Автор литература - Njal's Saga

greeted her well, but she would not take his greeting, but yet

bade him go out with her. Ingialld did so, and went out with

her; and so they walked away from the farmyard both together.

Then she clutched hold of him and they both sat down, and Rodny

said, “Is it true that thou hast sworn an oath to fall on Njal,

and slay him and his sons?”

“True it is,” said he.

“A very great dastard art thou,” she says, “thou, whom Njal hath

thrice saved from outlawry.”

“Still it hath come to this,” says Ingialld, “that my life lies

on it if I do not this?”

“Not so,” says she, “thou shalt live all the same, and be called

a better man, if thou betrayest not him to whom thou oughtest to

behave best.”

Then she took a linen hood out of her bag, it was clotted with

blood all over, and torn and tattered, and said, “This hood,

Hauskuld Njal’s son, and thy sister’s son, had on his head when

they slew him; methinks, then, it is ill doing to stand by those

from whom this mischief sprang.”

“Well!” answers Ingialld, “so it shall be that I will not be

against Njal whatever follows after, but still I know that they

will turn and throw trouble on me.”

“Now mightest thou,” said Rodny, “yield Njal and his sons great

help, if thou tellest him all these plans.”

“That I will not do,” says Ingialld, “for then I am every man’s

dastard if I tell what was trusted to me in good faith; but it is

a manly deed to sunder myself from this quarrel when I know that

there is a sure looking for of vengeance but tell Njal and his

sons to be ware of themselves all this summer, for that will be

good counsel, and to keep many men about them.”

Then she fared to Bergthoknoll, and told Njal all this talk; and

Njal thanked her, and said she had done well, “For there would be

more wickedness in his falling on me than of all men else.”

She fared home, but he told this to his sons.

There was a carline at Bergthorsknoll, whose name was Saevuna.

She was wise in many things, and foresighted; but she was then

very old, and Njal’s sons called her an old dotard, when she

talked so much, but still some things which she said came to

pass. It fell one day that she took a cudgel in her hand, and

went up above the house to a stack of vetches. She beat the

stack of vetches with her cudgel, and wished it might never

thrive, “Wretch that it was!”

Skarphedinn laughed at her, and asked why she was so angry with

the vetch stack.

“This stack of vetches,” said the carline, “will be taken and

lighted with fire when Njal my master is burnt, house and all,

and Bergthorn my fosterchild. Take it away to the water, or

burn it up as quick as you can.”

“We will not do that,” says Skarphedinn, “for something else will

be got to light a fire with, if that were foredoomed, though this

stack were not here.”

The carline babbled the whole summer about the vetchstack that it

should be got indoors, but something always hindered it.

124. OF PORTENTS

At Reykium on Skeid dwelt one Runolf Thorstein’s son. His son’s

name was Hildiglum. He went out on the night of the Lord’s day,

when nine weeks were still to winter; he heard a great crash, so

that he thought both heaven and earth shook. Then he looked into

the west “airt,” and he thought he saw thereabouts a ring of

fiery hue, and within the ring a man on a grey horse. He passed

quickly by him, and rode hard. He had a flaming firebrand in his

hand, and he rode so close to him that he could see him plainly.

He was as black as pitch, and he sung this song with a mighty

voice:

“Here I ride swift steed,

His Bank flecked with rime,

Rain from his mane drips,

Horse mighty for harm;

Flames flare at each end,

Gall glows in the midst,

So fares it with Flosi’s redes

As this flaming brand flies;

And so fares it with Flosi’s redes

As this flaming brand flies.”

Then he thought he hurled the firebrand east towards the fells

before him, and such a blaze of fire leapt up to meet it that he

could not see the fells for the blaze. It seemed as though that

man rode east among the flames and vanished there.

After that he went to his bed, and was senseless a long time,

but at last he came to himself. He bore in mind all that had

happened, and told his father, but he bade him tell it to Hjallti

Skeggi’s son. So he went and told Hjallti, but he said he had

seen “`the Wolf’s ride,’ and that comes ever before great

tidings.”

125. FLOSI’S JOURNEY FROM HOME

Flosi busked him from the east when two months were still to

winter, and summoned to him all his men who had promised him help

and company. Each of them had two horses and good weapons, and

they all came to Swinefell, and were there that night.

Flosi made them say prayers betimes on the Lord’s day, and

afterwards they sate down to meat. He spoke to his household,

and told them what work each was to do while he was away. After

that he went to his horses.

Flosi and his men rode first west on the Sand (1). Flosi bade

them not to ride too hard at first; but said they would do well

enough at that pace, and he bade all to wait for the others if

any of them had need to stop. They rode west to Woodcombe, and

came to Kirkby. Flosi there bade all men to come into the

church, and pray to God, and men did so.

After that they mounted their horses, and rode on the fell, and

so to Fishwaters, and rode a little to the west of the lakes, and

so struck down west on to the Sand (2). Then they left Eyjafell

Jokul on their left hand, and so came down into Godaland, and so

on to Markfleet, and came about nones (3) on the second day of

the week to Threecorner ridge, and waited till mideven. Then

all had came thither save Ingialld of the Springs.

The sons of Sigfus spoke much ill of him, but Flosi bade them not

blame Ingialld when he was not by, “But we will pay him for this

hereafter.”

ENDNOTES:

(1) “Sand,” Skeidara sand.

(2) “Sand,” Maelifell’s sand.

(3) “Nones,” the well-known canonical hour of the day, the ninth

hour from six a.m., that is, about three o’clock when one of

the church services took place.

126. OF PORTENTS AT BERGTHORSKNOLL

Now we must take up the story, and turn to Bergthorsknoll, and

say that Grim and Helgi go to Holar. They had children out at

foster there, and they told their mother that they should not

come home that evening. They were in Holar all the day, and

there came some poor women and said they had come from far.

Those brothers asked them for tidings, and they said they had no

tidings to tell, “But still we might tell you one bit of news.”

They asked what that might be, and bade them not hide it. They

said so it should be.

“We came down out of Fleetlithe, and we saw all the sons of

Sigfus riding fully armed — they made for Threecorner ridge, and

were fifteen in company. We saw too Grani Gunnar’s son and

Gunnar Lambi’s son, and they were five in all. They took the

same road, and one may say now that the whole country-side is

faring and flitting about.”

“Then,” said Helgi Njal’s son, “Flosi must have come from the

east, and they must have all gone to meet him, and we two, Grim,