Gisli Sursson's Saga and The Saga of the People of Eyri

by Martin Regal

  Now Vestein rode out from home, and it turned out that as he rode below the sandbank at Mosvellir, the two brothers, Hallvard and Havard, rode above it. Thus he and they missed each other in passing.

  12 There was a man named Thorvard who lived at Holt. His farmhands had been arguing about some task and had struck each other with scythes, so that both were wounded. Vestein came by and had them settle their differences so that they were both satisfied. Then he rode on to Dyrafjord with his two Norwegian companions.

  Hallvard and Havard reached Hest and learned where Vestein was actually heading. They rode after him as fast as they could and when they reached Mosvellir, they could see men riding down in the valley but there was a hill between them. They rode into Bjarnardal and when they reached Arnkelsbrekka both their horses gave out. They took to their feet and began to shout. Vestein and his companions had reached the Gemlufall heath before they heard the men shouting, but they waited there for Hallvard and Havard who conveyed Gisli’s message and presented him with the coin which Gisli had sent him.

  Vestein took a coin from the purse which hung from his belt and turned very red in the face.

  ‘What you say is true,’ he said. ‘I would have turned back if you had met me sooner, but now all waters flow towards Dyrafjord and that is where I will ride. Indeed, I am eager to do so. The Norwegians will turn back, but you two will go by boat,’ said Vestein, ‘and tell Gisli and my sister that I am on my way to them.’

  They went home and told Gisli what had happened, and he answered: ‘Then this is the way it has to be.’

  Vestein went to see his kinswoman, Luta, at Gemlufall and she had him ferried across the fjord.

  ‘Vestein,’ she said to him, ‘be on your guard. You will have need to be.’

  He was ferried across to Thingeyri. A man called Thorvald Gneisti (Spark) lived there. Vestein went to his house and Thorvald lent him his horse. Then he rode out with his own saddle gear and had bells on his bridle. Thorvald accompanied him as far as Sandar estuary and offered to go with him all the way to Gisli’s. Vestein told him that was not necessary.

  ‘Much has changed in Haukadal,’ said Thorvald. ‘Be on your guard.’

  Then they parted.

  Vestein rode onward until he reached Haukadal. There was not a cloud in the sky and the moon shone. At Thorgrim and Thorkel’s farm, Geirmund and a woman named Rannveig were bringing in the cattle. Rannveig put them in stalls after Geirmund drove them inside to her. At that moment, Vestein rode by and met Geirmund.

  Geirmund spoke, ‘Don’t stop here at Saebol. Go on to Gisli’s. And be on your guard.’

  Rannveig came out of the byre, looked at the man closely and thought she recognized him. And when all the cattle were inside, she and Geirmund began to argue about who the man was as they made their way to the farmhouse. Thorgrim was sitting by the fire with the others, and he asked what they were quarrelling about and whether they had seen or met anyone.

  ‘I thought I saw Vestein stop by,’ said Rannveig. ‘He was wearing a black cloak, held a spear in his hand and had bells on his bridle.’

  ‘And what do you say, Geirmund?’ asked Thorgrim.

  ‘I couldn’t see very well, but I think he was one of Onund’s farmhands from Medaldal, wearing Gisli’s cloak. He had Onund’s saddle gear and carried a fishing spear with something dangling from it.’

  ‘Now one of you is lying,’ said Thorgrim. ‘Rannveig, you go over to Hol and find out what’s going on.’

  Rannveig went there, and arrived at the door just as the men had started drinking. Gisli was standing in the doorway. He greeted her and invited her inside. She told him that she had to get back home, but ‘I would like to meet the young girl, Gudrid.’

  Gisli called to the girl, but there was no response.

  ‘Where is your wife, Aud?’ asked Rannveig.

  ‘She is here,’ said Gisli.

  Aud came out and asked what Rannveig wanted. Rannveig said that it was only a trivial matter, but got no further. Gisli told her either to come inside or go home. She left and looked even more foolish than before – if that were possible – and she had no news to tell.

