Egil asked where Arinbjorn’s house was in the town; he was told, and rode to it. When he reached the house, he dismounted and spoke to someone who told him that Arinbjorn was sitting at table.
Egil said, ‘I would like you to go into the hall, my good man, and ask Arinbjorn whether he would prefer to talk to Egil Skallagrimsson indoors or outside.’
The man said, ‘It’s not much bother for me to do that.’
He went into the hall and said in a loud voice, ‘There’s a man outside, as huge as a troll. He asked me to come in and ask whether you would prefer to talk to Egil Skallagrimsson indoors or outside.’
Arinbjorn replied, ‘Go and ask him to wait outside. He won’t need to wait for long.’
He did as Arinbjorn said, went out and told Egil what he had said.
Arinbjorn ordered the tables to be cleared, then went outside with all the people from his household. He greeted Egil and asked him why he had come.
Egil gave him a brief account of the highlights of his journey – ‘And now you will decide what I should do, if you want to help me in any way.’
‘Did you meet anyone in town who may have recognized you before you came to the house?’ asked Arinbjorn.
‘No one,’ said Egil.
‘Then take up your arms, men,’ said Arinbjorn.
They did so. And when Egil, Arinbjorn and all his men were armed, they went to the king’s residence. When they reached the hall, Arinbjorn knocked on the door and asked to be let in, after identifying himself. The guards opened the door at once. The king was sitting at table.
Arinbjorn said twelve men would go inside, and nominated Egil and ten others.
‘Egil, now you must go and offer the king your head and embrace his foot. I will present your case to him.’
Then they went inside. Arinbjorn went up to the king and greeted him. The king welcomed him and asked what he wanted.
Arinbjorn said, ‘I have brought someone here who has travelled a long way to visit you and wants to make a reconciliation with you. It is a great honour for you, my lord, when your enemies come to see you voluntarily from other countries, feeling that they cannot live with your wrath even in your absence. Please treat this man nobly. Make fair reconciliation with him for the great honour he has shown you by crossing many great seas and treacherous paths far from his home. He had no motivation to make the journey other than goodwill towards you, because he could well spare himself from your anger in Iceland.’
Then the king looked around and saw over the heads of the other men that Egil was standing there. The king recognized him at once, glared at him and said, ‘Why are you so bold as to dare to come to see me, Egil? We parted on such bad terms the last time that you had no hope of my sparing your life.’
Then Egil went up to the table and took the king’s foot in his hand. He spoke a verse:
33. I have travelled on the sea-god’s steed sea-god’s steed: ship
a long and turbulent wave-path
to visit the one who sits
in command of the English land.
In great boldness, the shaker shaker of the wound-flaming
of the wound-flaming sword sword: warrior (Egil)
has met the mainstay
of King Harald’s line.
King Eirik said, ‘I have no need to enumerate all the wrongs you have done. They are so great and so numerous that any one of them would suffice to warrant your never leaving here alive. You cannot expect anything but to die here. You should have known in advance that you would not be granted any reconciliation with me.’
Gunnhild said, ‘Why not have Egil killed at once? Don’t you remember, King, what Egil has done to you: killed your friends and kinsmen and even your own son, and heaped scorn upon your own person. Where would anyone dare to treat royalty in such a way?’
‘If Egil has spoken badly of the king,’ Arinbjorn said, ‘he can make recompense with words of praise that will live for ever.’
Gunnhild said, ‘We do not want to hear his praise. Have Egil taken outside and executed, King. I neither want to hear his words nor see him.’
Then Arinbjorn replied, ‘The king will not be urged to do all your scornful biddings. He will not have Egil killed by night, because killing at night is murder.’
The king said, ‘Let it be as you ask, Arinbjorn: Egil will live tonight. Take him home with you and bring him back to me in the morning.’
Arinbjorn thanked the king for his words: ‘I hope that Egil’s affairs will take a turn for the better in future, my lord. But much as Egil may have wronged you, you should consider the losses he has suffered at the hands of your kinsmen. Your father King Harald had his uncle Thorolf, a fine man, put to death solely on the grounds of slander by evil men. You broke the law against Egil yourself, King, in favour of Berg-Onund, and moreover you wanted him put to death, and you killed his men and stole all his wealth. And then you declared him an outlaw and drove him out of the country. Egil is not the sort of man to stand being provoked. Every case should be judged in light of the circumstances,’ Arinbjorn said. ‘I will take Egil home to my house now.’
This was done. When the two men reached the house they went up to one of the garrets to talk things over.
