The Sagas of the Icelanders

by Smilely, Jane

  And then another:

  33. I brought down one of them

  before warriors wounded me,

  I fed his corpse to the blood-hawk. blood-hawk: raven

  My sword’s edge swung and cut

  its way through his thighs

  slicing his legs in twain.

  His sudden fall beneath me

  added to my greater glory.

  Now autumn drew near, but Gisli’s dreams did not ease; indeed, they grew more frequent. One night, after he had slept badly, Aud asked him again what had appeared to him. Gisli spoke a verse:

  34. I felt my life’s blood run

  down both my sides.

  I had to bear that bravely.

  Goddess decked in gold,

  these are the dreams

  that trouble my sleep.

  I am an outlaw to most men;

  only arrow-storms await me. arrow-storms: battle

  And then he spoke another:

  35. I felt my blood spilled

  over my arched shoulders

  by a corpse-net’s wielder

  with his sharp sword.

  Bearer of golden rings, bearer of golden rings: woman, Gisli’s wife

  my hopes of life were meagre

  from that raven-feeder’s fury; raven-feeder: warrior

  herb-goddess, such was my solace. herb-goddess: woman

  And then another:

  36. I felt the troll-guard’s shakers troll-guard: shield; its shakers: warriors

  shear off both my hands

  with their armour-piercers.

  I was mortally wounded.

  Then I felt the edge slice

  my helmet-stump and split it. helmet-stump: head

  Thread-goddess, weapons wielded

  gaped above my head.

  And yet again:

  37. I felt, as I slept, that above me

  stood a woman with silver headband.

  Her brow was wet, the eyes

  of that bonnet-goddess were weeping. bonnet-goddess: woman

  And that wave of gold-fire wave of gold-fire: woman

  soon bound up my wounds.

  What message, think you,

  has this dream for me?

  34 Gisli stayed home that summer, and all was quiet. Then, on the last night of summer, Gisli could not sleep and neither could the other two, Aud and Gudrid.

  It was the kind of weather where the air is very still, but there was also a heavy frost. Then Gisli said he wanted to leave the house and head south to his hideout under the ridge, to see if he could get some sleep there. All three of them went. The women were wearing tunics and they trailed along in the frozen dew. Gisli had a piece of wood, on which he scored runes, and as he did so the shavings fell to the ground.

  They arrived at the hideout and Gisli lay down to see if he could sleep, while the women stayed awake. A heavy drowsiness came upon him and he dreamed that some loon birds, larger than cock ptarmigans, came to the house. They screamed horribly and had been wallowing in blood and gore.

  Then Aud asked what he dreamed.

  ‘Yet again, my dreams were not good,’ said Gisli, and he spoke a verse:

  38. When we parted, flaxen goddess, flaxen goddess: woman (Gisli’s wife)

  my ears rang with a sound

  from my blood-hall’s realm blood-hall: heart; its realm: the mind

  – and I poured the dwarf’s brew. poured the dwarf’s brew: made a verse

  I, maker of the sword’s voice, maker of the sword’s voice: warrior

  heard two loon birds fighting

  and I knew that soon the dew

  of bows would be descending. dew of bows: showers of arrows, battle

  At the same moment, they heard men’s voices – Eyjolf had arrived with fourteen others. They had been to the farmhouse and seen the trail in the frozen dew, as if it was pointing the way. When Gisli and the two women became aware of the intruders, they climbed up on to the ridge where their vantage point was the best. Each of the women held a large club. Eyjolf and the others had come to the bottom of the ridge.

  Then Eyjolf said to Gisli, ‘I advise you to retreat no farther. Don’t have yourself chased like a coward. You are said to have great courage. We have not met too often, but I’d prefer this encounter to be our last.’

  Gisli answered him, ‘Then attack like a man, and you may be sure I will retreat no farther. And you should lead the attack, since you bear a greater grudge than the men who come with you.’

  ‘I won’t have you decide,’ said Eyjolf, ‘how I deploy my men.’

