The Sagas of the Icelanders (84 page)

15
The games now started up as if nothing had happened. Gisli and his brother-in-law, Thorgrim, usually played against each other. There was some disagreement as to who was the stronger, but most people thought it was Gisli. They played ball games at Seftjorn pond and there was always a large crowd.

One day, when the gathering was even larger than usual, Gisli suggested that the game be evenly matched.

‘That’s exactly what we want,’ said Thorkel. ‘What’s more, we don’t want you to hold back against Thorgrim. Word is going around that you are not giving your all. I’d be pleased to see you honoured if you are the stronger.’

‘We have not been fully proven against each other yet,’ said Gisli, ‘but perhaps it’s leading up to that.’

They started the game and Thorgrim was outmatched. Gisli brought him down and the ball went out of play. Then Gisli went for the ball, but Thorgrim held him back and stopped him from getting it. Then Gisli tackled
Thorgrim so hard that he could do nothing to stop falling. His knuckles were grazed, blood rushed from his nose and the flesh was scraped from his knees. Thorgrim rose very slowly, looked towards Vestein’s burial mound, and said:

Running, Gisli took the ball and pitched it between Thorgrim’s shoulder-blades. The blow pushed him flat on his face. Then Gisli said:

Thorgrim sprang to his feet and said, ‘It’s clear who is the strongest and the most highly accomplished. Now, let’s put an end to this.’

And so they did. The games drew to a close, summer wore on, and there was a growing coldness between Thorgrim and Gisli.

Thorgrim decided to hold a feast at the end of autumn to celebrate the coming of the Winter Nights. There was to be a sacrifice to Frey, and he invited his brother, Bork, Eyjolf Thordarson and many other men of distinction. Gisli also prepared a feast and invited his relatives from Arnarfjord, as well as the two Thorkels, Thorkel the Wealthy and Thorkel Eiriksson. No fewer than sixty people were expected to arrive. There was to be drinking at both places, and the floor at Saebol was strewn with rushes from Seftjorn pond.

Thorgrim and Thorkel were getting their preparations under way and were about to hang up some tapestries in the house because the guests were expected that evening.

Thorgrim said to Thorkel, ‘It would be a fine thing now to have those tapestries that Vestein wanted to give to you. It seems to me there’s quite a difference between owning them outright and never having them at all. I wish you’d have them sent for.’

Thorkel answered, ‘A wise man does all things in moderation. I will not have them sent for.’

‘Then I will do it,’ said Thorgrim, and he asked Geirmund to go.

Geirmund answered him, ‘I don’t mind working, but I have no desire to go over there.’

Then Thorgrim went up to him, slapped his face hard and said, ‘Go now then, if that makes you feel any better about it.’

‘I’ll go,’ said Geirmund, ‘though it seems worse. But you may be certain that I will give a mare for this foal, and you will not be underpaid.’
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Then he left. When he reached Gisli’s house, Gisli and Aud were about to hang up the tapestries. Geirmund told them why he was sent and all that had been said.

‘Do you want to lend the tapestries, Aud?’ asked Gisli.

‘You know that I would have neither this nor any other good befall them, nor indeed anything that would add to their honour. That is not why you asked me.’

‘Was this my brother Thorkel’s wish?’ asked Gisli.

‘He approved of my coming for them.’

‘That is reason enough,’ said Gisli, and he went with Geirmund part of the way and then handed over the tapestries.

Gisli walked as far as the hayfield wall with him and said, ‘Now this is how things stand – I believe that I have made your journey worthwhile, and I want your help in a matter that concerns me. A gift always looks to be repaid. I want you to unbolt three of the doors tonight. Remember how you came to be sent on this errand.’

Geirmund answered, ‘Will your brother Thorkel be in any danger?’

‘None at all,’ said Gisli.

‘Then it will be done,’ said Geirmund.

When he returned home he threw down the tapestries, and Thorkel said, ‘There is no one like Gisli when it comes to forebearance. He has outdone us here.’

‘This is what we needed,’ said Thorgrim, and he put up the tapestries.

