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

CHAPTER LXXIV.

KOLSKEGG GOES ABROAD.

Thrain Sig­fus' son said to his wife that he meant to fare abroad that sum­mer. She said that was well. So he took his pas­sage with Hog­ni the white.

Gun­nar took his pas­sage with Arn­fin of the Bay; and Kolskegg was to go with him.

Grim And Hel­gi, Njal's sons, asked their fa­ther's leave to go abroad too, and Njal said--

“This for­eign voy­age ye will find hard work, so hard that it will be doubt­ful whether ye keep your lives; but still ye two will get some hon­our and glo­ry, but it is not un­like­ly that a quar­rel will arise out of your jour­ney when ye come back.”

Still they kept on ask­ing their fa­ther to let them go, and the end of it was that he bade them go if they chose.

Then they got them a pas­sage with Bard the black, and Olaf Ket­tle's son of El­da; and it is the talk of the whole coun­try that all the bet­ter men in that dis­trict were leav­ing it.

By this time Gun­nar's sons, Hog­ni and Grani, were grown up; they were men of very dif­fer­ent turn of mind. Grani had much of his moth­er's tem­per, but Hog­ni was kind and good.

Gun­nar made men bear down the wares of his broth­er and him­self to the ship, and when all Gun­nar's bag­gage had come down, and the ship was all but “boun,” then Gun­nar rides to Bergth­orsknoll, and to oth­er home­steads to see men, and thanked them all for the help they had giv­en him.

The day af­ter he gets ready ear­ly for his jour­ney to the ship, and told all his peo­ple that he would ride away for good and all, and men took that much to heart, but still they said that they looked to his com­ing back af­ter­wards.

Gun­nar threw his arms round each of the house­hold when he was “boun,” and ev­ery one of them went out of doors with him; he leans on the butt of his spear and leaps in­to the sad­dle, and he and Kolskegg ride away.

They ride down along Mark­fleet, and just then Gun­nar's horse tripped and threw him off. He turned with his face up to­wards the Lithe and the home­stead at Lithend, and said--

“Fair is the Lithe; so fair that it has nev­er seemed to me so fair; the corn fields are white to har­vest, and the home mead is mown; and now I will ride back home, and not fare abroad at all.”

“Do not this joy to thy foes,” says Kolskegg, “by break­ing thy atone­ment, for no man could think thou wouldst do thus, and thou mayst be sure that all will hap­pen as Njal has said.”

“I will not go away any whith­er,” says Gun­nar, “and so I would thou shouldest do too.”

“That shall not be,” says Kolskegg; “I will nev­er do a base thing in this, nor in any­thing else which is left to my good faith; and this is that one thing that could tear us asun­der; but tell this to my kins­men and to my moth­er, that I nev­er mean to see Ice­land again, for I shall soon learn that thou art dead, broth­er, and then there will be noth­ing left to bring me back.”

So they part­ed there and then. Gun­nar rides home to Lithend, but Kolskegg rides to the ship, and goes abroad.

Hall­ger­da was glad to see Gun­nar when he came home, but his moth­er said lit­tle or noth­ing.

Now Gun­nar sits at home that fall and win­ter, and had not many men with him.

Now the win­ter leaves the farm­yard. Olaf the pea­cock asked Gun­nar and Hall­ger­da to come and stay with him; but as for the farm, to put it in­to the hands of his moth­er and his son Hog­ni.

Gun­nar thought that a good thing at first, and agreed to it, but when it came to the point he would not do it.

But at the Thing next sum­mer, Gizur the white, and Geir the priest, gave no­tice of Gun­nar's out­lawry at the Hill of Laws; and be­fore the Thing broke up Gizur sum­moned all Gun­nar's foes to meet in the “Great Rift”.[27] He sum­moned Starkad un­der the Three­corner, and Thorgeir his son; Mord and Val­gard the guile­ful; Geir the priest and Hjalti Skeg­gi's son; Thor­brand and As­brand, Thor­leik's sons; Eyjulf, and Au­nund his son, Au­nund of Witch­wood and Thor­grim the East­er­ling of Sandg­il.

Then Gizur spoke and said, “I will make you all this of­fer, that we go out against Gun­nar this sum­mer and slay him”.

“I gave my word to Gun­nar,” said Hjalti, “here at the Thing, when he showed him­self most will­ing to yield to my prayer, that I would nev­er be in any at­tack up­on him; and so it shall be.”

Then Hjalti went away, but those who were left be­hind made up their minds to make an on­slaught on Gun­nar, and shook hands on the bar­gain, and laid a fine on any one that left the un­der­tak­ing.

Mord was to keep watch and spy out when there was the best chance of falling on him, and they were forty men in this league, and they thought it would be a light thing for them to hunt down Gun­nar, now that Kolskegg was away, and Thrain and many oth­er of Gun­nar's friends.

Men ride from the Thing, and Njal went to see Gun­nar, and told him of his out­lawry, and how an on­slaught was planned against him.

“Me thinks thou art the best of friends,” says Gun­nar; “thou mak­est me aware of what is meant.”

“Now,” says Njal, “I would that Skarphedinn should come to thy house, and my son Hauskuld; they will lay down their lives for thy life.”

“I will not,” says Gun­nar, “that thy sons should be slain for my sake, and thou hast a right to look for oth­er things from me.”

“All thy care will come to noth­ing,” says Njal; “quar­rels will turn thith­er­ward where my sons are as soon as thou art dead and gone.”

“That is not un­like­ly,” says Gun­nar, “but still it would mis­like me that they fell in­to them for me; but this one thing I will ask of thee, that ye see af­ter my son Hog­ni, but I say naught of Grani, for he does not be­have him­self much af­ter my mind.”

Njal rode home, and gave his word to do that.

It is said that Gun­nar rode to all meet­ings of men, and to all law­ful Things, and his foes nev­er dared to fall on him.

And so some time went on that he went about as a free and guilt­less man.