Arinbjorn said, ‘The king was furious, but his temper seemed to calm down a little towards the end. Fortune alone will determine what comes of this. I know that Gunnhild will do her utmost to spoil things for you. My advice is for you to stay awake all night and make a poem in praise of King Eirik. I feel a drapa of twenty stanzas would be appropriate, and you could deliver it when we go to see the king tomorrow. Your kinsman Bragi did that when he incurred the wrath of King Bjorn of Sweden: he spent the whole night composing a drapa of twenty stanzas in his praise, and kept his head as a reward. We might be fortunate enough in our dealings with the king for this to make a reconciliation between you and him.’
Egil said, ‘I will follow the advice you offer, but I would never have imagined I would ever make a poem in praise of King Eirik.’
Arinbjorn asked him to try, then went off to his men. They sat up drinking until the middle of the night. Arinbjorn and the others went off to their sleeping quarters, and before he got undressed, he went up to the garret to Egil and asked how the poem was coming along.
Egil said he hadn’t composed a thing: ‘A swallow has been sitting at the window twittering all night, and I haven’t had a moment’s peace.’
Arinbjorn went out through the door that led to the roof. He sat down near the attic window where the bird had been sitting, and saw a shape-shifter in the form of a bird leaving the other side of the house. Arinbjorn sat there all night, until daybreak. Once Arinbjorn was there, Egil composed the whole poem and memorized it, so that he could recite it to him when he met him the next morning. Then they kept watch until it was time to meet the king.
61 King Eirik went to table as usual with a lot of people. When Arinbjorn noticed this, he took all his men, fully armed, to the hall when the king was sitting down to dine. Arinbjorn asked to be let in to the hall and was allowed to enter. He and Egil went in, with half their men. The other half waited outside the door.
Arinbjorn greeted the king, who welcomed him.
‘Egil is here, my lord,’ he said. ‘He has not tried to escape during the night. We would like to know what his lot will be. I expect you to show us favour. I have acted as you deserve, sparing nothing in word and deed to enhance your renown. I have relinquished all the possessions and kinsmen and friends that I had in Norway to follow you, while all your other landholders turned their backs on you. I feel you deserved this from me, because you have treated me outstandingly in many ways.’
Then Gunnhild said, ‘Stop going on about that, Arinbjorn. You have treated King Eirik well in many ways, and he has rewarded you in full. You owe much more to the king than to Egil. You cannot ask for Egil to be sent away from King Eirik unpunished, after all the wrongs he has done him.’
Arinbjorn said, ‘If you and Gunnhild
have decided for yourselves, King, that Egil will not be granted any reconciliation here, the noble course of action is to allow him a week’s grace to get away, since he came here of his own accord and expected a peaceful reception. After that, may your dealings follow their own course.’
Gunnhild replied, ‘I can tell from all this that you are more loyal to Egil than to King Eirik, Arinbjorn. If Egil is given a week to ride away from here in peace, he will have time to reach King Athelstan. And Eirik can’t ignore the fact that every king is more powerful than himself now, even though not long ago King Eirik would have seemed unlikely to lack the will and character to take vengeance for what he has suffered from the likes of Egil.’
‘No one will think Eirik any the greater for killing a foreign farmer’s son who has given himself into his hands,’ said Arinbjorn. ‘If it is reputation that he is seeking, I can help him make this episode truly memorable, because Egil and I intend to stand by each other. Everyone will have to face the two of us together. The king will pay a dear price for Egil’s life by killing us all, me and my men as well. I would have expected more from you than to choose to see me dead rather than to grant me the life of one man when I ask you for it.’
Then the king said, ‘You are staking a great deal to help Egil, Arinbjorn. I am reluctant to cause harm to you if it should come to this, that you prefer to lose your own life than to see him killed. But Egil has done me plenty of wrong, whatever I may decide to do with him.’
When the king had finished speaking, Egil went before him and delivered his poem, reciting it in a loud voice, and everyone fell silent at once:
1. West over water I fared,
bearing poetry’s waves to the shore waves: i.e. the mead of poetry
of the war-god’s heart; war-god: Odin, also the god of poetry
my course was set.
I launched my oaken craft
at the breaking of ice,
loaded my cargo of praise
aboard my longboat aft.
2. The warrior welcomed me,
to him my praise is due.
I carry Odin’s mead
to England’s meadows.
The leader I laud,
sing surely his praise;
I ask to be heard,
an ode I can devise.
3. Consider, lord –
well it will befit –
how I recite
if my poem is heard.
Most men have learned
of the king’s battle deeds
and the war-god saw
corpses strewn on the field.
4. The clash of swords roared
on the edge of shields,
battle grew around the king,
fierce he ventured forth.
