The Sagas of the Icelanders

by Smilely, Jane

  34 That autumn when ships arrived in Iceland from Norway, a rumour began to spread that Bjorn had run away with Thora, without her kinsmen’s consent. For this offence, the king had outlawed him from Norway.

  When this news reached Skallagrim, he called Bjorn in and asked about his marriage, whether it had been made with her kinsmen’s consent.

  ‘I did not expect that Brynjolf’s son would not tell me the truth,’ he said.

  Bjorn replied, ‘I have only told you the truth, Grim; you should not criticize me for not telling you more than you asked. But I admit that it is true what you have heard, this match was not made with her brother Thorir’s approval.’

  Then Skallagrim said, very angrily, ‘Why did you have the audacity to come to me? Didn’t you know how close my friendship with Thorir was?’

  Bjorn replied, ‘I knew that you were foster-brothers and dear friends. But the reason I visited you was that my ship was brought ashore here and I knew there was no point in trying to avoid you. My lot is now in your hands, but I expect fair treatment as a guest in your home.’

  Then Thorolf, Skallagrim’s son, came forward and made a long speech imploring his father not to hold this against Bjorn, after welcoming him to his home. Many other people put in a word for him.

  In the end Skallagrim calmed down and said that it was up to Thorolf to decide – ‘You can take care of Bjorn, if you wish, treat him as well as you please.’

  35 Thora gave birth to a daughter that summer. The girl was sprinkled with water and given the name Asgerd. Bera assigned a woman to look after her.

  Bjorn and all his crew spent the winter with Skallagrim. Thorolf sought Bjorn’s friendship and followed him around everywhere.

  One day early in spring, Thorolf spoke to his father and asked him what he planned to do for his winter guest Bjorn, and what help he would provide for him. Skallagrim asked Thorolf what he had in mind.

  ‘I think Bjorn would want to go to Norway above all else,’ said Thorolf, ‘if he could be at peace there. The best course of action would seem to be if you sent messengers to Norway and offered a settlement on Bjorn’s behalf. Thorir will hold your words in great respect.’

  Thorolf was so persuasive that Skallagrim gave in and found men to go abroad that summer. They brought messages and tokens to Thorir Hroaldsson and sought a settlement between him and Bjorn. When Brynjolf heard the message they had brought, he set his mind on offering compensation for his son Bjorn. The matter ended with Thorir accepting a settlement for Bjorn, because he realized that Bjorn had nothing to fear from him under the circumstances. Brynjolf accepted the settlement on Bjorn’s behalf, and Skallagrim’s messengers stayed for the winter with Thorir, while Bjorn spent the winter with Skallagrim.

  The following summer, Skallagrim’s messengers set off back to Iceland. When they returned in the autumn, they reported that a reconciliation had been made for Bjorn in Norway. Bjorn stayed a third winter with Skallagrim, and the following spring he prepared to leave, along with the band of men who had been with him.

  When Bjorn was ready to set off, Bera said that she wanted her foster-daughter Asgerd to remain behind. Bjorn and his wife agreed, and the girl stayed there and was brought up with Skallagrim’s family.

  Thorolf joined Bjorn on the voyage, and Skallagrim equipped him for the journey. He left with Bjorn that summer. They had a smooth passage and left the open sea at Sognefjord. Bjorn sailed into Sognefjord and went to visit his father. Thorolf went with him, and Brynjolf received them warmly.

  Then word was sent to Thorir. He and Brynjolf arranged a meeting, which Bjorn attended too, and they clinched their settlement. Thorir paid the money he had been keeping for Thora, and he and Bjorn became friends as well as kinsmen-in-law. Bjorn stayed at Aurland with Brynjolf, and Thorolf stayed with them too and was well treated.

  36 For the most part, King Harald had his residence at Hordaland or Rogaland, on the estates he owned there at Utsten, Avaldsnes, Fitjar, Aarstad, Lygra or Seim. That particular winter, however, the king was in the north. After spending the winter and spring in Norway, Bjorn and Thorolf prepared their ship, mustered a crew and set off for the summer on Viking raids in the Baltic, coming back in the autumn with great wealth. On their return they heard that King Harald was at Rogaland and would be wintering there. King Harald was growing very old by this time, and many of his sons were fully grown men.

