Njal's Saga (32 page)

‘I won't be able to bring that off,' said Mord.

‘I'll give you a plan,' said Valgard. ‘You must invite the Njalssons home and send them away with gifts. You must begin spreading slander only when the friendship between you is strong and they trust you no less than they do each other. You will be able to take vengeance against Skarphedin for the money they took from you after Gunnar's death. You will regain your authority only when these men are all dead.'

They agreed with each other that this plan should be carried out.

‘I wish, father, that you would accept the faith,' said Mord. ‘You're an old man.'

‘I don't want to,' said Valgard, ‘and in fact, I would like you to renounce the faith and then see what happens.'

Mord said he would not do that. Valgard broke Mord's crosses and all his holy objects. Then Valgard fell sick and died and was buried in a mound.

Some time later Mord rode to Bergthorshvol and met Skarphedin and his brothers. He spoke to them in flattering tones and talked all day and said he wanted to see much more of them. Skarphedin took all this well, but said that Mord had never made this effort before. Eventually, Mord entered into such great friendship with them that neither side took a decision unless the other agreed.
¹
Njal was always displeased when Mord came there, and he always let his dislike be known.

One day when Mord came to Bergthorshvol, he spoke to the Njalssons: ‘I've arranged a memorial feast for my father, and I want to invite you Njalssons and Kari, and I promise that you will not go away without gifts.'

They promised to come. He went home and prepared the feast. He invited many farmers, and the feast was well attended. The Njalssons and Kari also came there. Mord gave a large gold belt buckle to Skarphedin and a silver belt to Kari, as well as good gifts to Grim and Helgi.

They came home and praised these gifts and showed them to Njal. He said that they would end up paying the full price for them −‘and see to it that you don't pay him what he wants.'

A short time later Hoskuld and the Njalssons exchanged visits, and the Njalssons invited Hoskuld first.

Skarphedin had a dark-brown horse, four years old, big and handsome. It was a stallion and had not yet fought another horse. Skarphedin gave this horse to Hoskuld, along with two mares. The
others gave Hoskuld gifts, too, and affirmed their friendship with him.

Then Hoskuld invited the Njalssons to visit him at Ossabaer. He had many guests from the neighbourhood, and there was a large crowd. He had torn down his hall, but had three storehouses, and they were arranged for sleeping in.

Everyone whom he had invited came to the feast; it went very well. When people were ready to go home, Hoskuld chose good gifts for them and went along with the Njalssons on their way. The Sigfussons and all the others accompanied him. Both sides said that no one would ever come between them.

Some time later Mord came to Ossabaer and asked Hoskuld to talk with him. They went apart for a talk.

Mord spoke: ‘There's a big difference between you and the Njalssons: you gave them good gifts, but they gave you gifts in great mockery'

‘What proof do you have of that?' said Hoskuld.

‘They gave you a dark-brown horse, which they called an untested colt, and they did that in mockery because they consider you untested, too. I can also tell you that they envy your godord. Skarphedin took it over at the Thing when you failed to come to a meeting of the Fifth Court. He doesn't ever intend to part with the godord.'

‘That's not true,' said Hoskuld. ‘I took it back at the autumn assembly'

‘That was Njal's doing, then,' said Mord. ‘But they also broke the agreement with Lyting.'

‘I don't think they can be blamed for that,' said Hoskuld.
¹

‘You won't deny' said Mord, ‘that when you and Skarphedin went east to the Markarfljot an axe fell from under his belt and that he had planned to kill you with it'

‘That was his wood-axe,' said Hoskuld, ‘and I saw him put it under his belt. And for my part let it be said here and now that no matter what evil you speak of the Njalssons I will never believe it. And even if you happen to be telling the truth and it came down to their killing me or my killing them, I would much rather suffer death from them
than do them any harm. You are the worse a man for having spoken these things.'

Mord then went home.

Some time later Mord went to see the Njalssons and said many things to the brothers and Kari.

‘I've been told,' said Mord, ‘that Hoskuld said that you, Skarphedin, broke the agreement with Lyting, and I've also found out that he thought you were plotting to murder him when the two of you rode east to the Markarfljot. And I don't consider it less of a murder plot when he invited you to a feast and put you in the storehouse which was farthest from the house and had wood carried to it all night long and was planning to burn you inside. As it turned out, Hogni arrived during the night and nothing came of the plan because they were afraid of him. Then Hoskuld and a large band of men went along with you on your way – he was going to make another attempt on your life and had put Grani Gunnarsson and Gunnar Lambason up to it, but they lost heart and didn't dare to attack.'

When he said these things they objected at first. But eventually they believed him, and great coldness grew up on their part towards Hoskuld, and they barely spoke to him when they met. Hoskuld made no reaction to this, and so it went on for a time.

Hoskuld went east to Svinafell for a feast that autumn, and Flosi welcomed him. Hildigunn was also there.

Flosi said to Hoskuld, ‘Hildigunn tells me that there is great coldness between you and the Njalssons, and I don't like that at all, and so I propose that you don't ride back west, and I'll give you the farm at Skaftafell and send my brother Thorgeir to live at Ossabaer.'

‘Then some would say,' said Hoskuld, ‘that I was fleeing out of fear, and I don't want that.'
²

‘Then it is very likely', said Flosi, ‘that this will lead to great trouble.'

‘That's too bad,' said Hoskuld, ‘for I would rather die without the right to compensation than that many should come to harm because of me.'

Hoskuld made ready to go home a few days later, and Flosi gave him a scarlet cloak trimmed with lace down to the hem. Hoskuld rode home to Ossabaer. There was peace for a time. Hoskuld was so well liked that he had hardly any enemies, but the same unpleasantness between him and the Njalssons continued all that winter.

Njal had taken Kari's son, called Thord, as his foster-son. He had also fostered Thorhall, the son of Asgrim Ellida-Grimsson. Thorhall was a vigorous man and resolute in everything. He had learned the law from Njal so well that he was one of the three greatest lawyers in Iceland.
³

Spring came early that year, and men sowed their grain early.

It happened one day that Mord came to Bergthorshvol. He and the Njalssons and Kari went apart to talk. Mord slandered Hoskuld as usual and added many new tales and kept provoking Skarphedin and the others to kill Hoskuld and said that Hoskuld ould beat them to it if they did not act at once.

‘You shall have what you want,' said Skarphedin, ‘provided that you go along with us and take part.'

‘I'm ready to do that,' said Mord.

They made a firm pact and agreed that Mord should come there that evening.

Bergthora asked Njal, ‘What are they discussing out there?'

‘I'm not in on their planning,' said Njal, ‘but I was seldom left out when their plans were good.'

Skarphedin did not go to bed that evening, nor did his brothers or Kari. That night Mord Valgardsson came to them, and the Njalssons and Kari took their weapons and they all rode away. They rode until they came to Ossabaer and waited there by a wall. The weather was good and the sun had risen.

About that time Hoskuld the Godi of Hvitanes awoke; he put on his clothes and covered himself with his cloak, Flosi's gift. He took his seed-basket in one hand and his sword in the other and went to his field and started sowing.

Skarphedin and the others had agreed that they would all inflict blows. Skarphedin sprang up from behind the wall. When Hoskuld saw him he wanted to turn away, but Skarphedin ran up to him and spoke: ‘Don't bother taking to your heels, Hvitanes-Godi' –; nd he struck with his axe and hit him in the head, and Hoskuld fell to his knees.

He spoke this: ‘May God help me and forgive you.'

They all ran at him and finished him off.

When it was over Mord said, ‘I've just had an idea.'

‘What is it?' said Skarphedin.

‘That I first go home, and then up to Grjota to tell them what happened and express my disapproval of the deed. I know that Thorgerd will ask me to give notice of the slaying, and I will do so, because that will cause serious damage to their case.
¹
I'll also send a man to Ossabaer to find out how quickly Hildigunn and the men there plan to act – he will hear about the slaying from them, and then I'll pretend that this is how I first heard about it'

‘Go and do this, by all means,' said Skarphedin.

The Njalssons and Kari went home, and when they came they told Njal what had happened.

‘Tragic news,' said Njal, ‘and terrible to hear, for it is fair to say that I am so deeply touched with grief that I would rather have lost two of my sons, as long as Hoskuld were still alive.'