  The following morning Vestein had the two bags of goods brought to him which the brothers, Hallvard and Havard, had brought back with them. He took out a tapestry15 sixty ells long and a head-dress made from a piece of cloth some twenty ells long with three gold strands woven along its length, and three finger bowls worked with gold. He brought these out as gifts for his sister, for Gisli and for his sworn brother, Thorkel16 – should he want to accept them. Gisli went with Thorkel the Wealthy and Thorkel Eiriksson to Saebol to tell his brother that Vestein had come and that he had brought gifts for both of them. Gisli showed him the gifts and asked his brother to choose what he wanted.

  Thorkel answered, ‘It would be better if you took them all. I don’t want to accept these gifts – I cannot see how they will be repaid.’

  And he was determined not to accept them. Gisli went home and felt that everything was pointing in one direction.

  13 Then something unusual happened at Hol. Gisli slept unsoundly for two successive nights and people asked him what he had dreamed. He did not want to tell them. On the third night, after everyone was fast asleep in bed, such a heavy gust of wind hit the house that it took off all the roofing on one side. At the same time, the heavens opened and rain fell like never before. Naturally, it poured into the house where the roof had split.

  Gisli sprang to his feet and rallied his men to cover the hay. There was a slave at Gisli’s house named Thord, known as the Coward. He stayed home while Gisli and almost all his men went out to attend to the haystacks. Vestein offered to go with them but Gisli did not want him to. And then, when the house began to leak badly, Vestein and Aud moved their beds lengthways down the room. Everyone else except these two had deserted the house.

  Just before daybreak, someone entered the house without a sound and walked over to where Vestein was lying. He was already awake but before he knew what was happening, a spear was thrust at him and went right through his breast.

  As Vestein took the blow, he spoke: ‘Struck there,’ he said.

  Then the man left. Vestein tried to stand up, but as he did so he fell down beside the bedpost, dead. Aud awoke and called out to Thord the Coward and asked him to remove the weapon from the wound. At that time, whoever drew a weapon from a death wound was obliged to take revenge, and when a weapon was thus left in the fatal wound it was called secret manslaughter rather than murder.17 Thord was so frightened of corpses that he dared not come near the body.

  Then Gisli came in, saw what was happening and told Thord to calm down. He took the spear from the wound himself and threw it, still covered in blood, into a trunk so that no one might see it, then sat down on the edge of the bed. Then he had Vestein’s body made ready for burial according to the custom in those days. Vestein’s death was a great sorrow both to Gisli and the others.

  Then Gisli said to his foster-daughter, Gudrid, ‘Go to Saebol and find out what they are up to there. I’m sending you because I trust you best in this as in other matters. Make sure you tell me what they are doing.’

  Gudrid left and arrived at Saebol. Both the Thorgrims and Thorkel had arisen and sat fully armed. When she came in no one hurried to greet her. Indeed, most of them said nothing at all. Thorgrim, though, asked her what news she brought and she told them of Vestein’s death, or murder.

  Thorkel answered, ‘There was a time when we would have regarded that as news indeed.’

  ‘A man has died,’ said Thorgrim, ‘to whom we must all pay our respects by honouring his funeral and by making a burial mound for him. There’s no denying that this is a great loss. Tell Gisli we will come there today.’

  She went home and told Gisli that Thorgrim sat fully armed with helmet and sword, that Thorgrim Nef had a wood-axe in his hand and that Thorkel had a sword which was drawn a hand’s breadth – ‘all the men there were risen from their beds, some of t
hem were armed’.

  ‘That was to be expected,’ said Gisli.

  14 Gisli and all his men prepared to build a mound for Vestein in the sandbank that stood on the far side of Seftjorn pond below Saebol.

  And while Gisli was on his way there, Thorgrim set out for the burial place with a large group of men.

  When they had decked out Vestein’s body according to the ways of the time, Thorgrim went to Gisli and said, ‘It is a custom to tie Hel-shoes18 to the men that they may wear them on their journey to Valhalla, and I will do that for Vestein.’

  And when he had done this, he said, ‘If these come loose then I don’t know how to bind Hel-shoes.’

  After this they sat down beside the mound and talked together. They thought it highly unlikely that anyone would know who committed the crime.

