Njal's Saga (23 page)

The news travelled widely, and Thorgeir's death was lamented by many. Gizur the White and Geir the Godi rode to the place and gave notice of the slayings and summoned neighbours to appear at the Thing. Then they rode back west.

Njal and Gunnar met and talked about the fight. Njal spoke to him: ‘Be careful from now on. You have killed twice within the same bloodline and you must consider, for your own sake, that your life is in danger if you don't keep the settlement that will be made.'

‘In no way do I intend to break it,' said Gunnar, ‘but I'll need your support at the Thing.'

Njal answered, ‘I'll stand by you loyally as long as I live.'

Then Gunnar rode home.

*

The time came for the Thing, and both sides came in large numbers. There was much talk about how this case would turn out. Gizur and Geir the Godi discussed which of them should bring the charge for the slaying of Thorgeir, and finally Gizur took over the case and gave notice of the suit at the Law Rock and spoke in these words: ‘I give notice of a suit against Gunnar Hamundarson for a punishable assault, in which he ran at Thorgeir Otkelsson in a punishable assault and inflicted an internal wound which proved to be a fatal wound, and Thorgeir died from it. I declare that he deserves the sentence of full outlawry and that he should not be fed, nor helped on his way, nor given any kind of assistance. I declare that his property should be forfeit, half to me and half to the men in the quarter who have the legal right to forfeited property. I give notice to the Quarter Court in which this case should be heard according to law. I give this legal notice in the hearing of all at the Law Rock; I give notice of the prosecution of Gunnar Hamundarson for full outlawry.'

Gizur named witnesses a second time
¹
and gave notice of a suit against Gunnar Hamundarson for having wounded Thorgeir Otkels-son with an internal wound which proved to be a fatal wound, and Thorgeir died from it at the place where Gunnar had made a punishable assault against Thorgeir. Then he gave notice as he had done with the first one. Then he asked Gunnar for his district and domicile. After that people left the Law Rock, and everybody said that Gizur had spoken well.

Gunnar was even-tempered and said little.

The Thing went on until the time for the courts to meet. Gunnar and his men stood to the north of the Ranga Court; Gizur the White and his men stood to the south and he named witnesses and requested that Gunnar listen to his oath-swearing and his presentation of the suit and the evidence he intended to bring forth. Then he swore his oath; then he presented the charges as previously formulated to the court. He had witnesses testify to the notice he had given. Then he asked the neighbours on the panel to be seated and invited the opposition to challenge the legitimacy of the panel members.

Then Njal spoke: ‘There's no use in sitting still. Let's go over to where the panel is sitting.'

They went there and removed four members of the panel and asked the remaining five to constitute a panel for the defence in Gunnar's case and declare whether Thorgeir Starkadarson and Thor-geir Otkelsson had set out with the intention of meeting up with Gunnar and killing him, if they could. They all declared at once that this was so.
¹
Njal called this a legitimate defence in the case and he said he would present it unless they agreed to arbitration. Many chieftains then joined in asking for arbitration, and it was agreed that twelve men would decide the case. Both sides then came forward and shook hands on this settlement.

After that the case was arbitrated and the amount of payment was set, all of it to be paid at once at the Thing, and Gunnar and Kolskegg were to go abroad and stay there for three years. If Gunnar had a chance to leave and did not take it, he could be killed with impunity by the kinsmen of the slain Thorgeir.
²

Gunnar gave no indication that he thought this settlement unfair.
³
He asked Njal for the money which he had turned over to him for safekeeping. Njal had earned interest on it and paid it all out; it matched the amount that Gunnar had to pay out. People then rode home.

Njal and Gunnar rode together from the Thing.

Njal spoke to Gunnar: ‘Please see to it, my friend, that you abide by this settlement, and remember what we have talked about before,' he said. ‘Just as your first trip abroad brought you great honour, you will gain even more honour this time. Then you will return home with great respect, and live to be an old man, and no one here will be your equal. But if you break this settlement and don't go abroad, you will be killed in this land, and that will be a terrible thing for your friends to bear.'

Gunnar said he did not intend to break the settlement.

