Автор литература - Njal's Saga

so that it may not be said that thou layest blame on dead men;

for it will be gainsaid if witnesses do not know beforehand what

has passed between you.”

Then Gunnar told it to his neighbours, and there was little talk

about it at first.

Otkell comes east to the Dale, and they get a hearty welcome

there, and sit there a week.

Skamkell told Runolf all about their meeting with Gunnar, and how

it had gone off; and one man happened to ask how Gunnar behaved.

“Why,” said Skamkell, “if it were a low-born man it would have

been said that he had wept.”

“Such things are ill spoken,” says Runolf, “and when ye two next

meet, thou wilt have to own that there is no voice of weeping in

his frame of mind; and it will be well if better men have not to

pay for thy spite. Now it seems to me best when ye wish to go

home that I should go with you, for Gunnar will do me no harm.”

“I will not have that,” says Otkell; “but I will ride across the

Fleet lower down.”

Runolf gave Otkell good gifts, and said they should not see one

another again.

Otkell bade him then to bear his sons in mind if things turned

out so.

54. THE FIGHT AT RANGRIVER

Now we must take up the story, and say that Gunnar was out of

doors at Lithend, and sees his shepherd galloping up to the yard.

The shepherd rode straight into the “town; and Gunnar said, “Why

ridest thou so hard?”

“I would be faithful to thee,” said the man; “I saw men riding

down along Markfleet, eight of them together, and four of them

were in coloured clothes.”

Gunnar said, “That must be Otkell.”

The lad said, “I have often heard many temper-trying words of

Skamkell’s; for Skamkell spoke away there east at Dale, and said

that thou sheddest tears when they rode over thee; but I tell it

thee because I cannot bear to listen to such speeches of

worthless men.”

“We must not be word-sick,” says Gunnar, “but from this day forth

thou shall do no other work than what thou choosest for thyself.”

“Shall I say aught of this to Kolskegg thy brother?” asked the

shepherd.

“Go thou and sleep,” says Gunnar; “I will tell Kolskegg.”

The lad laid him down and fell asleep at once, but Gunnar took

the shepherd’s horse and laid his saddle on him; he took his

shield, and girded him with his sword, Oliver’s gift; he sets his

helm on his head; takes his bill, and something sung loud in it,

and his mother, Rannveig, heard it. She went up to him and said

“Wrathful art thou now, my son, and never saw I thee thus

before.”

Gunnar goes out, and drives the butt of his spear into the earth,

and throws himself into the saddle, and rides away,

His mother, Rannveig, went into the sittingroom, where there was

a great noise of talking.

“Ye speak loud,” she says, “but yet the bill gave a louder sound

when Gunnar went out.”

Kolskegg heard what she said, and spoke, “This betokens no small

tidings.

“That is well,” says Hallgerda, “now they will soon prove whether

he goes away from them weeping.”

Kolskegg takes his weapons and seeks him a horse, and rides after

Gunnar as fast as he could.

Gunnar rides across Acretongue, and so to Geilastofna and thence

to Rangriver, and down the stream to the ford at Hof. There were

some women at the milking-post there. Gunnar jumped off his

horse and tied him up. By this time the others were riding up

towards him; there were flat stones covered with mud in the path

that led down to the ford.

Gunnar called out to them and said, “Now is the time to guard

yourselves; here now is the bill, and here now ye will put it to

the proof whether I shed one tear for all of you.”

Then they all of them sprang off their horses’ backs and made

towards Gunnar. Hallbjorn was the foremost.

“Do not thou come on,” says Gunnar; “thee last of all would I

harm; but I will spare no one if I have to fight for my life.”

“That I cannot do,” says Hallbjorn; “thou wilt strive to kill my

brother for all that, and it is a shame if I sit idly by.” And

as he said this he thrust at Gunnar with a great spear which he

held in both hands.

Gunnar threw his shield before the blow, but Hallbjorn pierced

the shield through. Gunnar thrust the shield down so hard that

it stood fast in the earth (1), but he brandished his sword so

quickly that no eye could follow it, and he made a blow with the

sword, and it fell on Hallbjorn’s arm above the writs, so that it

cut it off.

Skamkell ran behind Gunnar’s back and makes a blow at him with a

great axe. Gunnar turned short round upon him and parries the

blow with the bill, and caught the axe under one of its horns

with such a wrench that it flew out of Skamkell’s hand away into

the river.

Then Gunnar sang a song:

“Once thou askedst, foolish fellow,

Of this man, this seahorse racer,

When as fast as feet could foot it

Forth ye fled from farm of mine,

Whether that were rightly summoned?

Now with gore the spear we redden,

Battle-eager, and avenge us

Thus on thee, vile source of strife.”

Gunnar gives another thrust with his bill, and through Skamkell,

and lifts him up and casts him down in the muddy path on his

head.

Audulf the Easterling snatches up a spear and launches it at

Gunnar. Gunnar caught the spear with his hand in the air, and

hurled it back at once, and it flew through the shield and the

Easterling too, and so down into the earth.

Otkell smites at Gunnar with his sword, and aims at his leg just

below the knee, but Gunnar leapt up into the air and he misses

him. Then Gunnar thrusts at him the bill and the blow goes

through him.

Then Kolskegg comes up, and rushes at once at Hallkell and dealt

him his deathblow with his short sword. There and then they

slay eight men.

A woman who saw all this, ran home and told Mord, and besought

him to part them.

“They alone will be there,” he says, “of whom I care not though

they slay one another.”

“Thou canst not mean to say that,” she says, “for thy kinsman

Gunnar, and thy friend Otkell will be there.”

“Baggage, that thou art,” he says, “thou art always chattering,”

and so he lay still indoors while they fought.

Gunnar and Kolskegg rode home after this work, and they rode hard

up along the river bank, and Gunnar leapt off his horse and came

down on his feet.

Then Kolskegg said, “Hard now thou ridest, brother!”

“Ay,” said Gunnar, “that was what Skamkell said when he uttered

those very words when they rode over me.”

“Well, thou hast avenged that now,” says Kolskegg.

“I would like to know,” says Gunnar, “whether I am by so much the

less brisk and bold than other men, because I think more of

killing men than they?”

ENDNOTES:

(1) This shews that the shields were oblong, running down to a

point.

55. NJAL’S ADVICE TO GUNNAR

Now those tidings are heard far and wide, and many said that they

thought they had not happened before it was likely. Gunnar rode

to Bergthorsknoll and told Njal of these deeds.

Njal said, “Thou hast done great things, but thou hast been

sorely tried.”

“How will it now go henceforth?” says Gunnar.

“Wilt thou that I tell thee what hath not yet come to pass?” asks