  Eirik, Harald’s son, who was nicknamed Blood-axe, was still young then. He was being fostered by Thorir the Hersir. The king loved Eirik the most of all his sons, and Thorir was on the best of terms with the king.

  Bjorn, Thorolf and their men went to Aurland first after returning to Norway, then set off north to visit Thorir the Hersir in Fjordane. They had a warship which they had acquired while raiding that summer, rowed by twelve or thirteen oarsmen on each side, with almost thirty men on board. It was richly painted above the plumbline, and exceptionally beautiful. When they arrived, Thorir gave them a good welcome and they spent some time there, leaving their ship at anchor with its awnings up, near the farm.

  One day Thorolf and Bjorn went down from the farm to the ship. They could see Eirik, the king’s son, repeatedly boarding the ship, and then going back to land to admire it from there.

  Then Bjorn said to Thorolf, ‘The king’s son seems fascinated by the ship. Ask him to accept it as a gift from you, because I know it will be a great boon to us if Eirik is our spokesman. I have heard that the king is ill-disposed towards you on account of your father.’

  Thorolf said this was a good plan.

  Then they went down to the ship and Thorolf said, ‘You’re looking at the ship very closely, Prince. What do you think of it?’

  ‘I like it,’ he replied. ‘It is a very beautiful ship.’

  ‘Then I would like to give you the ship,’ said Thorolf, ‘if you will accept it.’

  ‘I will accept it,’ said Eirik. ‘You will not think the pledge of my friendship much of a reward for it, but that is likely to be worth more, the longer I live.’

  Thorolf said that he thought such a reward much more valuable than the ship. They parted, and afterwards the prince was very warm towards them.

  Bjorn and Thorolf approached Thorir about whether he thought it was true that the king was ill-disposed towards Thorolf. Thorir did not conceal the fact that he had heard such a thing.

  ‘Then I would like you to go and see the king,’ said Bjorn, ‘and put Thorolf’s case to him, because Thorolf and I will always meet the same fate. That is the way he treated me when I was in Iceland.’

  In the end Thorir promised to visit the king and asked them to try to persuade Eirik to go with him. When Bjorn and Thorolf discussed the matter with Eirik, he promised his assistance in dealing with his father.

  Then Thorolf and Bjorn went on their way to Sognefjord, while Thorir and Prince Eirik manned the warship he had recently been given, and went south to meet the king in Hordaland. He welcomed them warmly. They stayed there for some while, waiting for an opportunity to approach the king when he was in a good mood.

  Then they broached the subject with him, and told him that a man had arrived by the name of Thorolf, Skallagrim’s son: ‘We wanted to ask the king to remember all the good that his kinsmen have rendered to you, but not to make him suffer for what his father did in avenging his brother.’

  Although Thorir spoke diplomatically, the king was somewhat curt in his replies, saying that Kveldulf and his sons posed a great threat to them and he expected this Thorolf to have a similar temperament to his kinsmen.

  ‘All of them are so overbearing they never know when to stop,’ he said, ‘and they pay no heed to whom it is they are dealing with.’

  Then Eirik spoke up and told him how Thorolf had made friends with him and given him a fine present, the ship that they had brought with them: ‘I have promised him my absolute friendship. Few people will make friends with me if this counts for nothing. Surely you would not let this happen, father, to the first man who has
given me something precious.’

  In the end the king promised to leave Thorolf in peace.

  ‘But I do not want him to come to see me,’ he said. ‘You may hold him as dear to you as you wish, Eirik, or any of his kinsmen, but either they will treat you more gently than they have me, or you will regret this favour you ask of me, especially if you allow them to remain with you for any length of time.’

  Then Eirik Blood-axe and Thorir and his men went back to Fjordane, and sent a message to Thorolf about the outcome of their meeting with the king.

  Thorolf and Bjorn spent the winter with Brynjolf. They spent many summers on Viking raids, staying with Brynjolf for some winters and with Thorir for the others.

