white in ev­ery quar­rel.

As for the Lithe­men and the dwellers by Ran­griv­er, they came in a great body to the Thing. Gun­nar was so beloved that all said with one voice that they would back him.

Now they all come to the Thing and fit up their booths. In com­pa­ny with Gizur the white were these chiefs: Skap­ti Thorod's son, As­grim El­lida­grim's son, Od­di of Kid­berg, and Hall­dor Ornolf's son.

Now one day men went to the Hill of Laws, and then Geir the priest stood up and gave no­tice that he had a suit of manslaugh­ter against Gun­nar for the slay­ing of Otkell. An­oth­er suit of manslaugh­ter he brought against Gun­nar for the slay­ing of Hall­bjorn the white; then too he went on in the same way as to the slay­ing of Audulf, and so too as to the slay­ing of Skamkell. Then too he laid a suit of manslaugh­ter against Kolskegg for the slay­ing of Hal­lkell.

And when he had giv­en due no­tice of all his suits of manslaugh­ter it was said that he spoke well. He asked, too, in what Quar­ter court the suits lay, and in what house in the dis­trict the de­fen­dants dwelt. Af­ter that men went away from the Hill of Laws, and so the Thing goes on till the day when the courts were to be set to try suits. Then ei­ther side gath­ered their men to­geth­er in great strength.

Geir the priest and Gizur the white stood at the court of the men of Ran­griv­er look­ing north, and Gun­nar and Njal stood look­ing south to­wards the court.

Geir the priest bade Gun­nar to lis­ten to his oath, and then he took the oath, and af­ter­wards de­clared his suit.

Then he let men bear wit­ness of the no­tice giv­en of the suit; then he called up­on the neigh­bours who were to form the in­quest to take their seats; then he called on Gun­nar to chal­lenge the in­quest; and then he called on the in­quest to ut­ter their find­ing. Then the neigh­bours who were sum­moned on the in­quest went to the court and took wit­ness, and said that there was a bar to their find­ing in the suit as to Audulf's slay­ing, be­cause the next of kin who ought to fol­low it up was in Nor­way, and so they had noth­ing to do with that suit.

Af­ter that they ut­tered their find­ing in the suit as to Otkell, and brought in Gun­nar as tru­ly guilty of killing him.

Then Geir the priest called on Gun­nar for his de­fence, and took wit­ness of all the steps in the suit which had been proved.

Then Gun­nar, in his turn, called on Geir the priest to lis­ten to his oath, and to the de­fence which he was about to bring for­ward in the suit. Then he took the oath and said--

"This de­fence I make to this suit, that I took wit­ness and out­lawed Otkell be­fore my neigh­bours for that bloody wound which I got when Otkell gave me a hurt with his spur; but thee, Geir the priest, I for­bid by a law­ful protest made be­fore a priest to pur­sue this suit, and so, too, I for­bid the judges to hear it; and with this I make all the steps hith­er­to tak­en in this suit void and of none-​ef­fect. I for­bid thee by a law­ful protest, a full, fair, and bind­ing protest, as I have a right to for­bid thee by the com­mon cus­tom of the Thing and by the law of the land.

“Be­sides, I will tell thee some­thing else which I mean to do,” says Gun­nar.

“What!” says Geir, “wilt thou chal­lenge me to the is­land as thou art wont, and not bear the law?”

“Not that,” says Gun­nar; “I shall sum­mon thee at the Hill of Laws for that thou calledst those men on the in­quest who had no right to deal with Audulf's slay­ing, and I will de­clare thee for that guilty of out­lawry.”

Then Njal said, “Things must not take this turn, for the on­ly end of it will be that this strife will be car­ried to the ut­ter­most. Each of you, as it seems to me, has much on his side. There are some of these manslaugh­ters, Gun­nar, about which thou canst say noth­ing to hin­der the court from find­ing thee guilty; but thou hast set on foot a suit against Geir, in which he, too, must be found guilty. Thou too, Geir the priest, shalt know that this suit of out­lawry which hangs over thee shall not fall to the ground if thou wilt not lis­ten to my words.”

Thorod the priest said, “It seems to us as though the most peace­ful way would be that a set­tle­ment and atone­ment were come to in the suit. But why sayest thou so lit­tle, Gizur the white?”

“It seems to me,” says Gizur, “as though we shall need to have strong props for our suit; we may see, too, that Gun­nar's friends stand near him, and so the best turn for us that things can take will be that good men and true should ut­ter an award on the suit, if Gun­nar so wills it.”

“I have ev­er been will­ing to make mat­ters up,” says Gun­nar; “and, be­sides, ye have much wrong to fol­low up, but still I think I was hard driv­en to do as I did.”

And now the end of those suits was, by the coun­sel of the wis­est men, that all the suits were put to ar­bi­tra­tion; six men were to make this award, and it was ut­tered there and then at the Thing.

The award was that Skamkell should be una­toned. The blood mon­ey for Otkell's death was to be set off against the hurt Gun­nar got from the spur; and as for the rest of the manslaugh­ters, they were paid for af­ter the worth of the men, and Gun­nar's kins­men gave mon­ey so that all the fines might be paid up at the Thing.

Then Geir the priest and Gizur the white went up and gave Gun­nar pledges that they would keep the peace in good faith.

Gun­nar rode home from the Thing, and thanked men for their help, and gave gifts to many, and got the great­est hon­our from the suit.

Now Gun­nar sits at home in his hon­our.