  ‘It comes as no surprise,’ said Gisli, ‘that a coward such as you would not dare to cross weapons with me.’

  Then Eyjolf said to Helgi the Spy, ‘You would win great acclaim if you were the first to climb the ridge and attack Gisli – a deed of heroism that would long be remembered.’

  ‘I’ve often noticed,’ said Helgi, ‘that you usually want other people in front of you when there’s any danger. Since you urge me so profoundly, I’ll attempt it, but you must show enough courage to come with me and keep close behind – that is, if you’re not a completely toothless bitch.’

  Helgi found what seemed the best way up, and he carried a large axe in his hand. Gisli was also armed with an axe, and had a sword and shield at his side. He wore a grey cloak, which he had tied with a cord. Helgi made a sudden dash and ran up the slope at Gisli. Gisli turned and swung his sword, striking Helgi in the loins and cutting him asunder so that both halves of his body fell back off the edge of the ridge. Eyjolf made his way up in a different place, where he was confronted by Aud, and she struck him with her club so hard on the arm that it took away all his strength, and he staggered back down.

  Then Gisli said, ‘I knew long ago that I had married well, but never realized till now that the match was as good as this. Yet the help you gave me now was less than you wished or than you intended, even though the blow was good, for I might have dispatched them both in the same way.’

  35 Then two men went to grab hold of Aud and Gudrid, but found the task was not so easy. Twelve men went for Gisli, and made their way up on to the ridge. He fought them off with rocks and weapons so well that his stand became famous.

  Then one of Eyjolf’s companions ran up to Gisli and said, ‘Lay down your fine weapons and give them all to me – and give me your wife, Aud, too.’

  Gisli answered him, ‘Then show your courage, because neither befits you – neither my weapons nor my wife.’

  The man thrust out at Gisli with a spear, and Gisli struck back, shearing the head from the shaft. But the blow was so fierce that his axe smashed against the rocky ground and the blade broke off. He threw it down and took up his sword instead, fighting on and guarding himself with his shield.

  Then they launched a spirited attack, but Gisli defended himself well and with great courage. It was a hard and closely fought fight in which Gisli slew two more men, bringing the tally now to four.

  Eyjolf ordered them to attack as boldly as they could.

  ‘We’re having a hard time of it,’ he said, ‘but that will not matter if we are rewarded for our efforts.’

  Then, when it was least expected, Gisli turned around and ran from the ridge up on to the crag known as Einhamar. There, he faced them and defended himself. This caught them completely off-guard, and they felt their position had worsened considerably. Four of them were dead, and the rest were wounded and weary, so they held off their attack for a while. Then Eyjolf urged them on harder than ever, promising them substantial reward if they defeated Gisli. Eyjolf had with him a group of men of outstanding strength and hardiness.

  36 A man named Svein was the first to attack Gisli, but Gisli struck at him, cleft him through the shoulder blades and threw him off the edge of the crag. The others began to wonder where this man’s capacity for slaughter was going to end.

  Then Gisli said to Eyjolf, ‘May the three hundred pieces of silver that you have received for my life be dearly earned, and may
you wish that you had added another three hundred for us never to have met. On your head will fall the shame for this great slaughter.’

  They looked for a plan – none among them would flee to save his own life. So they went at him in two flanks, and heading the attack with Eyjolf were two of his kinsmen, Thorir and Thord. Both were excellent fighters. The battle was fierce and they succeeded in wounding Gisli in several places with their spears, but he defended himself with great courage and strength, and they faced such an onslaught of rocks and powerful blows that none escaped being wounded. When Gisli struck out he never missed. Now Eyjolf and his kinsmen saw that their names and their honour were at stake, and they attacked harder than ever, thrusting at him with their spears until his guts spilled out. Gisli gathered them up together in his shirt and bound them underneath with the cord.

  Then he told them to hold off a while. ‘The end you wanted will come,’ he said.

  Then he spoke a verse:

  39. Goddess of golden rain,

  who gives me great joy,

  may boldly hear report

  of her friend’s brave stand.

  I greet the sword’s honed edge

  that bites into my flesh,

  knowing that this courage

  was given me by my father.

  This was Gisli’s last verse. As soon as he had spoken it, he jumped off the crag and drove his sword into the head of Eyjolf’s kinsman, Thord, and split him down to the waist. In doing so, Gisli fell down on top of him and breathed his last.

  Everyone in Eyjolf’s party was badly wounded, and Gisli had died with so many and such great wounds that it was an amazement to all. They say that he never once retreated, and as far as anyone could see his last blow was no weaker than his first.

  Thus Gisli’s life came to an end, and although he was deemed a man of great prowess, fortune was not always with him.

  The men dragged his body down and took his sword from him. Then they covered him over with stones and went down to the sea. Then a sixth man died on the shore. Eyjolf invited Aud to accompany him, but she did not want to go. After that, Eyjolf and the remaining men returned to Otradal, and that same night a seventh man died. An eighth died after being bedridden with his wounds for a year, and although the other wounded men recovered they gained nothing but dishonour.

  And it is said everywhere that no man in this land had ever been known to put up a greater stand than Gisli.

  37 Eyjolf set out from his home with eleven men and went south to meet Bork the Stout. He told him the news and gave a full account of what h had happened. Bork was greatly pleased by this, and he asked Thordis to give Eyjolf a warm welcome.

  ‘Remember,’ he said, ‘the great love you bore my brother Thorgrim and treat Eyjolf well.’

  ‘I weep for my brother Gisli,’ said Thordis. ‘Would not a good bowl of porridge be warm enough a welcome for Eyjolf?’

  And later in the evening, when she brought in the food, she deliberately dropped a tray of spoons. Eyjolf had laid Gisli’s sword between the bench and his feet, and Thordis recognized it. When she bent down to pick up the spoons, she grabbed the sword by the hilt and thrust out at Eyjolf, meaning to strike him in the guts. But she had not noticed that the end of the hilt was turned upwards, and it caught against the table. She had struck him lower than she intended, hit him in the thigh and wounded him sorely.

  Bork grabbed hold of Thordis and wrenched the sword away from her, and the others all jumped to their feet and overturned the tables and the food. Bork left it in Eyjolf’s hands to decide the penalty for this deed, and he claimed full compensation – the same as was imposed for slaying a man – and said he would have demanded more if Bork had handled this matter less fittingly.

  Then Thordis named witnesses and declared herself divorced from Bork, saying that she would never again share his bed – and she stood by her word. She left and went to live at Thordisarstadir, out at Eyri. Bork, however, remained at Helgafell until Snorri the Godi drove him out. After that he went to live at Glerarskogar. Eyjolf went home and was greatly displeased with his visit.

  38 Vestein’s sons went to Gest Oddleifsson, their kinsman, and urged him to use his power to get them out of the country along with their mother Gunnhild, Gisli’s wife Aud, Ingjald’s daughter Gudrid and Geirmund her brother. They all went to the Hvita river and Gest paid for their passage abroad.

  They were only at sea for a short time before they reached Norway. Berg and the other two men walked around town and tried to find a place to lodge. They met two men, one of whom was a young, well-built lad, dressed in fine red clothes. He asked Berg his name, and Berg told him his true identity and kin since he expected to gain more by using his father’s name. The man in red pulled out his sword and dealt Berg a death-blow on the spot. He was Ari Sursson, brother to Gisli and Thorkel.

  Berg’s companions went back to the ship and told what had happened, and the skipper helped them escape, finding a place for Helgi* on board a ship bound for Greenland. Helgi arrived in that country, became prosperous and was held in great esteem there. Some men were sent out to kill him, but nothing came of it. He eventually died on a hunting expedition, and this was considered a great loss.

  Aud and Gunnhild went to Hedeby in Denmark, took the Christian faith and then went on a pilgrimage to Rome. They never returned.

  Geirmund remained in Norway, married and prospered there. Gudrid, his sister, also married and was thought to be a woman of wisdom. Many can be counted as her descendants.

  Ari Sursson went to Iceland and came ashore at Hvita river. He sold his ship and bought himself some land at Hamar, where he lived for several years. After that he lived in several other places in Myrar, and had many descendants.

  And here ends the saga of Gisli Sursson.

  Translated by MARTIN S. REGAL

  THE SAGA OF GUNNLAUG SERPENT-TONGUE

  Gunnlaugs saga ormstungu

  Time of action: 990–1010

  Time of writing: 1270–1300

  The Saga of Gunnlaug Serpent-tongue tells of two poets, Gunnlaug and Hrafn, who compete for the love of Helga the Fair, Egil Skallagrimsson’s granddaughter. This love-triangle, a well-known theme from medieval European romances such as the Tristan story, is firmly set in familiar saga terms in west Iceland and at the courts of kings, not only in mainland Scandinavia but also in the Viking realms of the British Isles and in England, from the end of the tenth to the early eleventh centuries.

  The saga opens with a prophetic dream about a two eagles who fight to the death over a beautiful swan (the still unborn Helga), prefiguring the plot. Prophetic devices are not uncommon in other sagas (for example, Gudrun’s dream in The Saga of the People of Laxardat) and show that it is not the events in themselves which are important, but rather characters’ reactions to the inevitable situations in which they find themselves. In the same way that events appear first in prophecy and later in reality, the poets do battle twice, first in verse and later with cold steel. In its central section, the saga sends Gunnlaug on a grand tour of royal courts (see map) and establishes a tension between the formality of the court poet’s high position and Gunnlaug’s own restless temperament and ambiguous motivations. He has a gift for enshrining immortal praise in verse, but can also be malicious and provocative in his dealings with others. Significantly, he begins his journey by insulting Earl Eirik in Norway, and ends it in reconciliation with him, as if he has achieved a degree of mature self-control, but in the meantime he has brought personal tragedy upon himself, when he reluctantly accepts honour with King Ethelred instead of returning to Iceland to claim Helga as his bride.

  Fate is a strong presence throughout the saga. There always seems to be a noble motive which sets the course towards tragedy at the points in the plot where events could have taken a different turn. Helga’s mother Jofrid refuses to leave the new-born girl to die of exposure at birth; King Ethelred shows his poet great honour by making him stay longer, even though this delay costs Gunnlaug Helga’s ha
nd; and Gunnlaug has already fatally wounded Hrafn when he succumbs to trickery, removes his helmet to fetch water and allows himself to be struck a mortal blow. The characterization is straightforward and clear-cut, and in places it approaches heroic and tragic stereotypes, but the fast pace of the plot and the intensity with which the action is recounted keep the reader engaged.

  Written around 1300 and preserved complete in a manuscript dated shortly afterwards (Holm perg. 18 4to, 1300–1350), the saga gives an interesting insight into ideas then about the profession of the court poet in the ‘golden age’. It is translated by Katrina C. Attwood from Islendinga sögur II (Reykjavik 1987).

  THE CAREER OF A COURT POET

  Gunnlaug Serpent-tongue travels to the courts of kings and earls, praising them in verse and earning personal renown and fortune as a poet (see map overleaf). From the sagas we know that Icelanders enjoyed special status throughout the Viking world (and among English kings) for their poetic skills; in effect they were the nation’s first professional authors. The tradition continued well beyond the Saga Age, even though the Norwegian kings had increasing trouble in understanding the ancient idiom in which their praises were sung. Both Snorri Sturluson and his nephew Sturla Thordarson went to Norway and delivered poetic eulogies there in the thirteenth century.

  Travels of Gunnlaug Serpent-tongue

  i. Gunnlaug lived with his father and grandfather in west Iceland until the age of eighteen. Before going abroad, he was promised the hand of Helga the Fair. (Ch. 4)

  2. Gunnlaug visits Earl Eirik at Lade (the earl ruled Norway with his brother Svein 1000–14. When Gunnlaug says he is eighteen years old, the earl comments that he’ll not survive another eighteen. Gunnlaug replies with an insult, and is banished. (Ch. 6)