The Sagas of the Icelanders (93 page)

10
Now we return to Gunnlaug, who left Sweden for England in the same summer as Hrafn went back to Iceland. He received valuable gifts from King Olaf when he left. King Ethelred gave Gunnlaug a very warm welcome. He stayed with the king all winter, and was thought well of.

In those days, the ruler of Denmark was Canute the Great, the son of Svein. He had recently come into his inheritance, and was continually threatening to lead an army against England, since his father, Svein, had gained considerable power in England before his death there in the west. Furthermore, there was a huge army of Danes in Britain at that time. Its leader was Heming, the son of Earl Strut-Harald and the brother of Earl Sigvaldi. Under King Canute, Heming was in charge of the territory which King Svein had previously won.

During the spring, Gunnlaug asked King Ethelred for permission to leave.

‘Since you are my follower,’ he replied, ‘it is not appropriate for you to leave me when such a war threatens England.’

‘That is for you to decide, my lord,’ Gunnlaug replied. ‘But give me permission to leave next summer, if the Danes don’t come.’

‘We’ll see about it then,’ the king answered.

Now that summer and the following winter passed, and the Danes did not come. After midsummer, Gunnlaug obtained the king’s permission to leave, went east to Norway and visited Earl Eirik at Lade in Trondheim The earl gave him a warm welcome this time, and invited him to stay with him. Gunnlaug thanked him for the offer, but said that he wanted to go back. to Iceland first, to visit his intended.

‘All the ships prepared for Iceland are gone now,’ said the earl.

Then a follower said, ‘Hallfred the Troublesome Poet was still anchored out under Agdenes yesterday.’

‘That might still be the case,’ the earl replied. ‘He sailed from here five nights ago.’

Then Earl Eirik had Gunnlaug taken out to Hallfred, who was glad to see him. An offshore breeze began to blow, and they were very cheerful. It was late summer.

‘Have you heard about Hrafn Onundarson’s asking for permission to marry Helga the Fair?’ Hallfred asked Gunnlaug.

Gunnlaug said that he had heard about it, but that he did not know the full story. Hallfred told him everything he knew about it, and added that many people said that Hrafn might well prove to be no less brave than Gunnlaug was. Then Gunnlaug spoke this verse:

Then Hallfred said, ‘You will need to have better dealings with Hrafn than I did. A few years ago, I brought my ship into Leiruvog, south of Mosfell heath. I ought to have paid Hrafn’s farmhand half a mark of silver, but I didn’t give it to him. Hrafn rode over to us with sixty men and cut our mooring ropes, and the ship drifted up on to the mud flats and looked as if it would be wrecked. I ended up granting Hrafn self-judgement, and paid him a mark. That is all I have to say about him.’

From then on, they talked only about Helga. Hallfred heaped much praise on her beauty. Then Gunnlaug spoke:

‘That is well composed,’ Hallfred said.

They came ashore at Hraunhofn on Melrakkasletta a fortnight before winter, and unloaded the ship.

There was a man named Thord, who was the son of the farmer on Melrakkasletta. He was always challenging the merchants at wrestling, and they generally came off worse against him. Then a bout was arranged between him and Gunnlaug, and the night before, Thord called upon Thor to bring him victory. When they met the next day, they began to wrestle.
Gunnlaug swept both Thord’s legs out from under him, and his opponent: fell down hard, but Gunnlaug twisted his own ankle out of joint when he put his weight on that leg, and he fell down with Thord.

‘Maybe your next fight won’t go any better,’ Thord said.

‘What do you mean?’ Gunnlaug asked.

‘I’m talking about the quarrel you’ll be having with Hrafn when he marries Helga the Fair at the Winter Nights. I was there when it was arranged at the Althing this summer.’

Gunnlaug did not reply. Then his foot was bandaged and the joint reset. It was badly swollen.

Hallfred and Gunnlaug rode south with ten other men, and arrived at Gilsbakki in Borgarfjord on the same Saturday evening that the others were sitting down to the wedding feast at Borg. Illugi was glad to see his son Gunnlaug and his companions. Gunnlaug said that he wanted to ride down to Borg there and then, but Illugi said that this was not wise. Everyone else thought so too, except Gunnlaug, but he was incapacitated by his foot although he did not let it show – and so the journey did not take place. In the morning, Hallfred rode home to Hreduvatn in Nordurardal. His brother Galti, who was a splendid fellow, was looking after their property there.

11
Now we turn to Hrafn, who was sitting down to his wedding feast at Borg. Most people say that the bride was rather gloomy. It is true that, as the saying goes, ‘things learned young last longest’, and that was certainly the case with her just then.

It so happened that a man named Sverting, who was the son of Goat-Bjorn, the son of Molda-Gnup, asked for the hand of Hungerd, the daughter of Thorodd and Jofrid. The wedding was to take place up at Skaney later in the winter, after Yule. A relative of Hungerd’s, Thorkel the son of Torfi Valbrandsson, lived at Skaney. Torfi’s mother was Thorodda, the sister of Tunga-Odd.

Hrafn went home to Mosfell with his wife Helga. One morning, when they had been living there for a little while, Helga was lying awake before they got up, but Hrafn was still sleeping. His sleep was rather fitful, and when he woke up, Helga asked him what he had been dreaming about. Then Hrafn spoke this verse:

‘I will never weep over that,’ Helga said. ‘You have all tricked me wickedly. Gunnlaug must have come back.’ And then Helga wept bitterly.

Indeed, a little while later news came of Gunnlaug’s return. After this, Helga grew so intractable towards Hrafn that he could not keep her at home, and so they went back to Borg. Hrafn did not enjoy much intimacy with her.