Later that evening the guests arrived and the sky began to thicken. In the still of the night the snow drifted down and covered all the paths.

16
That evening Bork and Eyjolf arrived with sixty men, so that there were one hundred and twenty all told at Saebol and half as many at Gisli’s. Later they began to drink and after that they all went to bed and slept.

Gisli said to his wife, ‘I have not fed Thorkel the Wealthy’s horse. Walk
with me and bolt the door, but stay awake while I am gone. When I come back, unbolt the door again.’

He took the spear, Grasida, from the trunk and, wearing a black cloak, a shirt and linen underbreeches, he walked down to the stream that ran between the two farms and that was the water source for both. He took the path to the stream, then waded through it until he reached the path that led to Saebol. Gisli knew the layout of the farmstead at Saebol because he had built it. There was a door that led into the house from the byre, and that is where he entered. Thirty head of cattle stood on each side. He tied the bulls’ tails together and closed the byre door, then made sure that the door could not be opened from the inside. After that he went to the farmhouse. Geirmund had done his work – the doors were unbolted. Gisli walked in and closed them again, just as they had been that evening. He took his time doing this, then stood still and listened to see whether anyone was awake. He discovered that they were all asleep.

Lights were burning in three places in the house. He picked up some rushes from the floor, twisted them together, then threw them at one of the lights. It went out. He waited to see whether this had wakened anyone and found that it had not. Then he picked up another bundle of rushes and threw it at the next light, putting that out too. Then he noticed that not everyone was asleep. He saw the hand of a young man reach for the third light, take down the lamp-holder and snuff the flame.

He walked farther into the house and up to the bed closet where his sister, Thordis, and Thorgrim slept. The door was pulled to, and they were both in bed. He went to the bed, felt about inside it and touched his sister’s breast. She was sleeping on the near side.

Then Thordis said, ‘Why is your hand so cold, Thorgrim?’ – and thereby woke him up.

Thorgrim replied, ‘Do you want me to turn towards you?’

She thought it had been his hand that touched her. Gisli waited a little longer, warming his hand inside his tunic, while the couple fell asleep again. Then he touched Thorgrim lightly, waking him. Thorgrim thought that Thordis had roused him and he turned towards her. Gisli then pulled the bedclothes off them with one hand, and with the other he plunged Grasida through Thorgrim so that it stuck fast in the bed.

Then Thordis cried out, ‘Everyone wake up. Thorgrim, my husband, has been killed!’

Gisli turned quickly towards the byre, leaving the way he had planned,
and then locked up securely after himself. He headed home the same way he had come, leaving no sign of his tracks. Aud unbolted the door as he arrived, and Gisli went to his bed as if nothing were amiss and as though he had done nothing.

All the men at Saebol were exceedingly drunk and no one knew what to do. They had been caught off guard, and therefore did nothing that was either useful or appropriate in the situation.

17
Eyjolf spoke, ‘An evil and serious thing has happened here and no one has his wits about him. I think we had better light the lamps and man the doors quickly to prevent the killer from getting out.’

That was done, but when there was no trace of the killer, everyone thought it must have been one of their own number who did the deed.

It was not long until dawn came. Then Thorgrim’s body was taken and the spear removed, and he was made ready for burial. Sixty men set out to Gisli’s farm at Hol. Thord the Coward stood outside and when he saw the band of men he ran inside and said that an army was approaching the farm. He was jabbering wildly.

‘This is good,’ said Gisli, and he spoke a verse:

Thorkel and Eyjolf came to the farmhouse and walked over to the bed closet where Gisli and his wife lay. Thorkel, Gisli’s brother, went right up to the closet and saw that Gisli’s shoes were lying there, covered in ice and snow. He pushed them under the footboard so that no one else would see them.

Gisli greeted them and asked what news they brought. Thorkel told him that there were ill tidings and of great magnitude, then asked Gisli what lay behind all this and what they should do.

‘Great deeds and ill deeds often fall within each other’s shadow,’ said Gisli. ‘We will take it upon ourselves to make a burial mound for Thorgrim. This we owe you, and it is our duty to carry it out with honour.’

