Njal's Saga (49 page)

Earl Sigurd had a hard fight with Kerthjalfad. Kerthjalfad came on so fiercely that he killed everybody in his way. He cut his way through Earl Sigurd's ranks right up to the banner and killed the banner-bearer. The earl then found another man to carry the banner. The battle became fierce again. Kerthjalfad dealt this man a death blow, and then those around him, one after the other.

Earl Sigurd asked Thorstein Hallsson to carry the banner. Thorstein was ready to take it.

Then Amundi the White said, ‘Don't carry the banner – everybody who does gets killed.'

‘Hrafn the Red,' said the earl, ‘you carry the banner.'

‘Carry that devil of yours yourself,' answered Hrafn.

The earl said, ‘Then it's best that the beggar and his bag go together,' and he took the banner off the pole and stuck it between his clothes. A little later, Amundi the White was killed. Then the earl was pierced through by a spear.

Ospak had fought his way through the whole flank of the army. He was badly wounded and both of Brian's sons were dead. King Sigtrygg fled before him. Then his whole force broke into flight. Thorstein Hallsson stopped to tie his shoe-string while the others were fleeing. Kerthjalfad asked him why he wasn't running away.

‘Because I can't reach home tonight,' said Thorstein – ‘my home's out in Iceland.'

Kerthjalfad spared him.

Hrafn the Red was chased out into a river and there he thought he saw Hell down below and devils trying to drag him down to them.

He spoke: ‘This dog of yours has run twice to Rome, Apostle Peter, and would run there a third time if you let him.'

Then the devils turned him loose, and he got across the river.

Brodir saw that King Brian's forces were chasing the fugitives and that there were only a few men at the shield wall. He ran out of the woods and cut his way through the shield wall and swung at the king. The boy Tadk brought his arm up against it, but the blow cut off the arm and the king's head too, and the king's blood fell on the stump of the boy's arm, and the stump healed at once.

Then Brodir called loudly, ‘Let word go from man to man – Brodir killed Brian.'

They ran after those who were chasing the fugitives and told them of the fall of King Brian. Ulf Hraeda and Kerthjalfad turned back at once and formed a circle around Brodir and his men and hemmed them in with branches; Brodir was then taken prisoner. Ulf Hraeda cut open his belly and led him around an oak tree and in this way pulled out his intestines. Brodir did not die until they were all pulled out of him.
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All of Brodir's men were killed too.

Then they took King Brian's body and laid it out; the king's head had grown back on the trunk.

Fifteen of the burners fell at Brian's battle. Halldor Gudmundarson and Erling of Stroma also fell there.

On the morning of Good Friday, in Caithness, this happened: a man named Dorrud walked outside and saw twelve people riding together to a women's room, and then they disappeared inside. He went up to the room and looked in through a window that was there and saw that there were women inside and that they had set up a loom. Men's heads were used for weights, men's intestines for the weft and warp, a sword for the sword beater, and an arrow for the pin beater. The women spoke these verses:
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23.(1.)
A wide warp
warns of slaughter;
blood rains
from the beam's cloud.                                                                         
beam's cloud:
                                                   the threads hanging from the crossbeam on a loom
A spear-grey fabric                                                       
spear-grey fabric:
battle ranks
is being spun,
which the friends
of Randver's slayer                                    
Randver
: son of Ermanric (fourth century),
                                                                            hanged or killed by Odin himself;                                               
                                                                                    
friends
of his
slayer
: valkyries
will fill out
with a red weft.

(2.)
The warp is woven
with warriors' guts,
and heavily weighted
with the heads of men.
Spears serve as heddle rods,
spattered with blood;
iron-bound is the shed rod,
and arrows are the pin beaters;
we will beat with swords
our battle web.

(3.)
Hild sets to weaving,                                                      [the names are of valkyries]
and Hjorthrimul
and Sanngrid and Svipul,
with swords drawn.
Shafts will splinter,
shields shatter;
the dog of helmets                                                                    
dog of helmets:
sword
devours shields.

(4.)
We wind and wind                     [image refers to winding up the woven fabric on the loom beam]
the web of spears                                                                                           
web of spears:
battle
which the young king                                                                                      
young king
: Sigtrygg
has carried on before.
Let us go forth
amongst the fighters
when our dear ones
deal out blows.

(5.)
We wind and wind
the web of spears,
and then stand by
our stalwart king.
Gunn and Gondul,
who guarded the king,
saw the bloody shields
of the brave men.

(6.)
We wind and wind
the web of spears,
there where the banners
of bold men go forth;
we must not let
his life be lost –
valkyries decide
who dies or lives.

(7.)
The men who inhabited                                               
men:
the Vikings
the outer headlands
will now be leaders
in the lands.
I declare the mighty king                                           
mighty king:
Brian
doomed to death.
The earl has fallen                                
earl
: perhaps Sigurd Hlodvisson
in the face of the spears.

(8.)
And the Irish will
endure an evil time
which will never lessen
as long as men live.
Now the web is woven
and the war-place reddened;
the lands will learn
of the loss of men.

(9.)
Now it is gruesome
to gaze around,
as blood-red clouds
cover the sky;
the heavens will be garish
with the gore of men
while the slaughter-wardens                                               
slaughter-wardens:
valkyries
sing their song.