Now people were making plans for the winter’s other wedding. Thorkel from Skaney invited Illugi the Black and his sons. But while Illugi was getting ready, Gunnlaug sat in the main room and did not make any move towards getting ready himself.

Illugi went up to him and said, ‘Why aren’t you getting ready, son?’ ‘I don’t intend to go,’ Gunnlaug replied.

‘Of course you will go, son,’ Illugi said. ‘And don’t set so much store by yearning for just one woman. Behave as though you haven’t noticed, and you’ll never be short of women.’

Gunnlaug did as his father said, and they went to the feast. Illugi and his sons were given one high seat, and Thorstein Egilsson, his son-in-law Hrafn and the bridegroom’s group had the other one, opposite Illugi. The women were sitting on the cross-bench, and Helga the Fair was next to the bride. She often cast her eyes in Gunnlaug’s direction, and so it was proved that, as the saying goes, ‘if a woman loves a man, her eyes won’t hide it’. Gunnlaug was well turned out, and had on the splendid clothes which King Sigtrygg had given him. He seemed far superior to other men for many reasons, what with his strength, his looks and his figure.

People did not particularly enjoy the wedding feast. On the same day as the men were getting ready to leave, the women started to break up their party, too, and began getting themselves ready for the journey home. Gunnlaug went to talk to Helga, and they chatted for a long time. Then Gunnlaug spoke this verse:

And then Gunnlaug gave Helga the cloak Ethelred had given him, which was very splendid. She thanked him sincerely for the gift.

Then Gunnlaug went outside. By now, mares and stallions – many of them fine animals – had been led into the yard, saddled up and tethered there. Gunnlaug leapt on to one of the stallions and rode at a gallop across the hayfield to where Hrafn was standing. Hrafn had to duck out of his way.

‘There’s no need to duck, Hrafn,’ Gunnlaug said, ‘because I don’t mean to do you any harm at the moment, though you know what you deserve.’

Hrafn answered with this verse:

‘There may well be a lot of women,’ Gunnlaug replied, ‘but it doesn’t look that way to me.’

Then Illugi and Thorstein ran over to them, and would not let them fight each other. Gunnlaug spoke a verse:

After that, both parties went home, and nothing worth mentioning happened all winter. Hrafn never again enjoyed intimacy with Helga after she and Gunnlaug had met once more.

That summer, people made their way to the Althing in large groups: Illugi the Black took his sons Gunnlaug and Hermund with him; Thorstein Egilsson took his son Kollsvein; Onund from Mosfell took all his sons; and Sverting the son of Goat-Bjorn also went. Skafti was still Lawspeaker then.

One day during the Althing, when people were thronging to the Law Rock and the legal business was done, Gunnlaug demanded a hearing and said, ‘Is Hrafn Onundarson here?’

Hrafn said that he was.

Then Gunnlaug Serpent-tongue said, ‘You know that you have married my intended and have drawn yourself into enmity with me because of it. Now I challenge you to a duel to take place here at the Althing in three days’ time on Oxararholm (Axe River Island).’

‘That’s a fine-sounding challenge,’ Hrafn replied, ‘as might be expected from you. Whenever you like – I’m quite ready for it!’

Both sets of relatives were upset by this, but, in those days, the law said that anyone who felt he’d received underhand treatment from someone else could challenge him to a duel.

Now when the three days were up, they got themselves ready for the duel. Illugi the Black went to the island with his son, along with a large body of men; and Skafti the Lawspeaker went with Hrafn, as did his father and other relatives. Before Gunnlaug went out on to the island, he spoke this verse:

Hermund held his brother Gunnlaug’s shield for him; and Sverting, Goat-Bjorn’s son, held Hrafn’s. Whoever was wounded was to pay three marks of silver to release himself from the duel. Hrafn was to strike the first blow, since he had been challenged. He hacked at the top of Gunnlaug’s; shield, and the blow was so mightily struck that the sword promptly broke off below the hilt. The point of the sword glanced up and caught Gunnlaug on the cheek, scratching him slightly. Straight away, their fathers, along with several other people, ran between them.

Then Gunnlaug said, ‘I submit that Hrafn is defeated, because he is weaponless.’

‘And I submit that you are defeated,’ Hrafn replied, ‘because you have been wounded.’

Gunnlaug got very angry and said, all in a rage, that the matter had not been resolved. Then his father, Illugi, said that there should not be any more resolving for the moment.

‘Next time Hrafn and I meet, Father,’ Gunnlaug said, ‘I should like you to be too far away to separate us.’

With that they parted for the time being, and everyone went back to their booths.

Now the following day, it was laid down as law by the Law Council that all duelling should be permanently abolished. This was done on the advice of all the wisest men at the Althing, and all the wisest men in Iceland were there. Thus the duel which Hrafn and Gunnlaug fought was the last one ever to take place in Iceland. This was one of the three most-crowded Althings of all time, the others being the one after the burning of Njal and the one following the Slayings on the Heath.

One morning, when the brothers Hermund and Gunnlaug were on their way to the Oxara river to wash themselves, several women were going to its opposite bank. Helga the Fair was one of them.

Then Hermund asked Gunnlaug, ‘Can you see your girlfriend Helga on the other side of the river?’

‘Of course I can see her,’ Gunnlaug replied. And then he spoke this verse:

Then they went across the river, and Helga and Gunnlaug chatted for a while. When they went back eastwards across the river, Helga stood and stared at Gunnlaug for a long time. Then Gunnlaug looked back across the river and spoke this verse: