Njal's Saga (31 page)

They turned down towards Hestlaek. Thorvald had already crossed the brook.

Gudleif said to Thangbrand, ‘There's Thorvald. Let's get him!'

Thangbrand sent his spear right through Thorvald and Gudleif cut off his arm at the shoulder, and that was his death.

After that they rode to the Thing, and the kinsmen of Thorvald were about to attack them, but Njal and the men from the East Fjords gave them their support.

Hjalti Skeggjason spoke this verse:

9.

In barking at gods I am rich:

Freyja strikes me as a bitch;

one or the other must be:

Odin's a dog – or else she.

Hjalti and Gizur the White went abroad that summer. Thang-brand's ship, the
Bison
, was wrecked off Bulandsnes in the east.

Thangbrand travelled through all the western part of the land. Steinunn, the mother of Ref the Poet, came to meet him. She preached heathenism and lectured at great length to Thangbrand. Thangbrand was silent while she spoke, but then spoke at length and showed everything she said to be wrong.

‘Have you heard,' she said, ‘that Thor challenged Christ to a duel and that Christ didn't dare to fight with him?'

‘What I have heard,' said Thangbrand, ‘is that Thor would be mere dust and ashes if God didn't want him to live.'

‘Do you know,' she said, ‘who wrecked your ship?'

‘What can you say about it?' he said.

‘I'll tell you,' she said:

10.

The shaping gods drove ashore

the ship of the keeper of bells;                                                 
keeper of bells:
priest (Thangbrand)

the slayer of the son of the giantess                                            
slayer of the son of the giantess:
Thor

smashed
Bison
on the sea-gull's rest;                                                            
sea-gull's rest:
sea

no help came from Christ

when the sea's horse was crushed;                                                                             
seas horse:
ship

I don't think God was guarding

Gylfi's reindeer at all.                                                                       
Gylfi:
a sea-king; his
reindeer:
ship

She spoke another verse:

11.

Thor drove Thangbrand's beast

of Thvinnil far from its place;                                                               
Thvinnil:
a sea-king; his
beast:
ship

he shook and shattered

the ship and slammed it ashore;

never will that oak of Atal's field                                                
Atal:
a sea-king;
oak
of his
field:
ship

be up to seafaring again;

the storm, sent by him,                                                                                                 
him:
Thor

smashed it so hard into bits.

After that, Steinunn and Thangbrand parted, and Thangbrand and his men went west to Bardastrond.

Gest Oddleifsson lived at Hagi on Bardastrond; he was so very wise a man that he foretold people's fates. He held a feast to welcome Thangbrand and his men, and they went to Hagi, sixty in all. It was said that two hundred heathens were already there and that a berserk named Otrygg was expected, and everybody feared him. Many stories were told of him, such as that he feared neither fire nor sword, and the heathens feared him greatly.

Thangbrand asked whether the people were willing to accept the faith, and all the heathens spoke strongly against it.

‘I will give you a chance,' said Thangbrand, ‘to prove which is the better faith. We will build three fires – you heathens bless one, I'll bless another, and the third will be unblessed. If the berserk fears the one which I blessed but walks through your fire, then you must accept the faith.'

‘That's well spoken,' said Gest, ‘and I'll agree to this for myself and my household.'

When Gest had said this, many others agreed, and there was loud approval.

Then word came that the berserk was nearing the house, and the fires were built and kindled; men took their weapons and jumped up on the benches and waited. The berserk came charging through the
door with his weapons. He advanced into the room and walked at once through the fire which the heathens had blessed and came up to the fire which Thangbrand had blessed, but did not dare to walk through it and said that he was burning all over. He swung his sword towards the benches, but on the upswing it stuck fast in the crossbeam. Thangbrand struck him on the arm with his crucifix and a great miracle happened: the sword fell from the berserk's hand. Then Thangbrand drove his sword into the berserk's chest, and Gudleif hacked at his arm and cut it off. Many men then came up and finished off the berserk.

After this Thangbrand asked whether they were willing to accept the faith. Gest said that he intended to keep what he had promised. Thangbrand then baptized him and all his household and many others.

Thangbrand asked Gest's advice about whether he should go to the fjords further west, but Gest discouraged him and said that people there were rough and vicious to deal with – ‘but if this faith is destined to take hold it will take hold at the Althing. All the chieftains from the whole land will be there.'

‘I have already spoken at the Thing,' said Thangbrand, ‘and there I had the most trouble of all.'

‘But still, you've done most of the work,' said Gest, ‘even though others may be destined to make the faith law. As they say, a tree doesn't fall at the first blow.'

Gest gave Thangbrand good gifts, and then Thangbrand went south again.

He went first to the South Quarter and from there to the East Fjords. He was a guest at Bergthorshvol, and Njal gave him good gifts. Then he rode east to Alftafjord, to Hall of Sida. He had his ship repaired, and the heathens called it
Iron Basket
. Thangbrand sailed abroad on this ship, with Gudleif.

That summer at the Thing Hjalti Skeggjason was outlawed for mocking the gods.
¹

*

Thangbrand told King Olaf about the hostile acts of the Icelanders against him and said they were such sorcerers that the earth broke open under his horse and swallowed it up. King Olaf was so angry at this that he ordered all men from Iceland to be seized and put in a dungeon, and he planned to put them to death. But then Gizur the White and Hjalti came forth and offered to stand as pledges for these men and to go to Iceland and preach the faith. The king was pleased with this and all the Icelanders were released.

Gizur and Hjalti then prepared their ship for the journey to Iceland and were soon ready. They came to land at Eyrar when ten weeks of the summer had passed. They found horses at once, and men to unload the ship. They rode to the Thing, thirty in all, and sent word to the Christians to be ready for them.

