The Sagas of the Icelanders (35 page)

84
One morning Thorstein got up at sunrise and went up to the top of a rock. Seeing where Steinar’s cattle were, he walked over to the marsh until he reached them. A wooded cliff overlooks Hafslaek, and Thrand was sleeping barefoot on the top of it. Thorstein went up to the top of the cliff, carrying an axe which was not very large, and no other weapon. He prodded Thrand with the shaft of the axe and ordered him to wake up. Thrand leapt to his feet, grabbed his axe with both hands and raised it. He asked Thorstein what he wanted.

Thorstein said, ‘I want to tell you that this is my land, and your pasture is on the other side of the brook. I’m not surprised you don’t realize where the boundaries lie here.’

‘I don’t care whose land it is,’ Thrand replied. ‘I will let the cattle be where they prefer.’

‘I’d rather be in charge of my own land than leave that to Steinar’s slaves,’ said Thorstein.

‘You’re more stupid than I thought, Thorstein, if you want to risk your honour by seeking a place to sleep for the night under my axe,’ said Thrand. ‘I’d guess I have twice your strength, and I don’t lack courage either. And I’m better armed than you.’

Thorstein said, ‘That’s a risk I’m prepared to take if you don’t do anything about the cattle grazing. I trust there’s as much difference between our fortunes as there is between our claims in this matter.’

Thrand said, ‘Now you’ll find out whether I’m scared of your threats, Thorstein.’

Then Thrand sat down to tie his shoe, and Thorstein raised his axe high in the air and struck him on the neck, so that his head fell on to his chest. Thorstein piled some rocks over his body to cover it up and went back home to Borg.

That day Steinar’s cattle were late coming back. When there seemed to be no hope left of them returning, Steinar took his horse and saddled it. He rode south to Borg, fully armed, and spoke to some people when he arrived. He asked about Thorstein and was told he was indoors. Steinar told them he wanted Thorstein to come outside to attend to some business. When Thorstein heard this, he picked up his weapons and went to the door. Then he asked Steinar what he wanted.

‘Did you kill my slave Thrand?’ Steinar asked.

‘That’s right,’ said Thorstein. ‘You don’t need to imagine that anyone else did.’

‘I can see you’re set on defending your land with a firm hand, since you’ve killed two of my slaves,’ replied Steinar. ‘But I don’t consider that much of a feat. If you’re so determined to defend your land bravely, I can give you a much more worthy option. From now on I won’t rely on anyone else to look after my cattle, and you can rest assured that they’ll remain on your land both day and night.’

‘It so happened that last summer I killed the slave you sent to graze the cattle on my land,’ said Thorstein. ‘Then I let you have all the pasture you wanted right up until winter. Now I have killed another of your slaves for the same reason I killed the first one. You can have all the pasture you want for the coming summer, but after that, if you graze your cattle on my land and send men to drive your cattle here, I will kill every single one who herds them, even if it is you yourself. I will go on doing this every summer for as long as you keep on grazing them there.’

Then Steinar rode off back to Brekka and on to Stafaholt shortly afterwards. A godi called Einar lived there. Steinar asked for his support and offered to pay him for it.

Einar said, ‘My support will make little difference to you unless other men of standing back you up in this matter.’

After that Steinar rode up to Reykjadal to see Tungu-Odd, asked him for support and offered to pay him for it. Odd took the money and promised
his support in helping Steinar to secure his rights against Thorstein. Then Steinar rode home.

That spring Odd and Einar went with Steinar to Borg to announce their summons, taking a large band of men with them. Steinar summonsed Thorstein for killing his slaves and demanded a penalty of lesser outlawry for each of them, which was the punishment for killing a man’s slaves unless compensation was paid before the third sunrise. Double lesser outlawry was considered equal to full outlawry.

Thorstein brought no counter-charges, but sent some men off to Nes shortly afterwards. They went to Grim at Mosfell and told him the news. Egil showed little interest, but asked secretly in detail about Thorstein’s dealings with Steinar and about the men who had supported Steinar in the case. Then the messengers went back home, and Thorstein was pleased with their journey.

Thorstein Egilsson took a very large party to the Spring Assembly and arrived the night before everybody else. They pitched tents over their booths, and so did his thingmen who had booths there. When they had set everything up, Thorstein sent word to his supporters to build great walls for a booth, which he then covered with a much larger tent than all the others there. No men were in that booth.

Steinar rode to the assembly with very many men. Tungu-Odd was in charge of a large band of his own men, and Einar from Stafaholt also brought a large party. They pitched their tents over their booths. It was a very well-attended assembly. When the cases were presented, Thorstein made no offer of a settlement on his own behalf, and told anyone who tried to arrange one that he would wait to hear the ruling, since he set little store by Steinar’s charges of killing his slaves after all they had done to deserve it. Steinar made a great show about his case, claiming that his charges were valid and that he had ample support to win his rights, and was very aggressive about the whole matter.