The blood-river raced,
the din was heard then
of metal showered in battle,
the most in that land.
5. The web of spears
did not stray from their course
above the king’s
bright rows of shields.
The shore groaned,
pounded by the flood
of blood, resounded
under the banners’ march.
6. In the mud men lay
when spears rained down.
Eirik that day
won great renown.
7. Still I will tell
if you pay me heed,
more I have heard
of those famous deeds.
Wounds grew the more
when the king stepped in,
swords smashed
on the shields’ black rims.
8. Swords clashed, battle-sun battle-sun, whetstone’s saddle: sword
and whetstone’s saddle;
the wound-digger bit
with its venomous point.
I heard they were felled
Odin’s forest of oaks, forest of oaks: men
by scabbard-icicles scabbard-icicles: swords
in the play of iron.
9. Blades made play
and swords bore down.
Eirik that day
won great renown.
10. Ravens flocked
to the reddened sword,
spears plucked lives
and gory shafts sped.
The scourge of Scots
fed the wolves that trolls ride, wolves: (in myth seen as ridden by trollwomen)
Loki’s daughter, Hel,
trod the eagle’s food. eagle’s food: corpses
11. Battle-cranes swooped
over heaps of dead,
wound-birds did not want
for blood to gulp.
The wolf gobbled flesh,
the raven daubed
the prow of its beak
in waves of red.
12. The troll’s wolfish steed troll’s… steed: wolf
met a match for its greed.
Eirik fed flesh
to the wolf afresh.
13. The battle-maiden keeps
the swordsman awake
when the ship’s wall
of shields breaks.
Shafts sang
and points stung,
flaxen strings shot
arrows from bows.
14. Flying spears bit,
the peace was rent;
wolves took heart
at the taut elm bow.
The war-wise king fended
a deadly blow,
the yew-bow twanged
in the battle’s fray.
15. Like bees, arrows flew
from his drawn bow of yew.
Eirik fed flesh
to the wolf afresh.
16. Yet more I desire
that men realize
his generous nature;
I urge on my praise.
He throws gold river-flame river-flame: gold
but holds his lands
in his hand like a vice,
he is worthy of praise.
17. By the fistful he gives
the fire of the arm. fire of the arm: gold
Never sparing rings’ lives never sparing rings’ lives: i.e. throwing them away, being generous
he gives riches no rest,
hands gold out like sand
from the hawk’s coast. hawks coast: wrist
Fleets take cheer
from the grindings of dwarfs. grindings of dwarfs: gold
18. The maker of war
sheds beds for spears beds for spears: shields
from his gold-laden arm,
he spreads brooches afar.
I speak from the heart:
Everywhere he is grand,
Eirik’s feats were heard
on the east-lying shore.
19. King, bear in mind
how my ode is wrought,
I take delight
in the hearing I gained.
Through my lips I stirred
from the depths of my heart
Odin’s sea of verse
about the craftsman of war.
20. I bore the king’s praise
into the silent void,
my words I tailor
to the company.
From the seat of my laughter seat of laughter: mind
I lauded the warrior
and it came to pass
that most understood.
62 King Eirik sat upright and glared at Egil while he was reciting the poem. When it was over, the king said, ‘The poem was well delivered. Arinbjorn, I have thought about the outcome of my dealings with Egil. You have presented Egil’s case so fervently that you were even prepared to enter into conflict with me. For your sake, I will do as you have asked and let Egil leave, safe and unharmed. You, Egil, will arrange things so that the moment you leave this room, neither I nor my sons will ever set eyes upon you again. Never cross my path nor my men’s. I am letting you keep your head for the time being. Since you put yourself into my hands, I do not want to commit a base deed
against you. But you can be sure that this is not a reconciliation with me or my sons, nor any of my kinsmen who wants to seek justice.’
Then Egil spoke a verse:
34. Ugly as my head may be,
the cliff my helmet rests upon,
I am not loathe
to accept it from the king.
Where is the man who ever
received a finer gift
from a noble-minded
son of a great ruler? great ruler: King Harald Fair-hair
Arinbjorn thanked the king eloquently for the honour and friendship he had shown him. Then Arinbjorn and Egil rode back to his house. Arinbjorn had horses made ready for his men, then with one hundred of them, all fully armed, he rode off with Egil. Arinbjorn rode with the party until they reached King Athelstan, who welcomed them. The king invited Egil to stay with him for as long as he wished and be in great honour, and asked how he had got on with King Eirik.
Then Egil spoke a verse:
35. That niggard with justice, maker
of blood-waves for ravens,
The Sagas of the Icelanders Page 22