He rode home and reported on the settlement. Rannveig said it would be good if he went abroad and if his enemies took on someone else for the time being.

Thrain Sigfusson told his wife that he was planning to go abroad that summer; she said that would be good. He took passage on Hogni the White's ship. Gunnar and Kolskegg took passage with Arnfinn from Vik.

Two of Njal's sons, Grim and Helgi, asked their father for permission to go abroad. Njal answered, ‘Your travels will be troublesome, and it is not clear that you will hold on to your lives, though you will earn honour and respect. It is also likely that your travels will lead to problems here when you return.'

They still asked to go, and finally he told them to go if they wished. They took passage on the ship of Bard the Black and Olaf, the son of Ketil of Elda. There was much talk then about how the district was being drained of its best men.

Gunnar's sons, Hogni and Grani, were now young men. They were quite different from each other: Grani had much of his mother's character, but Hogni was a fine person.

Gunnar had his and Kolskegg's things brought to the ship. When everything was there and the ship was nearly ready, he rode to Bergthorshvol and other farms to thank everybody who had given him support.

Early the next day he made ready to go to the ship and told all his people that he was leaving for good, and they took it hard but hoped for his return later. Gunnar embraced every one of them when he was ready to leave, and they all came outside with him. He thrust his halberd into the ground and leaped into his saddle, and he and Kolskegg rode off.

They rode towards the Markarfljot river, and then Gunnar's horse slipped, and he sprang from the saddle. He happened to be facing the hillside and the farm at Hlidarendi, and spoke: ‘Lovely is the hillside – never has it seemed so lovely to me as now, with its pale fields and mown meadows, and I will ride back home and not leave.'
¹

‘Don't give your enemies the pleasure of breaking your agreement,' said Kolskegg, ‘for no one would expect this from you. And you can be sure that everything will turn out just as Njal said.'

‘I will not leave,' said Gunnar, ‘and I wish you wouldn't either.'

‘That won't be,' said Kolskegg. ‘I will not be false to this agreement or to any other in which I am counted on, and this is the only thing that will separate us. Tell my kinsmen and my mother that I don't expect to see Iceland again, for I will hear the report of your death, and then nothing will draw me back.'

With this they parted, and Gunnar rode home to Hlidarendi, and Kolskegg rode to the ship and sailed abroad.

Hallgerd was pleased that Gunnar returned home, but his mother had little to say. Gunnar remained at home that autumn and winter, and did not have many men around him. The winter came to an end.

Olaf Peacock sent a man to Gunnar to ask him and Hallgerd to move west and turn over the farm to his mother and his son Hogni. Gunnar found this attractive at first and accepted, but when the time came he was not willing to go.

At the Thing that summer Gizur and Geir the Godi declared Gunnar a full outlaw at the Law Rock. Before the Thing broke up, Gizur called all of Gunnar's enemies together in the Almannagja gorge: Starkad from Thrihyrning and his son Thorgeir, Mord and Valgard the Grey, Geir the Godi and Hjalti Skeggjason, Thorbrand and Asbrand the sons of Thorleik, Eilif and his son Onund, Onund of Trollaskog, and Thorgrim of Sandgil.

Gizur spoke: ‘I want to propose to you that we attack Gunnar this summer and kill him.'

Hjalti said, ‘I made a promise to Gunnar here at the Thing, when he did just as I wished, that I would never take part in an attack against him – and I shall keep this promise.'
²

Hjalti then left, and those who remained decided to attack Gunnar. They shook hands on it and fixed a penalty for anyone who withdrew. Mord was to spy out when they might best get at Gunnar. There were forty men in this band, and they thought it an easy matter to catch Gunnar while Kolskegg and Thrain and many other friends of his were abroad.

People rode home from the Thing.

*

Njal went to see Gunnar and told him of his outlawry and the planned attack on him.

‘You have done well,' said Gunnar, ‘to put me on my guard.'

‘What I want now,' said Njal, ‘is for Skarphedin and my son Hoskuld to come to you and wage their lives with yours.'

‘No,' said Gunnar. ‘I don't want your sons slain for my sake – you don't deserve this from me.'

