Автор литература - Njal's Saga

easier to undertake your suit than Gudmund, or that I would back

a wrongful quarrel.”

Then Asgrim held his peace, and thought it would be hard work to

win him over.

Then Thorkel went on and said, “Who is that big and ugly fellow,

before whom four men go, pale-faced and sharp featured, and

unlucky-looking, and cross-grained?”

“My name is Skarphedinn,” said Skarphedinn, “and thou hast no

right to pick me out, a guiltless man, for thy railing. It never

has befallen me to make my father bow down before me, or to have

fought against him, as thou didst with thy father. Thou hast

ridden little to the Althing, or toiled in quarrels at it, and no

doubt it is handier for thee to mind thy milking pails at home

than to be here at Axewater in idleness. But stay, it were as

well if thou pickedst out from thy teeth that steak of mare’s

rump which thou atest ere thou rodest to the Thing while thy

shepherd looked on all the while, and wondered that thou couldst

work such filthiness!”

Then Thorkel sprang up in mickle wrath, and clutched his short

sword and said, “This sword I got in Sweden when I slew the

greatest champion, but since then I have slain many a man with

it, and as soon as ever I reach thee I will drive it through

thee, and thou shalt take that for thy bitter words.”

Skarphedinn stood with his axe aloft, and smiled scornfully and

said, “This axe I had in my hand when I leapt twelve ells across

Markfleet and slew Thrain Sigfus’ son, and eight of them stood

before me, and none of them could touch me. Never have I aimed

weapon at man that I have not smitten him.”

And with that he tore himself from his brothers, and Kari his

brother-in-law, and strode forward to Thorkel.

Then Skarphedinn said, “Now, Thorkel Foulmouth, do one of these

two things: sheathe thy sword and sit thee down, or I drive the

axe into thy head and cleave thee down to the chine.”

Then Thorkel sate him down and sheathed the sword, and such a

thing never happened to him either before or since.

Then Asgrim and his band go out, and Skarphedinn said, “Whither

shall we now go?”

“Home to our booths,” answered Asgrim.

“Then we fare back to our booths wearied of begging,” says

Skarphedinn.

“In many places,” said Asgrim, “hast thou been rather sharp-tongued, but here now, in what Thorkel had a share methinks thou

hast only treated him as is fitting,”

Then they went home to their booths, and told Njal, word for

word, all that had been done.

“Things,” he said, “draw on to what must be.”

Now Gudmund the Powerful heard what has passed between Thorkel

and Skarphedinn, and said, “Ye all know how things fared between

us and the men of Lightwater, but I have never suffered such

scorn and mocking at their hands as has befallen Thorkel from

Skarphedinn, and this is just as it should be.”

Then he said to Einar of Thvera, his brother, “Thou shalt go with

all my band, and stand by Njal’s sons when the courts go out to

try suits; but if they need help next summer, then I myself will

yield them help.”

Einar agreed to that, and sent and told Asgrim, and Asgrim said,

“There is no man like Gudmund for nobleness of mind,” and then

he told it to Njal.

120. OF THE PLEADING OF THE SUIT

The next day Asgrim, and Gizur the White, and Hjallti Skeggi’s

son, and Einar of Thvera, met together. There, too, was Mord

Valgard’s son; he had then let the suit fall from his hand, and

given it over to the sons of Sigfus.

Then Asgrim spoke.

“Thee first I speak to about this matter, Gizur the White and

thee Hjallti, and thee Einar, that I may tell you how the suit

stands. It will be known to all of you that Mord took up the

suit, but the truth of the matter is, that Mord was at Hauskuld’s

slaying, and wounded him with that wound, for giving which no man

was named. It seems to me, then, that this suit must come to

naught by reason of a lawful flaw.”

“Then we will plead it at once,” says Hjallti.

“It is not good counsel,” said Thorhall Asgrim’s son, “that this

should not be hidden until the courts are set.”

“How so?” asks Hjallti.

“If,” said Thorhall, “they knew now at once that the suit has

been wrongly set on foot, then they may still save the suit by

sending a man home from the Thing, and summoning the neighbours

from home over again, and calling on them to ride to the Thing,

and then the suit will be lawfully set on foot.”

“Thou art a wise man, Thorhall,” say they, “and we will take

thy counsel.”

After that each man went to his booth.

The sons of Sigfus gave notice of their suits at the Hill of

Laws, and asked in what Quarter Courts they lay, and in what

house in the district the defendants dwelt. But on the Friday

night the courts were to go out to try suits, and so the Thing

was quiet up to that day.

Many sought to bring about an atonement between them, but Flosi

was steadfast; but others were still more wordy, and things

looked ill.

Now the time comes when the courts were to go out, on the Friday

evening. Then the whole body of men at the Thing went to the

courts. Flosi stood south at the court of the men of Rangriver,

and his band with him. There with him was Hall of the Side, and

Runolf of the Dale, Wolf Aurpriest’s son, and those other men who

had promised Flosi help.

But north of the court of the men of Rangriver stood Asgrim

Ellidagrim’s son, and Gizur the White, Hjallti Skeggi’s son, and

Einar of Thvera. But Njal’s sons were at home at their booth,

and Kari and Thorleif Crow, and Thorgeir Craggeir, and Thorgrim

the Big. They sate all with their weapons, and their band looked

safe from onslaught.

Njal had already prayed the judges to go into the court, and now

the sons of Sigfus plead their suit. They took witness and bade

Njal’s sons to listen to their oath; after that they took their

oath, and then they declared their suit; then they brought

forward witness of the notice, then they bade the neighbours on

the inquest to take their seats, then they called on Njal’s sons

to challenge the inquest.

Then up stood Thorhall Asgrim’s son, and took witness, and

forbade the inquest by a protest to utter their finding; and his

ground was, that he who had given notice of the suit was truly

under the ban of the law, and was himself an outlaw.

“Of whom speakest thou this?” says Flosi.

“Mord Valgard’s son,” said Thorhall, “fared to Hauskuld’s slaying

with Njal’s sons, and wounded him with that wound for which no

man was named when witness was taken to the death-wounds; and ye

can say nothing against this, and so the suit comes to naught.”

121. OF THE AWARD OF ATONEMENT BETWEEN FLOSI AND NJAL

Then Njal stood up and said, “This I pray, Hall of the Side, and

Flosi, and all the sons of Sigfus, and all our men, too, that ye

will not go away but listen to my words.”

They did so, and then he spoke thus: “It seems to me as though

this suit were come to naught, and it is likely it should, for it

hath sprung from an ill root. I will let you all know that I

loved Hauskuld more than my own sons, and when I heard that he

was slain, methought the sweetest light of my eyes was quenched,

and I would rather have lost all my sons, and that he were alive.