  37 Eirik Blood-axe came to power and ruled Hordaland and Fjordane. He took men into his service and kept them with him.

  One spring Eirik Blood-axe made preparations for a journey to Permia and chose his men carefully for the expedition. Thorolf joined Eirik and served as his standard-bearer at the prow of his ship. Just like his father had been, Thorolf was outstandingly large and strong.

  Many things of note took place on that journey. Eirik fought a great battle by the river Dvina in Permia and emerged the victor, as the poems about him relate; and on the same journey he married Gunnhild, daughter of Ozur Snout, and brought her back home with him. Gunnhild was outstandingly attractive and wise, and well versed in the magic arts. Thorolf and Gunnhild struck up a close friendship. Thorolf would spend the winters with Eirik, and go on Viking raids in the summer.

  The next thing that happened was that Bjorn’s wife, Thora, fell ill and died. A short time later Bjorn took another wife, Olof, daughter of Erling the Wealthy from Ostero. Bjorn and Olof had a daughter called Gunnhild.

  There was a man called Thorgeir Thorn-foot who lived at Fenring in Hordaland, at the place called Ask. He had three sons; one was named Hadd, another Berg-Onund, and the third Atli the Short. Berg-Onund was uncommonly strong, pushy and troublesome. Atli was short, squarely built and powerful. Thorgeir was very wealthy, made many sacrifices to the gods and was well versed in the magic arts. Hadd went on Viking raids and was rarely at home.

  38 One summer, Thorolf Skallagrimsson made ready to go trading. He planned to go to Iceland and see his father, and did so. He had been away for a long time, and took a great amount of wealth and many precious things with him.

  When he was ready to leave, he went to see King Eirik. At their parting, Eirik presented Thorolf with an axe, saying he wanted Skallagrim to have it. The axe was crescent-shaped, large and inlaid with gold, and its hilt was plated with silver, a splendid piece of work.

  Thorolf set off when his ship was ready, and he had a smooth journey, arriving in Borgarfjord where he went straight to his father’s house. It was a joyful reunion. Skallagrim went with Thorolf to the ship and had it brought ashore, then Thorolf and eleven of his men went to Borg.

  When he was in Skallagrim’s house he passed on King Eirik’s greeting and presented him with the axe that the king had sent. Skallagrim took the axe, held it up and inspected it for a while without speaking, then hung it up above his bed.

  At Borg one day in the autumn, Skallagrim had a large number of oxen driven to his farm to be slaughtered. He had two of them tethered up against the wall, with their heads together, and took a large slab of rock and placed it under their necks. Then he went up to them with his axe King’s Gift and struck one blow at both oxen. It chopped off their heads, but it went right through and struck the stone, and the mount broke completely and the blade shattered. Skallagrim inspected the edge without saying a word, then went into the fire-room, climbed up on a bench and put the axe on the rafters above the door, where it was left that winter.

  In the spring, Thorolf announced that he planned to go abroad that summer.

  Skallagrim tried to discourage him, reminding him that ‘“it is better to ride a whole wagon home”. Certainly you have made an illustrious journey,’ he said, ‘but there’s a saying, “the more journeys you make, the more directions they take”. You can have as much wealth from here as you think you need to show your stature.’

  Thorolf replied that he still wanted to make a journey, ‘and I have some pressing reasons for going. When I come to Iceland for a second time, I will settle down here. Asgerd, your foster-daughter, will go with me to meet her father. He asked me to arrange this when I was leaving Norway.’

  Skallagrim said it was up to him to decide, ‘but I have an intuition that if we part now we will never meet again’.

  Then Thorolf went to his ship and made it ready. When he was fully prepared, they moved the ship out to Digranes and lay there waiting for a favourable wind. Asgerd went on the ship with him.

  Before Thorolf left Borg, Skallagrim went up and took down the axe, the gift from the king, from the rafters above the door. The handle was black with soot and the axe had gone rusty. Skallagrim inspected the edge, then handed it to Thorolf, speaking this verse:

  6. Many flaws lie in the edge

  of the fearsome wound-biter, wound-biter: axe

  I own a feeble tree-feller,

  there is vile treachery in this axe.