‘You may be excused for saying that,' said Skarphedin. ‘You are an old man and it's to be expected that this should touch you deeply'

‘It's not my old age,' said Njal, ‘as much as the fact that I know more clearly than you what will follow'

‘What will follow?' asked Skarphedin.

‘My death,' said Njal, ‘and that of my wife and all my sons.'

‘What do you foresee for me?' asked Kari.

‘It will prove hard for them to contend with your good fortune,' said Njal, ‘for you will outmatch them all'

This was the only thing that ever touched Njal so deeply that he could never speak of it without being moved.

Hildigunn woke up and saw that Hoskuld had left the bed. She said, ‘My dreams have been harsh, not good – go and search for Hoskuld.'

They searched for him around the farm and did not find him. By then she had dressed. She went with two men to the field; there they found Hoskuld slain.

Mord's shepherd came up just then and told her that Skarphedin and his party had been riding away from there – ‘and Skarphedin called out to me and announced that he had done the slaying.'

‘A manly deed this would have been,' she said, ‘if one man had done it'

She picked up the cloak and wiped up all the blood with it and wrapped the clotted blood into the cloak and folded it and placed it in her chest.

Next she sent a man up to Grjota to carry the news there. Mord had already come and told them. Ketil of Mork had also come there.

Thorgerd spoke to Ketil: ‘Hoskuld is dead, as we know. Now keep in mind what you promised when you took him as your foster-son.'

‘It may well be,' he said, ‘that I made many promises then, because I never expected that days like these would come. In fact, I'm in a difficult position, since I'm married to Njal's daughter – the nose is near to the eyes.'
¹

‘Do you want Mord to give notice of the slaying, then?' said Thorgerd.

‘I'm not sure,' said Ketil, ‘for it seems to me that evil comes from him more often than good.'

But when Mord spoke to him, Ketil was the same as other men -he believed that Mord could be trusted – and they agreed that Mord should give notice of the slaying and prepare the case for action at the Althing.

*

Mord then went down to Ossabaer. Nine neighbours who lived closest to the scene of the slaying came there. Mord had ten men with him. He showed the neighbours Hoskuld's wounds and named witnesses to the fatal ones and named a man for every wound but one. He pretended not to know who had caused that one, but it was the one he had inflicted himself. He charged Skarphedin with the slaying, and his brothers and Kari with the wounds; next he summoned the nine neighbours to the Althing. After that he rode home.

He hardly ever met the Njalssons, and when they met they were cool towards each other, and this was according to their plan.

The slaying of Hoskuld spread to all parts of the land and was spoken badly of.

The Njalssons went to see Asgrim Ellida-Grimsson and asked for his support.

‘You can count on my helping you in all large matters,' he said, ‘but this one troubles me, because there are so many to prosecute the case, and the slaying is being spoken badly of all over the land.'

Then the Njalssons went home.

There was a man called Gudmund the Powerful, who lived at Modruvellir in Eyjafjord. He was the son of Eyjolf, the son of Einar, the son of Audun the Rotten, the son of Thorolf Butter, the son of Thorstein Skrofi, the son of Grim Kamban. Gudmund's mother was Hallbera, the daughter of Thorodd Helmet, and Hallbera's mother was Reginleif, the daughter of Saemund the Hebridean; Saemundarhlid in Skagafjord is named for him. The mother of Eyjolf, Gudmund's father, was Valgerd Runolfsdottir, and Valgerd's mother was called Valborg; her mother was Jorunn the Unborn, the daughter of King Oswald the Saint. Jorunn's mother was Bera, the daughter of King Edmund the Saint. The mother of Einar, Eyjolf's father, was Helga, the daughter of Helgi the Lean who settled Eyjafjord. Helgi was the son of Eyvind the Norwegian; Helgi's mother was Rafarta, the daughter of the Irish king Kjarval. Helga's mother was Thorunn Hyrna, the daughter of Ketil Flat-nose, the son of Bjorn Buna, the
son of Grim the hersir; Grim's mother was Hervor, and her mother was Thorgerd, the daughter of King Haleyg of Halogaland.