Njal's Saga

by AnonYMous

  To tell now about Earl Sigurd: he invited Earl Gilli of the Hebrides, his brother-in-law, for a visit; Gilli was married to Sigurd’s sister Hvarflod. A king also came there, named Sigtrygg, from Ireland. He was the son of Olaf Kvaran, and his mother’s name was Kormlod. She was a very beautiful woman, but her best qualities were those over which she had no control, and it was commonly said that her character was evil insofar as she had control over it.

  Brian was the name of the king to whom she had been married, but they were divorced. He was the best of all kings; he had his seat at Kincora.1 His brother was Ulf Hraeda, a mighty champion and warrior. Brian had a foster-son named Kerthjalfad. He was the son of King Kylfir, who had fought many battles against King Brian and then fled the country and became a monk. When King Brian made a pilgrimage to Rome he met King Kylfir, and they were reconciled. King Brian then adopted his son Kerthjalfad, and he loved him more than his own sons. Kerthjalfad was grown up at this point in the story and was the boldest of men.

  Dungad was the name of one of Brian’s sons; another was Margad and the third Tadk – we call him Tann; he was the youngest. The two older sons of King Brian were fully grown and the bravest of men.2 Kormlod was not the mother of Brian’s children. She had become so spiteful towards him after their divorce that she wanted very much to see him dead.

  King Brian pardoned outlaws three times for the same crime, but if they did it again he let them be dealt with according to law, and from this it can be seen what sort of king he was.

  Kormlod pressed her son Sigtrygg hard to kill King Brian. She sent him to Earl Sigurd to ask for help in this. Sigtrygg arrived in Orkney before Christmas. Earl Gilli had come there too, as was written above.

  The seating was arranged so that the king sat in the middle on a high seat, with one of the earls on each side. Sigtrygg and Gilli’s men sat on the inner side, and on Earl Sigurd’s side, towards the entrance, sat Flosi and Thorstein Hallsson. The hall was full.

  King Sigtrygg and Earl Gilli wanted to hear about everything that had happened at the burning and also about what had happened since. Gunnar Lambason was called on to tell the story, and a chair was set up for him to sit on.

  155

  To tell now about Kari and David and Kolbein: they came unnoticed to Mainland and went ashore at once, while a few men guarded their ship. They walked up to the earl’s residence and came to the hall at drinking time. It happened that Gunnar was telling his story just then, and Kari and his companions listened to him from outside. It was Christmas Day.

  King Sigtrygg asked, ‘How did Skarphedin bear up during the burning?’

  ‘Very well, to begin with,’ said Gunnar, ‘but by the end he was weeping’

  He slanted his whole account and lied about many details. Kari could not stand this; he rushed in with his sword drawn and spoke this verse:

  22.

  Men bold of battle

  boast of the burning of Njal,

  but have you heard

  how we harried them?

  Those givers of gold givers of gold: men (the burners)

  had a good return:

  ravens feasted

  on their raw flesh.

  Then he rushed along the hall and struck Gunnar Lambason on the neck; the head came off so fast that it flew onto the table in front of the king and the earls. The tables and the clothing of the earls were all covered in blood.1

  Earl Sigurd recognized the man who had done the killing and spoke: ‘Seize Kari and kill him.’

  Kari had been one of the earl’s followers and was extremely well liked by everyone. No one rose, in spite of what the earl had said.

  Kari spoke: ‘Many men would say, lord, that I did this deed for you, to avenge one of your followers.’2

  Flosi spoke: ‘Kari did not do this without reason. He has not made peace with us, and he did what he had to do.’

  Kari walked away, and he was not pursued. He went with his companions to his ship. The weather was good. They sailed south to Caithness and went ashore at Freswick to a worthy man named Skeggi and stayed with him a long time.

  To tell now about Orkney: they cleaned off the tables and carried out the dead body. The earl was told that Kari had sailed south to Scotland.

  King Sigtrygg spoke: ‘That was a rugged fellow, who acted so daringly and didn’t look to the consequences.’

