The Sagas of the Icelanders (94 page)

After this had happened, everyone rode home from the Althing, and Gunnlaug settled down at home at Gilsbakki. One morning, when he woke up, everyone was up and about except him. He slept in a bed closet further into the hall than were the benches. Then twelve men, all armed to the teeth, came into the hall: Hrafn Onundarson had arrived. Gunnlaug leapt up with a start, and managed to grab his weapons.

‘You’re not in any danger,’ Hrafn said, ‘and you’ll hear what brings me here right now. You challenged me to a duel at the Althing last summer, and you thought that the matter was not fully resolved. Now I want to suggest that we both leave Iceland this summer and travel to Norway and fight a duel over there. Our relatives won’t be able to stand between us there.’

‘Well spoken, man!’ Gunnlaug replied. ‘I accept your proposal with pleasure. And now, Hrafn, you may have whatever hospitality you would like here.’

‘That is a kind offer,’ Hrafn replied, ‘but, for the moment, we must ride on our way.’

And with that they parted. Both sets of relatives were very upset about this, but, because of their own anger, they could do nothing about it. But what fate decreed must come to pass.

12
Now we return to Hrafn. He fitted out his ship in Leiruvog. The names of two men who travelled with him are known: they were the sons of his father Onund’s sister, one named Grim and the other Olaf. They were both worthy men. All Hrafn’s relatives thought it was a great blow when he went away, but he explained that he had challenged Gunnlaug to a duel because he was not getting anywhere with Helga; one of them, he said, would have to perish at the hands of the other.

Hrafn set sail when he got a fair breeze, and they brought the ship to Trondheim, where he spent the winter. He received no news of Gunnlaug that winter, and so he waited there for him all summer, and then spent yet another winter in Trondheim at a place named Levanger.

Gunnlaug Serpent-tongue sailed from Melrakkasletta in the north with Hallfred the Troublesome Poet. They left their preparations very late, and put to sea as soon as they got a fair breeze, arriving in the Orkney Islands shortly before winter.

The islands were ruled by Earl Sigurd Hlodvesson at that time, and Gunnlaug went to him and spent the winter there. He was well respected. During the spring, the earl got ready to go plundering. Gunnlaug made preparations to go with him, and they spent the summer plundering over a large part of the Hebrides and the Scottish firths and fought many battles. Wherever they went, Gunnlaug proved himself to be a very brave and valiant fellow, and very manly. Earl Sigurd turned back in the early part of the summer, and then Gunnlaug took passage with some merchants who were sailing to Norway. Gunnlaug and Earl Sigurd parted on very friendly terms.

Gunnlaug went north to Lade in Trondheim to visit Earl Eirik, arriving at the beginning of winter. The earl gave him a warm welcome, and invited him to stay with him. Gunnlaug accepted the invitation. The earl had already heard about the goings-on between Gunnlaug and Hrafn, and he told Gunnlaug that he would not allow them to fight in his realm. Gunnlaug said that such matters were for the earl to decide. He stayed there that winter, and was always rather withdrawn.

Now one day that spring, Gunnlaug and his kinsman Thorkel went out for a walk. They headed away from the town, and in the fields in front of them was a ring of men. Inside the ring, two armed men were fencing. One had been given the name Gunnlaug, and the other one Hrafn. The bystanders said that Icelanders struck out with mincing blows and were slow to remember their promises. Gunnlaug realized that there was a great deal
of contempt in this, that it was a focus for mockery, and he went away in silence.

A little while after this, Gunnlaug told the earl that he did not feel inclined to put up with his followers’ contempt and mockery concerning the goings-on between himself and Hrafn any longer. He asked the earl to provide him with guides to Levanger. The earl had already been told that Hrafn had left Levanger and gone across into Sweden, and he therefore gave Gunnlaug permission to go, and found him two guides for the journey.

Then Gunnlaug left Lade with six other men, and went to Levanger. He arrived during the evening, but Hrafn had departed from there with four men the same morning. Gunnlaug went from there into Veradal, always arriving in the evening at the place where Hrafn had been the night before. Gunnlaug pressed on until he reached the innermost farm in the valley, which was named Sula, but Hrafn had left there that morning. Gunnlaug did not break his journey there, however, but pressed on through the night, and they caught sight of each other at sunrise the next day. Hrafn had reached a place where there were two lakes, with a stretch of flat land between them. This area was named Gleipnisvellir (Gleipnir’s Plains). A small headland called Dingenes jutted out into one of the lakes. Hrafn’s party, which was five strong, took up position on the headland. His kinsmen, Grim and Olaf, were with him.

When they met, Gunnlaug said, ‘It’s good that we have met now.’

Hrafn said that he had no problem with it himself – ‘and now you must choose which you prefer,’ he said. ‘Either we will all fight, or just the two of us, but both sides must be equal.’

Gunnlaug said that he would be quite happy with either arrangement Then Hrafn’s kinsmen, Grim and Olaf, said that they would not stand by while Gunnlaug and Hrafn fought. Thorkel the Black, Gunnlaug’s kinsman, said the same.

Then Gunnlaug told the earl’s guides: ‘You must sit by and help neither side, and be there to tell the story of our encounter.’ And so they did.