The same day all the men went to the Assembly Slope to plead against the charges before they went before the courts in the evening. Thorstein was there with his party. He had the most influence over the conduct of proceedings there, just as Egil had done when he was a godi and chieftain. Both sides were fully armed.

From the assembly, a band of men was seen riding alongside the river Gljufura, their shields glinting. They rode into the assembly led by
a large man wearing a black cloak and gilded helmet and carrying a shield decorated with gold by his side. In his hand he held a barbed spear with its socket embossed with gold, and he was girded with a sword. Egil Skallagrimsson had arrived with eighty men, all armed for battle. It was an elite band of men, for Egil had brought along the finest farmers’ sons from the south side of Nes, those whom he considered most warlike. Egil rode with his party over to the booth where Thorstein had already pitched tents which were standing empty. They dismounted from their horses.

When Thorstein recognized his father, he went up to him with all his men and welcomed him warmly. Egil and his men had all the gear they had brought with them carried into the booth, and drove the horses out to graze. Once this was done, Egil and Thorstein went up the Assembly Slope with all their men and sat down in their usual places.

Then Egil stood up and said in a loud voice, ‘Is Onund Sjoni here on the slope?’

Onund said he was, ‘And I am pleased that you have come, Egil. It will make a great contribution towards solving this dispute.’

Egil asked, ‘Are you responsible for the charges your son Steinar has brought against my son Thorstein and the forces he has gathered to have Thorstein declared an outlaw?’

‘Their quarrel is none of my doing,’ said Onund. ‘I have spent a lot of words telling Steinar to make a reconciliation with Thorstein, because I have always been reluctant to bring any dishonour upon your son Thorstein. The reason is our lifelong friendship, Egil, ever since we were brought up here together.’

‘It will soon emerge,’ said Egil, ‘whether you are speaking earnest or empty words, although I consider the latter less likely. I remember the days when neither of us could have imagined that we would quarrel with each other or need to restrain our sons from committing such folly as I hear is in the offing now. It seems advisable to me, for as long as we live and witness their dispute, that we should take charge of the matter ourselves and settle it, without letting Tungu-Odd and Einar pit our sons against each other like horses at a fight. They can find a better way to earn their living than involving themselves in this.’

Onund stood up and said, ‘What you say is right, Egil. It is unfitting for us to attend an assembly where our sons are quarrelling. We will never incur the shame of being so weak in character that we cannot reconcile them. Steinar, I want you to grant me charge of this case and allow me to pursue it as I please.’

‘I don’t know whether I want to drop my case,’ said Steinar, ‘after seeking the support of great men. I want to settle the matter immediately to Odd and Einar’s satisfaction.’

Then Odd and Steinar conferred, and Odd said, ‘I will grant you the support I promised you, Steinar, to win your rights or a settlement that you are prepared to accept. It will be largely your responsibility if Egil rules on the matter.’

Then Onund said, ‘I don’t want to leave the matter up to Odd’s tongue to decide, for he has neither treated me well nor badly. But Egil has done many fine things for me. I trust him better than other people, and I will have my own way now. You will be better off not having to tackle all of us. I have made the decisions on our behalf until now, and that’s the way it will stay.’

‘You are very insistent about it, Father,’ said Steinar, ‘but I expect we will regret it later.’

Then Steinar handed over charge of the case to Onund, who was to prosecute or settle, as the law stipulated.

Once Onund had taken charge of the case, he went to see Thorstein and Egil.

Onund said, ‘I will leave it up to you to rule and judge here, Egil, just as you please, because I trust you most to decide on these matters of mine and all others.’

Then Onund and Thorstein shook hands and named witnesses, adding that Egil Skallagrimsson alone should rule on the case at that assembly as he saw fit, without reservations, and so the matter ended. Everyone went back to the booths. Thorstein had three oxen brought to Egil’s booth and had them slaughtered to provide him with a feast at the assembly.

When Tungu-Odd and Steinar returned to their booths, Odd said, ‘You and your father have decided how your case will be concluded, Steinar. Now I am free of all obligation to grant you the support that I promised you, because we agreed that I should help you to pursue your case or bring it to a conclusion that you found favourable, however Egil’s settlement turns out.’

Steinar told Odd he had supported him well and nobly, and that they would be closer friends than before.

‘I declare that you are free of all your earlier obligations to me,’ he said.

That evening the courts met, and nothing eventful is said to have happened then.

85
Egil Skallagrimsson went to the Assembly Slope the following day together with Thorstein and all their men. Onund and Steinar were there too, and Tungu-Odd and Einar.