  Earl Sigurd answered, ‘There’s no man like Kari for bravery’

  Flosi then took over and told the story of the burning; he spoke fairly of everybody, and his account was trusted.3

  King Sigtrygg then brought up the purpose of his visit with Earl Sigurd and asked him to join him in battle against King Brian. The earl held back for a long time, but eventually agreed on one condition: that he marry Sigtrygg’s mother and then become king of Ireland if they killed Brian. Everyone tried to prevent Sigurd from joining them, but without avail. So they parted on these terms: Earl Sigurd promised to take part in the expedition, and King Sigtrygg promised him his mother and the kingdom.4 It was arranged that Earl Sigurd would come to Dublin with all his army on Palm Sunday.

  Sigtrygg then went south to Ireland and told his mother that the earl was joining them, and also what he had promised in return. She showed pleasure at this, but said that they would have to gather much more support. Sigtrygg asked where that might come from.

  Kormlod answered, ‘There are two Vikings lying off the Isle of Man, with thirty ships, and they are so fierce that no one can withstand them. One is called Ospak, and the other Brodir.5 Go find them, and spare nothing to make them join you, whatever they ask.’

  Sigtrygg went to look for the Vikings and found them off Man. He brought up the purpose of his trip at once, but Brodir held back all support until King Sigtrygg offered him the kingdom and his mother. But this was to be kept quiet so that Earl Sigurd would not hear of it. Brodir too was to come to Dublin by Palm Sunday.

  Sigtrygg went back and told his mother.

  After that Brodir and Ospak talked together. Brodir told Ospak all that he and Sigtrygg had said and asked him to join him in battle against King Brian; he said that there was much at stake. Ospak said he did not want to fight against such a good king. They both became angry and divided their forces: Ospak had ten ships, and Brodir twenty.

  Ospak was a heathen and the wisest of men. He drew up his ships inside the sound, and Brodir was at the outside. Brodir had been a Christian and an ordained deacon, but he had cast aside the faith and become a renegade and sacrificed to heathen spirits and was very skilled in sorcery. He had armour which no steel could bite. He was both big and strong and had such long hair that he tucked it under his belt; it was black.

  156

  It happened one night that a great noise broke out above Brodir and his men, so that they all awoke and sprang up and put on their clothes. Along with the noise a rain of boiling blood came down on them. They protected themselves with shields, but many men were scalded. This wonder lasted until daybreak. On each ship one man died. Then they slept during the day.

  The next night the noise came again, and again they all sprang up. Swords leaped out of their sheaths, and axes and spears flew up in the air and fought. The weapons attacked the men so hard that they had to protect themselves, but many were wounded, and on each ship one man died. This wonder lasted until daybreak. Again they slept the following day.

  The third night the noise came as before. Ravens flew at the men, and it seemed that their beaks and claws were of iron. The ravens attacked them hard, but they defended themselves with swords and protected themselves with shields. This went on until daybreak. Again one man died from each ship. Again they slept for a time.

  When Brodir awoke he drew a heavy breath and told his men to get a boat and said he wanted to see his foster-brother Ospak. He and some of his men stepped into the boat. When he came to Ospak he told him of all the wonders that had appeared to him, and asked him to tell him what they meant. Ospak would not tell him until he made a pledge of peace with
him. Brodir promised him peace, and yet Ospak delayed until nightfall, because Brodir never killed at night.

  Then Ospak spoke: ‘When blood rained down on you, it meant that you will shed the blood of many men, both your own blood and that of others. When you heard a great noise, it meant that you will witness the breaking-up of the world – you will all die soon. When weapons attacked you, it meant you will be in a battle. When ravens attacked you, it meant that the fiends whom you trusted will drag you down to the torments of hell.’

  Brodir was so angry that he was not able to speak and went back at once to his men and had them block the sound with his ships and fasten them to the shore with ropes and planned to kill Ospak and all his men in the morning.

