The Last Samurai (45 page)

Njal’s Saga
was a bit hard in places but not too hard. The aerodynamics was a real killer. I read a couple of pages but I wasn’t in the mood. Nothing happened in the house.

I went back to
Njal’s Saga
. Snorri said that their own lawsuits were going badly, but he promised not to take sides against the Njalssons or support their enemies. He said:

‘Hverr er sá maðr, er fjórir ganga fyrir, f
lleitr ok skarpleitr ok glottir við t
nn ok hefir øxi reidda um
xl?’

‘
Who is that man, fifth in the line, the pale, sharp-featured man with a grin on his face and an axe on his shoulder?
’

‘Heðinn heiti ek,’ segir hann, ‘en sumir kalla mik Skarpheðinn
llu nafni, eða hvat vilt
ú fleira til mín tala?’

‘
My name is Hedin,’ he replied, ‘but some call me Skarp-Hedin in full. Have you anything else to say to me?
’

Snorri maelti: ‘
at at mér,
ykki maðr harðligr ok mikilfengligr, en
ó get ek, at
rotin sé nú
ín en mesta gæfa, ok skamt get ek eptir
innar æfi.’

‘
I think you look very ruthless and formidable,’ said Snorri, ‘but my guess is that you have exhausted your store of good luck, and that you have not long to live.
’

The Asgrimssons went from booth to booth with mixed success and each time someone said there is just one thing I’d like to know, who is that ill-starred looking man the fifth in line and each time Skarp-Hedin said something insulting with predictable results. It was quite different from Homer or from Malory because it was very plain but I still rather liked it. There was a glossary in Gordon and some grammatical tips so it was not too bad on the whole.

I read a few more pages and then I read
The Count of Monte Cristo
for a couple of hours and went home.

I went back the next day and I read three pages of aerodynamics but I wasn’t in the mood. Then I read some more of
Njal’s Saga
.

At about 12:30 he passed by a window on the ground floor eating a sandwich. I had four peanut butter and jam sandwiches and two banana and Marmite sandwiches and a bag of crisps in my backpack. I ate one of the sandwiches and then read
The Count of Monte Cristo
. Nothing else happened in the house.

I let two days go by. It was raining hard and cold. Then the weather cleared. I went back to sit on the wall. I had three peanut butter and jam sandwiches, one peanut butter and honey sandwich and a bottle of Ribena.

It started to rain again, so I walked back to the Circle Line and spent the rest of the day reading
The Count of Monte Cristo
. I could have worked on aerodynamics but I wasn’t in the mood.

Third week of May, typical English cold snap. 283 degrees above absolute zero. I went to the house just to look at it. I saw him talking to the woman in an upstairs room but I couldn’t hear what they were saying. I made myself sit reading on the wall just in case I ever had to go to the North Pole.

My teeth started chattering. Magnusson seemed to have used a different text from the one Sibylla had given me; I thought I could work out the extra bits. Then I remembered I wasn’t going to be going to the North Pole. There was nothing going on in the house. I went back to the Circle Line and ate my sandwiches.