‘It won't matter,' said Njal. ‘Once you're dead the trouble will be directed towards my sons.'

‘That's not unlikely,' said Gunnar, ‘but I would not like it to come from me. I want to ask you one thing, though – that you keep an eye on my son Hogni. About Grani I have nothing to say, for he does many things that are not to my liking.'

Njal promised this and rode home.

It is told that Gunnar rode to all gatherings and assemblies, and that his enemies never dared to attack him. And thus for a while things were as if he were not an outlaw.

That autumn Mord Valgardsson sent word that Gunnar was at home alone, while all his people were down at Eyjar to finish the haymaking. Gizur the White and Geir the Godi rode east across the rivers when they heard this, and then across the sands to Hof. Then they sent word to Starkad at Thrihyrning, and all those who were to attack Gunnar met at Hof and planned how to go about it. Mord said that they would not take Gunnar by surprise unless they seized a farmer named Thorkel from the neighbouring farm, and forced him to come along with them and go up to Gunnar's farm, alone, to take the dog Sam.

They went off east to Hlidarendi and sent men after Thorkel, seized him and gave him two choices: either they would kill him or he would take the dog, and he chose to preserve his life and went with them.

There was an enclosure above the yard at Hlidarendi, and the party of attackers made a halt there. The farmer Thorkel went down to the house; the dog was lying on the roof, and Thorkel lured him away up the lane. But as soon as the dog saw that there were men up
there, he jumped at Thorkel and bit him in the groin. Onund of Trollaskog hit the dog in the head with his axe, and it went right into the brain. The dog gave out a loud howl that was like none they had heard before, and then he fell down dead.

Inside the hall, Gunnar woke up and said, ‘You've been cruelly used, my foster-child Sam, and it is to be expected that our deaths are meant to be close together.'

Gunnar's hall was built entirely of wood, with overlapping boards on the outside and windows along the roof beams, fitted with shutters. Gunnar slept in a loft above the hall, together with Hallgerd and his mother.

When the attackers came near they did not know whether Gunnar was at home, and they asked for someone to go first and find out. Thor-grim the Norwegian went to the hall while the others sat down on the ground. Gunnar saw a red tunic at the window and he made a thrust with his halberd and hit Thorgrim in the waist. The Norwegian lost his grip on his shield, his feet slipped and he fell off the roof and then walked to where Gizur and the others were sitting on the ground.

Gizur looked at him and spoke: ‘Well, is Gunnar at home?'

Thorgrim answered, ‘Find that out for yourselves, but I've found out one thing – that his halberd's at home.'

Then he fell down dead.

The others then made for the buildings. Gunnar shot arrows at them and defended himself, and they could do nothing. Some men then climbed up on the buildings and planned to attack from there. Gunnar could still reach them with his arrows and they could do nothing, and it went on like this for a while. They took a rest and made a second attack. Gunnar kept shooting arrows at them, and again they could do nothing and fell back a second time.

Gizur the White said, ‘We must attack harder – we're not getting anywhere.'

They made a third charge and were at it for a long time. Then they pulled back.

Gunnar spoke: ‘There's an arrow out there on the edge of the roof,
one of theirs, and I'll try to shoot it at them – it will shame them to be hurt by their own weapons.'

His mother spoke: ‘Don't do that – don't stir them up now that they have turned away.'

Gunnar reached for the arrow and shot it at them. It struck Eilif Onundarson and gave him a great wound. He had been standing off by himself, and the others did not notice that he was wounded.

‘An arm reached out over there,' said Gizur, ‘with a gold bracelet around it, and it grabbed an arrow that was lying on the roof; he would not be looking out here if he had enough inside. Now is the time to attack.'

Mord spoke: ‘Let's burn him to death inside.'

‘That shall never be,' said Gizur, ‘even if I knew that my life depended on it. But a man as cunning as you're said to be should be able to come up with a plan that works.'

There were ropes lying on the ground, used for securing the buildings.

Mord said, ‘Let's tie these ropes around the ends of the roof beams and tie the other ends to boulders, and then twist the ropes with poles and pull the whole roof frame off the hall.'