When everyone had stated their cases, Egil stood up and asked, ‘Are Steinar and his father Onund here and able to hear what I am saying?’

Onund said they were there.

‘Then I will pronounce the settlement between Steinar and Thorstein: I will begin my statement with my father Grim’s arrival in Iceland, when he took all the land in Myrar and around the district and made his home at Borg. He designated that land for his farm, but gave his friends the outlying lands which they settled later. He gave Ani a place to live at Anabrekka, where Onund and Steinar have lived until now. We all know, Steinar, where the boundary lies between Borg and Anabrekka: the brook at Hafslaek separates them. It was not by accident that you grazed your cattle on Thorstein’s land, Steinar, and seized his property, expecting him to be such a disgrace to his family that he would let you get away with robbing him. You are well aware, Steinar and Onund, that Ani accepted that land from my father Grim. When Thorstein killed two of your slaves, it is obvious to everyone that they fell by their own doing and do not qualify for compensation; even if they were free men, they would be considered criminals and thereby not qualify for compensation. Yet since you, Steinar, planned to rob my son Thorstein of his land, which he took over with my approval and I had inherited from my father, you will forfeit your land at Anabrekka and be paid nothing for it. Furthermore, you will not make your home or accept lodging in this district on the south side of the river Langa, and leave Anabrekka before the end of the Moving Days, and be rightfully killed by Thorstein or any man who is ready to grant Thorstein his assistance after that time if you refuse to leave or to abide by any of these stipulations I have made towards you.’

When Egil sat down, Thorstein named witnesses to his settlement.

Then Onund Sjoni said, ‘Everyone will agree, Egil, that the settlement you have made and delivered here is unjust. For my part, I have made every effort to prevent the trouble between them, but from now on I will not restrain myself from any inconvenience I can cause to Thorstein.’

‘On the contrary,’ said Egil, ‘I expect you and your son’s lot to worsen,
the longer that our quarrel lasts. I would have thought you realized, Onund, that I have always held my own against people like you and your son. And Odd and Einar, who were so interested in this matter, have received the honour they deserve from it.’

86
Thorgeir Blund, Egil’s nephew, was at the assembly and had supported Thorstein strongly in the case. He asked Egil and Thorstein to grant him some land in Myrar; he had been living on the south side of Hvita, below the lake called Blundsvatn (Snooze Lake). Egil took his request well, and Thorstein urged his father to let him move there. They gave Thorgeir Anabrekka to live in, while Steinar moved his home to the other side of Langa and settled at Leirulaek. Egil rode off home to Nes, and he and his son parted on warm terms.

There was a man named Iri who was a member of Thorstein’s household, very swift of foot and exceptionally sharp-sighted. Although he was a foreigner and a freedman, he was in charge of watching over Thorstein’s sheep, which mainly involved rounding up the sheep that were unsuitable for milking, and driving them up to the mountains in spring and rounding them up again for penning in autumn. After the Moving Days, Thorstein had the sheep rounded up which had been left behind in the spring and planned to drive them up in the mountains. Iri was in the fold, but Thorstein and his farmhands, eight of them altogether, rode off to the mountains.

Thorstein built a fence right across Grisartunga between Langavatn and Gljufura and sent a number of men to work on it in the spring. After inspecting his farmhands’ work, he rode home, and as he was passing the site of the assembly, Iri came running up from the opposite direction and said he wanted to talk to him in private. Thorstein told his companions to ride ahead while they talked.

Iri told Thorstein that they had been up to Einkunnir earlier that day to keep an eye on the sheep.

‘And in the woods above the winter track,’ he said, ‘I saw the glint of twelve spears and several shields.’

Thorstein answered in a loud enough voice for his companions to hear him clearly: ‘Why does he want to see me so badly that I can’t even ride home? Olvald must know that I’m unlikely to refuse to speak to him when he’s ill.’

Iri ran up the mountain as fast as he could.

Then Thorstein said to his companions, ‘I want to make a detour and
ride south to Olvaldsstadir. Olvald sent me word asking me to meet him. He’ll think I owe him at least that for the ox he gave me last autumn, to go and see him when he thinks it’s important.’

After that, Thorstein and his men rode south across the marshland above Stangarholt, then south to Gufa and along the riding path that skirts the river. On their way down from Vatn they saw a large number of bulls on the south side of the river, and a man there with them. It was Olvald’s farmhand. Thorstein asked him if everybody was well, and he said that they all were, and Olvald was in the woods chopping timber.

‘Then go and tell him to go to Borg if he has any business with me,’ said Thorstein. ‘I will ride home now.’

And then he did that.

Later, word went around that Steinar Sjonason had been lying in wait on Einkunnir with eleven men that same day. Thorstein pretended not to know, and everything remained quiet afterwards.