  Thorkel asked Gisli, ‘How is Aud taking her brother’s death? Does she weep much?’

  ‘It seems you know quite well,’ said Gisli. ‘She shows little and suffers greatly.’ Then he said, ‘I dreamed a dream the night before last and last night too, and though my dreams indicate who did the slaying, I will not say. I dreamed the first night that a viper wriggled out from a certain farm and stung Vestein to death, and, on the second night, I dreamed that a wolf ran out from the same farm and bit Vestein to death.19 I have not told either dream until now because I did not want them to come true.’

  And he spoke a verse:

  4.

  Better, I believed,

  to remember Vestein

  gladdened with mead

  where we sat drinking

  in Sigurhadd’s hall,

  and none came between us,

  than to wake a third time

  from so dark a dream.

  Then Thorkel asked, ‘How is Aud taking her brother’s death? Does she weep much?’

  ‘You keep asking this, brother,’ said Gisli. ‘You are very curious to know.’

  Gisli spoke this verse:

  5.

  In secret, bowed beneath

  the cover of her bonnet,

  she, goddess of gold, goddess of gold: woman

  lacks solace of sound sleep.

  From both kindly eyes

  and down her cheeks

  flows the dew of distress dew of distress: tears

  for a brother lost forever.

  And again he spoke a verse:

  6.

  Like a stream fast flowing,

  sorrow, the death of laughter,

  through the brow’s white woods, brow’s white woods: eyelashes

  forces tears down into her lap.

  The snake-lair’s goddess, snake-lair: bed of gold; its goddess:

  her weeping eyes swollen woman

  with bitter fruit, looks to me,

  Rognir of praise, for consolation. Rögnir (Odin’s) of praise: poet

  After that, the two brothers went home together.

  Then Thorkel said, ‘These are sad tidings and you will bear them with greater grief than we, but each man has to look out for himself, and I hope you don’t let this affect you so much that people begin to suspect anything. I would like to have the games begin again and things to be as good as they have ever been between us.’

  ‘That is well spoken, and I will gladly comply,’ said Gisli, ‘but on one condition – if anything takes place in your life that pains you as badly as this pains me, you must promise to behave in the same manner as you now ask of me.’

  Thorkel agreed to this. Then they went home and Vestein’s funeral feast was held. When it was over, everyone went back to his own home and all was quiet again.

  15 The games now started up as if nothing had happened. Gisli and his brother-in-law, Thorgrim, usually played against each other. There was some disagreement as to who was the stronger, but most people thought it was Gisli. They played a ball game20 at Seftjorn pond and there was always a large crowd.

  One day, when the gathering was even larger than usual, Gisli suggested that the game be evenly matched.

  ‘That’s exactly what we want,’ said Thorkel. ‘What’s more, we don’t want you to hold back against Thorgrim. Word is going around that you are not giving your all. I’d be pleased to see you honoured if you are the stronger.’

  ‘We have not been fully proven against each other yet,’ said Gisli, ‘but perhaps it’s leading up to that.’

  They started the game and Thorgrim was outmatched. Gisli brought him down and the ball went out of play. Then Gisli went for the ball, but Thorgrim held him back and stopped him from getting it. Then Gisli tackled Thorgrim so hard that he could do nothing to stop falling. His knuckles were grazed, blood rushed from his nose and the flesh was scraped from his knees. Thorgrim rose very slowly, looked towards Vestein’s burial mound, and said:

  7.

  Spear screeched in his wound

  sorely – I cannot be sorry.

  Running, Gisli took the ball and pitched it between Thorgrim’s shoulder-blades. The blow pushed him flat on his face. Then Gisli said:

  8.

  Ball smashed his shoulders

  broadly – I cannot be sorry.

  Thorkel sprang to his feet and said, ‘It’s clear who is the strongest and the most highly accomplished. Now, let’s put an end to this.’

  And so they did. The games drew to a close, summer wore on, and there was a growing coldness between Thorgrim and Gisli.