  Hand this blunt crescent back

  with its sooty shaft;

  I had no use for it,

  such was the gift from the king.

  39 One summer while Thorolf was abroad and Skallagrim lived at Borg, a trading ship arrived in Borgarfjord from Norway. Trading ships would be given shore-berths then in many places: in rivers or the mouths of streams, or in channels. There was a man named Ketil, whose nickname was Ketil Blund (Snooze), who owned the ship. He was a Norwegian, of a great family and wealthy. His son, Geir, had come of age by then and was on the ship with him. Ketil intended to settle in Iceland; he arrived late in the summer. Skallagrim knew all about his background, and invited Ketil to stay with him, together with all his travelling companions. Ketil accepted the offer, and spent the winter with Skallagrim.

  That winter, Ketil’s son Geir asked for the hand of Thorunn, Skallagrim’s daughter, and the match was settled; he married her. The following spring Skallagrim offered Ketil some land to settle on up from where Oleif had settled, along the river Hvita between the Flokadal and Reykjadal estuaries and all the tongue of land between them as far as Raudsgil, and all the head of Flokadal valley. Ketil lived at Thrandarholt, while Geir lived at Geirshlid and had another farm at Upper Reykir; he was called Geir the Wealthy. His sons were named Blund-Ketil, Thorgeir Blund and Thorodd Hrisablund, who lived at Hrisar.

  40 Skallagrim took a great delight in trials of strength and games, and liked talking about them. Ball games were common in those days, and there were plenty of strong men in the district at this time. None of them could match Skallagrim in strength, even though he was fairly advanced in age by then.

  Thord, Grani’s son from Granastadir, was a promising young man, and was very fond of Egil Skallagrimsson. Egil was a keen wrestler; he was impetuous and quick-tempered, and everyone was aware that they had to teach their sons to give in to him.

  A ball game was arranged early in winter on the plains by the river Hvita, and crowds of people came to it from all over the district. Many of Skallagrim’s men attended, and Thord Granason was their leader. Egil asked Thord if he could go to the game with him; he was in his seventh year then. Thord let him, and seated Egil behind him when he rode there.

  When they reached the games meeting, the players were divided up into teams. A lot of small boys were there as well, and they formed teams to play their own games.

  Egil was paired against a boy called Grim, the son of Hegg from Heggsstadir. Grim was ten or eleven years old, and strong for his age. When they started playing the game, Egil proved to be weaker than Grim, who showed off his strength as much as he could. Egil lost his temper, wielded the bat and struck Grim, who seized him and dashed him to the ground roughly, warning him that he would suffer for it if he did not learn how to behave. When Egil got back on his feet he left the game, and
the boys jeered at him.

  Egil went to see Thord Granason and told him what had happened.

  Thord said, ‘I’ll go with you and we’ll take our revenge.’

  Thord handed Egil an axe he had been holding, a common type of weapon in those days. They walked over to where the boys were playing their game. Grim had caught the ball and was running with the other boys chasing him. Egil ran up to Grim and drove the axe into his head, right through to the brain. Then Egil and Thord walked away to their people. The people from Myrar seized their weapons, and so did the others. Oleif Hjalti rushed to join the people from Borg with his men. Theirs was a much larger group, and at that the two sides parted.

  As a result, a quarrel developed between Oleif and Hegg. They fought a battle at Laxfit by the river Grimsa, where seven men were killed. Hegg received a fatal wound and his brother Kvig died in the battle.

  When Egil returned home, Skallagrim seemed indifferent to what had happened, but Bera said he had the makings of a true Viking when he was old enough to be put in command of warships. Then Egil spoke this verse:

  7. My mother said

  I would be bought

  a boat with fine oars,

  set off with Vikings,

  stand up on the prow,

  command the precious craft,

  then enter port,

  kill a man and another.

  When Egil was twelve, he was so big that few grown men were big and strong enough that he could not beat them at games. In the year that he was twelve, he spent a lot of time taking part in games. Thord Granason was in his twentieth year then, and strong too. That winter Egil and Thord often took sides together in games against Skallagrim.