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

CHAPTER LXVI.

OF THORGEIR OTKELL'S SON.

Now we must tell of Thorgeir Otkell's son; he grew up to be a tall strong man, true-​heart­ed and guile­less, but rather too ready to lis­ten to fair words. He had many friends among the best men, and was much beloved by his kins­men.

Once on a time Thorgeir Starkad's son had been to see his kins­man Mord.

“I can ill brook,” he says, “that set­tle­ment of mat­ters which we and Gun­nar had, but I have bought thy help so long as we two are above ground; I wish thou wouldest think out some plan and lay it deep; this is why I say it right out, be­cause I know that thou art Gun­nar's great­est foe, and he too thine. I will much in­crease thine hon­our if thou tak­est pains in this mat­ter.”

“It will al­ways seem as though I were greedy of gain, but so it must be. Yet it will be hard to take care that thou mayest not seem to be a truce-​break­er, or peace-​break­er, and yet car­ry out thy point. But now I have been told that Kolskegg means to try a suit, and re­gain a fourth part of Moei­dsknoll, which was paid to thy fa­ther as an atone­ment for his son. He has tak­en up this suit for his moth­er, but this too is Gun­nar's coun­sel, to pay in goods and not to let the land go. We must wait till this comes about, and then de­clare that he has bro­ken the set­tle­ment made with you. He has al­so tak­en a corn­field from Thorgeir Otkell's son, and so bro­ken the set­tle­ment with him too. Thou shalt go to see Thorgeir Otkell's son, and bring him in­to the mat­ter with thee, and then fall on Gun­nar; but if ye fail in aught of this, and can­not get him hunt­ed down, still ye shall set on him over and over again, I must tell thee that Njal has 'spaed' his for­tune, and fore­told about his life, if he slays more than once in the same stock, that it would lead him to his death, if it so fell out that he broke the set­tle­ment made af­ter the deed. There­fore shalt thou bring Thorgeir in­to the suit, be­cause he has al­ready slain his fa­ther; and now, if ye two are to­geth­er in an af­fray, thou shalt shield thy­self; but he will go bold­ly on, and then Gun­nar will slay him. Then he has slain twice in the same stock, but thou shalt fly from the fight. And if this is to drag him to his death he will break the set­tle­ment af­ter­wards, and so we may wait till then.”

Af­ter that Thorgeir goes home and tells his fa­ther se­cret­ly. Then they agreed among them­selves that they should work out this plot by stealth.