  Thorgrim decided to hold a feast at the end of autumn to celebrate the coming of the Winter Nights. There was to be a sacrifice to Frey,21 and he invited his brother, Bork, Eyjolf Thordarson22 and many other men of distinction. Gisli also prepared a feast and invited his relatives from Arnarfjord, as well as the two Thorkels, Thorkel the Wealthy and Thorkel Eiriksson. No fewer than sixty people were expected to arrive. There was to be drinking at both places, and the floor at Saebol was strewn with rushes from Seftjorn pond.

  Thorgrim and Thorkel were getting their preparations under way and were about to hang up some tapestries in the house because the guests were expected that evening.

  Thorgrim said to Thorkel, ‘It would be a fine thing now to have those tapestries that Vestein wanted to give to you. It seems to me there’s quite a difference between owning them outright and never having them at all. I wish you’d have them sent for.’

  Thorkel answered, ‘A wise man does all things in moderation. I will not have them sent for.’

  ‘Then I will do it,’ said Thorgrim, and he asked Geirmund to go.

  Geirmund answered him, ‘I don’t mind working, but I have no desire to go over there.’

  Then Thorgrim went up to him, slapped his face hard and said, ‘Go now then, if that makes you feel any better about it.’

  ‘I’ll go,’ said Geirmund, ‘though it seems worse. But you may be certain that I will give a mare for this foal, and you will not be underpaid.’23

  Then he left. When he reached Gisli’s house, Gisli and Aud were about to hang up the tapestries. Geirmund told them why he was sent and all that had been said.

  ‘Do you want to lend the tapestries, Aud?’ asked Gisli.

  ‘You know that I would have neither this nor any other good befall them, nor indeed anything that would add to their honour. That is not why you asked me.’

  ‘Was this my brother Thorkel’s wish?’ asked Gisli.

  ‘He approved of my coming for them.’

  ‘That is reason enough,’ said Gisli, and he went with Geirmund part of the way and then handed over the tapestries.

  Gisli walked as far as the hayfield wall with him and said, ‘Now this is how things stand – I believe that I have made your journey worthwhile, and I want your help in a matter that concerns me. A gift always looks to be repaid. I want you to unbolt three of the doors tonight. Remember how you came to be sent on this errand.’

  Geirmund answered, ‘Will your brother Thorkel be in any danger?’

  ‘None at all,’ said Gisli.

  ‘Then it will be done,’ said Geirmund.

 
When he returned home he threw down the tapestries, and Thorkel said, ‘There is no one like Gisli when it comes to forbearance. He has outdone us here.’

  ‘This is what we needed,’ said Thorgrim, and he put up the tapestries.

  Later that evening the guests arrived and the sky began to thicken. In the still of the night the snow drifted down and covered all the paths.

  16 That evening Bork and Eyjolf arrived with sixty men, so that there were one hundred and twenty all told at Saebol and half as many at Gisli’s. Later they began to drink and after that they all went to bed and slept.

  Gisli said to his wife, ‘I have not fed Thorkel the Wealthy’s horse. Walk with me and bolt the door, but stay awake while I am gone. When I come back, unbolt the door again.’

  He took the spear, Grasida, from the trunk and, wearing a black cloak,24 a shirt and linen underbreeches, he walked down to the stream that ran between the two farms and that was the water source for both. He took the path to the stream, then waded through it until he reached the path that led to Saebol. Gisli knew the layout of the farmstead at Saebol because he had built it. There was a door that led into the house from the byre, and that is where he entered. Thirty head of cattle stood on each side. He tied the bulls’ tails together and closed the byre door, then made sure that the door could not be opened from the inside. After that he went to the farmhouse. Geirmund had done his work – the doors were unbolted. Gisli walked in and closed them again, just as they had been that evening. He took his time doing this, then stood still and listened to see whether anyone was awake. He discovered that they were all asleep.

  Lights were burning in three places in the house. He picked up some rushes from the floor, twisted them together, then threw them at one of the lights. It went out. He waited to see whether this had wakened anyone and found that it had not. Then he picked up another bundle of rushes and threw it at the next light, putting that out too. Then he noticed that not everyone was asleep. He saw the hand of a young man reach for the third light, take down the lamp-holder and snuff the flame.