  Ospak saw all their preparations. Then he vowed to accept Christianity and go to King Brian and stay with him until death. He devised the plan of covering all his ships and poling them along the shore and cutting the ropes of Brodir’s ships, and those ships then drifted into each other while the men slept.

  Ospak and his men sailed out of the fjord and then west towards Ireland and did not stop until they came to Kincora. Ospak told King Brian everything that he had found out and took baptism from him and placed himself in his hands.

  King Brian then gathered men from all over his realm, and this army was to come to Dublin in the week before Palm Sunday.

  157

  Earl Sigurd Hlodvisson prepared to sail from Orkney. Flosi offered to go with him, but the earl would not have that, because Flosi still had to make his pilgrimage to Rome. Flosi offered fifteen of his men for the expedition, and the earl accepted this, while Flosi went with Earl Gilli to the Hebrides.

  Thorstein Hallsson went along with Earl Sigurd, together with Hrafn the Red and Erling of Stroma. The earl did not want Harek to come along, but said he would be the first to be told what happened.1

  The earl came with all his army to Dublin on Palm Sunday. Brodir had already arrived with his men. Brodir tried through sorcery to find out how the battle would go, and the prediction was that if the battle were fought on Good Friday, Brian would be killed but have the victory, and if they fought before Good Friday, all those who were against Brian would be killed. Then Brodir said that they should not fight before Friday.

  On Thursday a man rode up to them on an apple-grey horse, with a throwing-spear in his hand. He spoke at length with Brodir and Kormlod.

  King Brian had already brought all his army to the town. On Friday the army came out of the town, and both sides drew themselves up for battle. Brodir was on one flank, and King Sigtrygg on the other. Earl Sigurd was in the centre.2

  As for King Brian, he did not want to fight on Friday, and so a shield wall was thrown up around him and the army was drawn up in front of him. Ulf Hraeda was on the flank facing Brodir, and on the other flank were Ospak and the sons of King Brian, facing Sigtrygg, and in the centre was Kerthjalfad, and in front of him the banners were being carried.

  The ranks went at each other. The fighting was very fierce. Brodir went through the enemy force and killed everybody who was in his way, and no steel could bite him. But then Ulf Hraeda came up against him and thrust at him three times so hard that Brodir fell down each time and could scarcely get back on his feet. When he finally picked himself up he fled into the woods.

  Earl Sigurd had a hard fight with Kerthjalfad. Kerthjalfad came on so fiercely that he killed everybody in his way. He cut his way through Earl Sigurd’s ranks right up to the banner and killed the banner-bearer. The earl then found another man to carry the banner. The battle became fierce again. Kerthjalfad dealt this man a death blow, and then those around him, one after the other.

  Earl Sigurd asked Thorstein Hallsson to carry the banner. Thorstein was ready to take it.

  Then Amundi the White said, ‘Don’t carry the banner – everybody who does gets killed.’

  ‘Hrafn the Red,’ said the earl, ‘you carry the banner.’

  ‘Carry that devil of yours yourself,’ answered Hrafn.

  The earl said, ‘Then it’s best that the beggar and his bag go together,’ and he took the banner off the pole and stuck it between his clothes. A little later, Amundi the White was killed. Then the earl was pierced through by a spear.

  Ospak had fought his way through the whole flank of the army. He was badly wounded and both of Brian’s sons were dead. King Sigtrygg fled before him. Then his whole force broke into flight. Thorstein Hallsson stopped to tie his shoe-string while the others were fleeing. Kerthjalfad asked him why he wasn’t running away.

  ‘Because I can’t reach home tonight,’ said Thorstein – ‘my home’s out in Iceland.’

  Kerthjalfad spared him.

  Hrafn the Red was chased out into a river and there he thought he saw Hell down below and devils trying to drag him down to them.

  He spoke: ‘This dog of yours has run twice to Rome, Apostle Peter, and would run there a third time if you let him.’

  Then the devils turned him loose, and he got across the river.