They accepted his offer and all returned to Saebol together to build a mound. They laid Thorgrim out in a boat and raised the mound in accordance with the old ways.

When the mound had been sealed, Gisli walked to the mouth of the river and lifted a stone so heavy it was more like a boulder. He dropped it into the boat with such a resounding crash that almost every plank of wood gave way.

‘If the weather shifts this,’ he said, ‘then I don’t know how to fasten a boat.’

Some people remarked that this was not unlike what Thorgrim had done with Vestein when he spoke of the Hel-shoes.

Everyone then prepared to go home from the funeral.

Gisli said to his brother, Thorkel, ‘I believe you owe it to me that we be as friendly as we have ever been in the past – and now let’s begin the games.’

Thorkel agreed to this readily, and they both returned home. Gisli had a good many men at his house, and when the feast was over, he bestowed good gifts on all his guests.

18
They drank at Thorgrim’s wake and Bork gave good gifts of friendship to many of the company.

The next matter of account was that Bork paid Thorgrim Nef to perform a magic rite, and to this effect – that however willing people might be to help the man who slew Thorgrim, their assistance should be of no avail. A nine-year-old gelding ox was given to Thorgrim for the magic rite, which he then performed. He prepared what he needed to carry it out, building a scaffold on which he practised his obscene and black art in devilish perversity.

Another thing happened that was accounted strange – the snow never settled on the south-west of Thorgrim’s burial mound, nor showed any sign of frost. People suggested that Frey had found the sacrifices Thorgrim made to him so endearing that the god had not wanted the ground between them to freeze.

Such was the situation throughout the winter while the brothers jointly held their games. Bork moved in with Thordis and married her. She was with child at the time, and soon gave birth to a boy. He was sprinkled with water and at first named Thorgrim after his father. However, when he grew up he was thought to be so bad-tempered and restless that his name was
changed to Snorri
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the Godi. Bork lived there for a while and took part in the games.

There was a woman named Audbjorg who lived farther up the valley at Annmarkastadir. She was Thorgrim Nef’s sister and once had a husband whose name was Thorkel, but who was nicknamed Annmarki (Flaw). Her son, Thorstein, was one of the strongest at the games, aside from Gisli. Gisli and Thorstein were always on the same side in the games, pitched against Bork and Thorkel.

One day, a great crowd of people came to see the game because they wanted to find out who was the strongest and the best player. And it was the same here as anywhere else – the more people arrived to watch, the greater the eagerness to compete. It is reported that Bork made no headway against Thorstein all day, and finally he became so angry that he broke Thorstein’s bat in two. In response to this, Thorstein tackled him and laid him out flat on the ice.

When Gisli saw this he told Thorstein that he must put his all into playing against Bork, and then he said, ‘I’ll exchange bats with you.’

This they did, then Gisli sat down and fixed the bat. He looked towards Thorgrim’s burial mound; there was snow on the ground and the women sat on the slope. His sister Thordis was there and many others. Gisli then spoke a verse which should not have been spoken:

Thordis remembered the verse, went home and interpreted what it meant. The game then came to a close and Thorstein went home.

There was a man named Thorgeir, and known as Orri (Grouse), who lived at Orrastadir. There was another man, named Berg, and known as Skammfot (Short-leg), who lived at Skammfotarmyri (Short-leg’s marsh) on the east side of the river.

As the men made their way home from the game, Thorstein and Berg began to talk about how it was played, and eventually they began to argue. Berg supported Bork, while Thorstein spoke out against him. Berg hit Thorstein with the back of his axe, but Thorgeir came between them and prevented Thorstein from responding. Thorstein went home to his mother, Audbjorg, and she bound up his wound. She was displeased about what had befallen him.

Old Audbjorg was so uneasy that she had no sleep that night. It was cold outside, but the air was still and the sky cloudless. She walked several times withershins around the outside of the house, sniffing in all directions. As she did this, the weather broke and a heavy, blustering snowstorm started up. This was followed by a thaw in which a flood of water gushed down the hillside and sent an avalanche of snow crashing into Berg’s farmhouse. It killed twelve men. The traces of the landslide can be seen to this day.