Автор литература - Njal's Saga

if Gunnar so wills it.”

“I have ever been willing to make matters up,” says Gunnar; “and

besides, ye have much wrong to follow up, but still I think I was

hard driven to do as I did.”

And now the end of those suits was, by the counsel of the wisest

men, that all the suits were put to arbitration; six men were to

make this award, and it was uttered there and then at the Thing.

The award was that Skamkell should be unatoned. The blood money

for Otkell’s death was to be set off against the hurt Gunnar got

from the spur; and as for the rest of the manslaughters, they

were paid for after the worth of the men, and Gunnar’s kinsmen

gave money so that all the fines might be paid up at the Thing.

Then Geir the Priest and Gizur the White went up and gave Gunnar

pledges that they would keep the peace in good faith.

Gunnar rode home from the Thing, and thanked men for their help,

and gave gifts to many, and got the greatest honour from the

suit.

Now Gunnar sits at home in his honour.

ENDNOTES:

(1) Thorod’s mother was Thorvor, she was daughter of Thormod

Skapti’s son, son of Oleif the Broad, son of Oliver

Barncarle.

57. OF STARKAD AND HIS SONS

There was a man named Starkad; he was a son of Bork the Waxy-toothed-blade, the son of Thorkell Clubfoot, who took the land

round about Threecorner as the first settler. His wife’s name

was Hallbera (1). The sons of Starkad and Hallbera were these:

Thorgeir and Bork and Thorkell. Hildigunna the Leech was their

sister.

They were very proud men in temper, hard-hearted and unkind.

They treated men wrongfully.

There was a man named Egil; he was a son of Kol, who took land as

a settler between Storlek and Reydwater. The brother of Egil was

Aunund of Witchwood, father of Hall the Strong, who was at the

slaying of Holt-Thorir with the sons of Kettle the Smooth-tongued.

Egil kept house at Sandgil; his sons were these: Kol, and Ottar,

and Hauk. Their mother’s name was Steinvor; she was Starkad’s

sister.

Egil’s sons were tall and strifeful; they were most unfair men.

They were always on one side with Starkad’s sons. Their sister

was Gudruna Nightsun, and she was the bestbred of women.

Egil had taken into his house two Easterlings; the one’s name was

Thorir and the other’s Thorgrim. They were not long come out

hither for the first time, and were wealthy and beloved by their

friends; they were well skilled in arms, too, and dauntless in

everything.

Starkad had a good horse of chesnut hue, and it was thought that

no horse was his match in fight. Once it happened that these

brothers from Sandgil were away under the Threecorner. They had

much gossip about all the householders in the Fleetlithe, and

they fell at last to asking whether there was any one that would

fight a horse against them.

But there were some men there who spoke so as to flatter and

honour them, that not only was there no one who would dare do

that, but that there was no one that had such a horse

Then Hildigunna answered, “I know that man who will dare to fight

horses with you.”

“Name him,” they say.

“Gunnar has a brown horse,” she says, “and he will dare to fight

his horse against you, and against any one else.”

“As for you women,” they say, “you think no one can be Gunnar’s

match; but though Geir the Priest or Gizur the White have come

off with shame from before him, still it is not settled that we

shall fare in the same way.”

“Ye will fare much worse,” she says: and so there arose out of

this the greatest strife between them. Then Starkad said, “My

will is that ye try your hands on Gunnar last of all; for ye will

find it hard work to go against his good luck.”

“Thou wilt give us leave, though, to offer him a horsefight?”

“I will give you leave, if ye play him no trick.”

They said they would be sure to do what their father said.

Now they rode to Lithend; Gunnar was at home, and went out, and

Kolskegg and Hjort went with him, and they gave them a hearty

welcome, and asked whither they meant to go?

“No farther than hither,” they say. “We are told that thou hast a

good horse, and we wish to challenge thee to a horsefight.”

“Small stories can go about my horse,” says Gunnar; “he is young

and untried in every way.”

“But still thou wilt be good enough to have the fight, for

Hildigunna guessed that thou wouldest be easy in matching thy

horse.”

“How came ye to talk about that?” says Gunnar.

“There were some men,” say they, “who were sure that no one would

dare to fight his horse with ours.”

“I would dare to fight him,” says Gunnar; “but I think that was

spitefully said.”

“Shall we look upon the match as made, then?” they asked.

“Well, your journey will seem to you better if ye have your way

in this; but still I will beg this of you, that we so fight our

horses that we make sport for each other, but that no quarrel may

arise from it, and that ye put no shame upon me; but if ye do to

me as ye do to others, then there will be no help for it but that

I shall give you such a buffet as it will seem hard to you to put

up with. In a word, I shall do then just as ye do first.”

Then they ride home. Starkad asked how their journey had gone

off; they said that Gunnar had made their going good.

“He gave his word to fight his horse, and we settled when and

where the horsefight should be; but it was plain in everything

that he thought he fell short of us, and he begged and prayed to

get off.”

“It will often be found,” says Hildigunna, “that Gunnar is slow

to be drawn into quarrels, but a hard hitter if he cannot avoid

them.”

Gunnar rode to see Njal, and told him of the horsefight, and

what words had passed between them, “But how dost thou think the

horsefight will turn out?”

“Thou wilt be uppermost,” says Njal, “but yet many a man’s bane

will arise out of this fight.”

“Will my bane perhaps come out of it?” asks Gunnar.

“Not out of this,” says Njal; “but still they will bear in mind

both the old and the new feud who fare against thee, and thou

wilt have naught left for it but to yield.”

Then Gunnar rode home.

ENDNOTES:

(1) She was daughter of Hroald the Red and Hildigunna Thorstein

Titling’s daughter. The mother of Hildigunna was Aud Eyvind

Karf’s daughter, the sister of Modolf the Wise of Mosfell,

from whom the Modylfings are sprung.

58. HOW GUNNAR’S HORSE FOUGHT

Just then Gunnar heard of the death of his father-in-law

Hauskuld; a few nights after, Thorgerda, Thrain’s wife, was

delivered at Gritwater, and gave birth to a boy child. Then she

sent a man to her mother, and bade her choose whether it should

be called Glum or Hauskuld. She bade call it Hauskuld. So that

name was given to the boy.

Gunnar and Hallgerda had two sons, the one’s name was Hogni and

the other’s Grani. Hogni was a brave man of few words,

distrustful and slow to believe, but truthful.

Now men ride to the horsefight, and a very great crowd is

gathered together there. Gunnar was there and his brothers, and

the sons of Sigfus. Njal and all his sons. There too was come

Starkad and his sons, and Egil and his sons, and they said to

Gunnar that now they would lead the horses together.