  Brodir saw that King Brian’s forces were chasing the fugitives and that there were only a few men at the shield wall. He ran out of the woods and cut his way through the shield wall and swung at the king. The boy Tadk brought his arm up against it, but the blow cut off the arm and the king’s head too, and the king’s blood fell on the stump of the boy’s arm, and the stump healed at once.

  Then Brodir called loudly, ‘Let word go from man to man – Brodir killed Brian.’

  They ran after those who were chasing the fugitives and told them of the fall of King Brian. Ulf Hraeda and Kerthjalfad turned back at once and formed a circle around Brodir and his men and hemmed them in with branches; Brodir was then taken prisoner. Ulf Hraeda cut open his belly and led him around an oak tree and in this way pulled out his intestines. Brodir did not die until they were all pulled out of him.3 All of Brodir’s men were killed too.

  Then they took King Brian’s body and laid it out; the king’s head had grown back on the trunk.

  Fifteen of the burners fell at Brian’s battle. Halldor Gudmundarson and Erling of Stroma also fell there.

  On the morning of Good Friday, in Caithness, this happened: a man named Dorrud walked outside and saw twelve people riding together to a women’s room, and then they disappeared inside. He went up to the room and looked in through a window that was there and saw that there were women inside and that they had set up a loom. Men’s heads were used for weights, men’s intestines for the weft and warp, a sword for the sword beater, and an arrow for the pin beater. The women spoke these verses:4

  23.(1.)

  A wide warp

  warns of slaughter;

  blood rains

  from the beam’s cloud. beam’s cloud:

  the threads hanging from the crossbeam on a loom

  A spear-grey fabric spear-grey fabric: battle ranks

  is being spun,

  which the friends

  of Randver’s slayer Randver: son of Ermanric (fourth century),

  hanged or killed by Odin himself;

  friends of his slayer : valkyries

  will fill out

  with a red weft.

  (2.)

  The warp is woven

  with warriors’ guts,

  and heavily weighted

  with the heads of men.

  Spears serve as heddle rods,

  spattered with blood;

  iron-bound is the shed rod,

  and arrows are the pin beaters;

  we will beat with swords

  our battle web.

  (3.)

  Hild sets to weaving, [the names are of valkyries]

  and Hjorthrimul

  and Sanngrid and Svipul,

  with swords drawn.

  Shafts will splinter,

  shields shatter;

  the dog of helmets dog of helmets: sword

  devours shields.

  (4.)

  We wind and wind [image refers to winding up the woven fabric on the loo
m beam]

  the web of spears web of spears: battle

  which the young king young king: Sigtrygg

  has carried on before.

  Let us go forth

  amongst the fighters

  when our dear ones

  deal out blows.

  (5.)

  We wind and wind

  the web of spears,

  and then stand by

  our stalwart king.

  Gunn and Gondul,

  who guarded the king,

  saw the bloody shields

  of the brave men.

  (6.)

  We wind and wind

  the web of spears,

  there where the banners

  of bold men go forth;

  we must not let

  his life be lost –

  valkyries decide

  who dies or lives.

  (7.)

  The men who inhabited men: the Vikings

  the outer headlands

  will now be leaders

  in the lands.

  I declare the mighty king mighty king: Brian

  doomed to death.

  The earl has fallen earl: perhaps Sigurd Hlodvisson

  in the face of the spears.

  (8.)

  And the Irish will

  endure an evil time

  which will never lessen

  as long as men live.

  Now the web is woven

  and the war-place reddened;

  the lands will learn

  of the loss of men.

  (9.)

  Now it is gruesome

  to gaze around,

  as blood-red clouds

  cover the sky;

  the heavens will be garish

  with the gore of men

  while the slaughter-wardens slaughter-wardens: valkyries

  sing their song.

  (10.)

  Our pronouncement was good

  for the young prince; young prince: Sigtrygg

  sound of mind

  we sing victory songs.

  May he who listens

  learn from this

  the tones of spear-women spear-women: valkyries

  and tell them to men.

  (11.)

  Let us ride swiftly