Then they fell to, and everyone fought bravely. Grim and Olaf together attacked Gunnlaug alone, and the business between them ended in his killing them both, though he was not himself hurt. Thord Kolbeinsson confirms this in the poem he composed about Gunnlaug Serpent-tongue:

Meanwhile, Hrafn and Thorkel the Black, Gunnlaug’s kinsman, were fighting. Thorkel succumbed to Hrafn, and lost his life. In the end, all their companions fell. Then the two of them, Hrafn and Gunnlaug, fought on, setting about each other remorselessly with heavy blows and fearless counterattacks. Gunnlaug was using the sword which Ethelred had given him, and it was a formidable weapon. In the end, he hacked at Hrafn with a mighty blow, and chopped off his leg. Yet Hrafn did not collapse completely, but dropped back to a tree stump and rested the stump of his leg on it.

‘Now you’re past fighting,’ Gunnlaug said, ‘and I will not fight with you, a wounded man, any longer.’

‘It is true that things have turned against me, rather,’ Hrafn replied, ‘but I should be able to hold out all right if I could get something to drink.’

‘Don’t trick me then,’ Gunnlaug replied, ‘if I bring you water in my helmet.’

‘I won’t trick you,’ Hrafn said.

Then Gunnlaug went to a brook, fetched some water in his helmet and took it to Hrafn. But as Hrafn reached out his left hand for it, he hacked at Gunnlaug’s head with the sword in his right hand, causing a hideous wound.

‘Now you have cruelly deceived me,’ Gunnlaug said, ‘and you have behaved in an unmanly way, since I trusted you.’

‘That is true,’ Hrafn replied, ‘and I did it because I would not have you receive the embrace of Helga the Fair.’

Then they fought fiercely again, and it finished in Gunnlaug’s overpowering Hrafn, and Hrafn lost his life right there. Then the earl’s guides went over and bound Gunnlaug’s head wound. He sat still throughout and spoke this verse:

Then they saw to the dead men, and afterwards they put Gunnlaug on his horse and brought him down into Levanger. There he lay for three nights, and received the full rites from a priest before he died. He was buried in the church there. Everyone thought the deaths of both Gunnlaug and Hrafn in such circumstances were a great loss.

13
That summer, before this news had been heard out here in Iceland, Illugi the Black had a dream. He was at home at Gilsbakki at the time. He dreamed that Gunnlaug appeared to him, covered in blood, and spoke this verse to him. Illugi remembered the poem when he woke up, and later recited it to other people:

On the same night, at Mosfell in the south, it happened that Onund dreamed that Hrafn came to him. He was all covered in blood, and spoke this verse:

At the Althing the following summer, Illugi the Black spoke to Onund at the Law Rock.

‘How are you going to compensate me for my son,’ he asked, ‘since your son Hrafn tricked him when they had declared a truce?’

‘I don’t think there’s any onus on me to pay compensation for him,’ Onund replied, ‘since I’ve been so sorely wounded by their encounter myself. But I won’t ask you for any compensation for my son, either.’

‘Then some of your family and friends will suffer for it,’ Illugi answered. And all summer, after the Althing, Illugi was very depressed.

People say that during the autumn, Illugi rode off from Gilsbakki with about thirty men, and arrived at Mosfell early in the morning. Onund and his sons rushed into the church, but Illugi captured two of Onund’s kinsmen. One of them was named Bjorn and the other Thorgrim. Illugi had Bjorn killed and Thorgrim’s foot cut off. After that, Illugi rode home, and Onund sought no reprisals for this act. Hermund Illugason was very upset about his brother’s death, and thought that, even though this had been done, Gunnlaug had not been properly avenged.

There was a man named Hrafn, who was a nephew of Onund of Mosfell’s. He was an important merchant, and owned a ship which was moored in Hrutafjord.

That spring, Hermund Illugason rode out from home on his own. He went north over Holtavarda heath, across to Hrutafjord and then over to the merchants’ ship at Bordeyri. The merchants were almost ready to leave. Skipper Hrafn was ashore, with several other people. Hermund rode up to him, drove his spear through him and then rode away. Hrafn’s colleagues were all caught off-guard by Hermund. No compensation was forthcoming for this killing, and with it the feuding between Illugi the Black and Onund was at an end.

Some time later, Thorstein Egilsson married his daughter Helga to a man
named Thorkel, the son of Hallkel. He lived out in Hraunsdal, and Helga went back home with him, although she did not really love him. She could never get Gunnlaug out of her mind, even though he was dead. Still, Thorkel was a decent man, rich and a good poet. They had a fair number of children. One of their sons was named Thorarin, another Thorstein, and they had more children besides.

Helga’s greatest pleasure was to unfold the cloak which Gunnlaug had given her and stare at it for a long time. Now there was a time when Thorkel and Helga’s household was afflicted with a terrible illness, and many people suffered a long time with it. Helga, too, became ill but did not take to her bed. One Saturday evening, Helga sat in the fire-room, resting her head in her husband Thorkel’s lap. She sent for the cloak Gunnlaug’s Gift, and when it arrived, she sat up and spread it out in front of her. She stared at it for a while. Then she fell back into her husband’s arms, dead. Thorkel spoke this verse:

Helga was taken to the church, but Thorkel carried on living in Hraunsdal

As one might expect, he found Helga’s death extremely hard to bear. And this is the end of the saga.

Translated by
KATRINA C. ATTWOOD