(10.)
Our pronouncement was good
for the young prince;                                                                  
young prince:
Sigtrygg
sound of mind
we sing victory songs.
May he who listens
learn from this
the tones of spear-women                                                          
spear-women:
valkyries
and tell them to men.

(11.)
Let us ride swiftly
on our saddle-less horses
hence from here,
with swords in hand.

The women then pulled down the cloth and tore it to pieces, and each of them kept the piece she was holding in her hand.

Dorrud then went away from the window and back home, and the women climbed on their horses and rode away, six to the south and six to the north.

A similar event occurred to Brand Gneistason in the Faroe Islands.

At Svinafell in Iceland blood appeared on the priest's cope on Good Friday, and he had to take it off.

At Thvotta river on Good Friday a priest thought he saw a deep sea next to the altar, and he saw many terrifying sights in it, and it was a long time before he was able to sing mass again.

In Orkney this happened: Harek thought he saw Earl Sigurd together with some other men. Harek took his horse and rode to meet the earl, and people saw them come together and ride behind a hill. They were never seen again, and no trace of Harek was ever found.

Earl Gilli in the Hebrides dreamed that a man came to him and gave his name as Herfinn, and said he had come from Ireland. The earl asked him for news, and Herfinn spoke this:

24.
When swords screamed in Ireland
and men struggled, I was there;
many a weapon was shattered
when shields met in battle.
The attack, I hear, was daring;
Sigurd died in the din of helmets                                               
din of helmets:
battle
after making bloody wounds;
Brian fell too, but won.

Flosi and the earl talked at length about this dream.

A week later Hrafn the Red came to them and told them all about Brian's battle, about the death of the king and Earl Sigurd and Brodir and all the Vikings.

Flosi spoke: ‘What can you tell me about my men?'

‘They all died there,' said Hrafn, ‘except for your brother-in-law Thorstein, but he was spared by Kerthjalfad and is now with him. Halldor Gudmundarson died.'

Flosi told the earl that he was going away – ‘we have to make our pilgrimage to Rome.'

The earl told him to go as he wished and gave him a ship and whatever else they needed, and much silver. Then they sailed to Wales and stayed there a while.

To turn now to Kari: he told Skeggi that he wanted him to find him a ship, and Skeggi gave him a fully manned longship. Then Kari and David and Kolbein went aboard. They sailed south along the Scottish fjords. There they met men from the Hebrides. They told Kari what had happened in Ireland, and also that Flosi and his men had gone to Wales. When Kari heard this he told his companions that he wanted to go south to Wales and find them. He asked that those who wanted to part company with him should do so; he would not deceive anyone about the fact that he considered his sorrows to be still unavenged. All his men chose to stay with him. He then sailed south to Wales and they pulled into a sheltered inlet.

That morning Kol Thorsteinsson went into the town to buy silver. He had the most vicious tongue of all the burners. Kol had spent much time with a wealthy woman, and it was all but fixed that he would marry her and settle there.

That morning Kari went into town, too. He came to the place where Kol was counting the silver. Kari recognized him. He rushed at him with drawn sword and struck at his neck, but Kol was still counting silver and his head uttered the number ten as it flew from the body.

Kari spoke: ‘Tell Flosi that Kari Solmundarson has killed Kol Thorsteinsson. I give notice that I did the slaying.'

Then he went to his ship and told his companions about the slaying. They sailed back north to Berwick and pulled the ship ashore and went to Whitbury in Scotland and spent that winter with Earl Melkolf.

To turn now to Flosi: he went and took the body of Kol and laid it out and spent much money on his burial. Flosi never spoke harshly of Kari. From there he sailed south across the Channel and then began his pilgrimage and walked south and did not stop until he came to Rome. There he was treated with such great honour that he received absolution from the Pope himself, and he gave much money for that.

He returned by the eastern route
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and stopped in many towns and presented himself to powerful men and received honours from them. He spent the following winter in Norway and received from Earl Eirik a ship for the journey to Iceland. The earl also gave him much flour, and many other men showed him honour.

Then he sailed to Iceland and landed at Hornafjord. From there he went home to Svinafell. He had then fulfilled all his part in the settlement, both the exile and the payments.

To tell now about Kari: the following summer he went to his ship and sailed south across the Channel and began his pilgrimage in Normandy and walked south and received absolution and returned by the western route
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and took over his ship in Normandy and sailed north across the Channel to Dover in England. From there he sailed west to Wales and then north along the coast of Wales and on to the Scottish firths, and did not stop his journey until
he came to Skeggi, at Freswick in Caithness. Then he turned the cargo vessel over to Kolbein and David. Kolbein sailed this ship to Norway, while David stayed behind on Fair Isle.

Kari spent that winter at Caithness. During the winter his wife died in Iceland.

The next summer Kari prepared to go to Iceland. Skeggi gave him a cargo vessel, and there were eighteen of them on board. They finished their preparations late, but put out to sea. They had a long passage, but at last they reached the promontory Ingolfshofdi, and there the ship was shattered into pieces; their lives, however, were spared.

The snow was falling thickly. Kari's men asked him what they were to do, and he said that it was his plan to go to Svinafell and put Flosi's magnanimity to the test. They walked to Svinafell through the snowstorm.

Flosi was in the main room. He recognized Kari at once and jumped up to meet him and kissed him, and then placed him in the high seat by his side. He invited Kari to stay there for the winter. Kari accepted.