Hjalti stayed behind at Reydarmuli, because he learned that he had been outlawed for mocking the gods, but when the others came to Vellandkatla, below Gjabakki, he came after them and said he did not want to let the heathens think that he feared them.

Many Christians rode out to meet them, and they rode to the Thing in a large company. The heathens had also assembled a company, and the whole assembly came close to breaking out in a fight, but that did not happen.

There was a man called Thorgeir who lived at Ljosavatn; he was the son of Tjorvi, the son of Thorkel the Long.
¹
His mother was called Thorunn, and she was the daughter of Thorstein, the son of Sigmund, the son of Gnupa-Bard. Gudrid was his wife; she was the daughter of Thorkel the Black of Hleidrargard: his brother was Orm Box-back, the father of Hlenni the Old from Saurbaer. Thorkel and Orm were sons of Thorir Snepil, the son of Ketil Brimil, the son of Ornolf, the son of Bjornolf, the son of Grim Hairy-cheeks, the son of Ketil Haeng, the son of Hallbjorn Half-troll from Hrafnista.

The Christians covered their booths, and Gizur and Hjalti were in the booth of the men from Mosfell. The next day both sides went to the Law Rock and both Christians and heathens named witnesses
and declared themselves no longer bound by law to the other, and there was such an uproar at the Law Rock that no one could hear anyone else.

After this men went away, and everyone thought things looked most precarious. The Christians chose Hall of Sida as their lawspeaker, but he went to Thorgeir the Godi of Ljosavatn and gave him three marks of silver to proclaim the law, though this was a risky step, since Thorgeir was a heathen.

Thorgeir spread a cloak over his head and lay this way for a whole day, and no one spoke to him.
²
The next day people went to the Law Rock.

Thorgeir asked for silence and spoke: ‘It appears to me that our affairs will reach an impasse if we don't all have the same law, for if the law is split asunder, so also will peace be split asunder, and we cannot live with that. Now I want to ask the heathens and the Christians whether they are willing to accept the law that I proclaim.'

They all assented to this. Thorgeir said that he wanted oaths from them and pledges that they would stick by them. They assented to this, and he took pledges from them.

‘This will be the foundation of our law,' he said, ‘that all men in this land are to be Christians and believe in one God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – and give up all worship of false idols, the exposure of children, and the eating of horse meat. Three years' outlawry will be the penalty for open violations, but if these things are practised in secret there shall be no punishment.'
³

A few years later all of these heathen practices were prohibited, so that they could be practised neither openly nor in secret.

Thorgeir then talked about the keeping of the Lord's day and fast days, Christmas and Easter and all major feasts. The heathens considered that they had been greatly deceived, but the new law took effect and everybody became Christian in this land.

After this people went home from the Thing.

It happened three years later that Amundi the Blind, the son of Hoskuld Njalsson, was present at the Thingskalar Assembly. He had himself led from one booth to another. He came to the one where Lyting from Samsstadir was; he had himself led into the booth and up to where Lyting was sitting.

He spoke: ‘Is Lyting of Samsstadir here?'

‘What do you want of me?' said Lyting.

‘I want to know,' said Amundi, ‘what compensation you will pay me for my father. I was born to him out of wedlock and I have received no compensation.'
¹

‘I have paid full compensation for the slaying of your father,' said Lyting, ‘and your father's father and brothers took the money, while my brothers went without compensation. I committed an evil deed, but I paid heavily for it'

‘I'm not asking,' said Amundi, ‘whether you paid them compensation – I know that you made a settlement with them. I'm asking what compensation you will pay to me.'

‘None whatsoever,' said Lyting.

‘I don't find that to be just before God,' said Amundi, ‘seeing that you struck so close to my heart. I can say this – if I were sound in both my eyes, I would either have compensation for my father or take blood revenge, and may God now settle between us.'

After that he went out, but as he reached the door he turned and faced back into the booth; at that moment his eyes were opened.

He spoke: ‘Praise be to God, my Lord. Now it can be seen what He wants.'

After that he rushed back into the booth until he came up to Lyting, and hit him in the head with his axe so that it sank all the way to the back edge, and then he pulled it towards him. Lyting fell forward, dead on the spot. Amundi went to the door and when he reached the very place at which his eyes had opened, they closed again, and he was blind all the rest of his life.

After that he had someone bring him to Njal and his sons. He told them of the slaying of Lyting.

‘You are not to be blamed for that,' said Njal, ‘for such things are
preordained, and when they occur they are a warning not to decline the claims of close kin.'

Njal then offered to make an agreement with Lyting's kinsmen. Hoskuld the Godi of Hvitanes worked on them to accept compensation, and the case was turned over to arbitration. Half of the normal compensation was disallowed on account of the just cause which Amundi was thought to have. After that they made pledges of good faith, and Lyting's kinsmen pledged good faith to Amundi.

People then rode home from the Thing, and for a long time it was peaceful.

Valgard the Grey returned to Iceland; he was still a heathen. He went to his son Mord at Hof and spent the winter there.

He spoke to Mord: ‘I've been riding far and wide in this district, and I can hardly recognize it as the same. I went to Hvitanes and saw many new booths and great changes. I went also to the place of the Thingskalar Assembly, and there I saw all our booths falling apart. What's the reason for this scandal?'

Mord said, ‘New godords and a fifth court have been created, and people have stopped being my thingmen and gone over to Hoskuld.'
¹

Valgard spoke: ‘You've repaid me poorly, with your unmanly handling of the godord I turned over to you. Now I want you to repay them in a way that will drag them all to their deaths. The way to do this is to turn them against each other with slander, so that the Njalssons kill Hoskuld. Many men will take action for this slaying, and the Njalssons will be killed because of it'