Автор литература - Njal's Saga

lying, but Kari showed them to the spot, and there was a great

heap of ashes to dig away. There they found the hide underneath,

and it was as though it were shrivelled with the fire. They

raised up the hide, and lo! they were unburnt under it. All

praised God for that, and thought it was a great token.

Then the boy was taken up who had lain between them, and of him a

finger was burnt off which he had stretched out from under the

hide.

Njal was home out, and so was Bergthora, and then all men went to

see their bodies.

Then Hjallti said, “What like look to you these bodies?”

They answered, “We will wait for thy utterance.”

Then Hjallti said, “I shall speak what I say with all freedom of

speech. The body of Bergthora looks as it was likely she would

look, and still fair; but Njal’s body and visage seem to me so

bright that I have never seen any dead man’s body so bright as

this.”

They all said they thought so too.

Then they sought for Skarphedinn, and the men of the household

showed them to the spot where Flosi and his men heard the song

sung, and there the roof had fallen down by the gable, and there

Hjallti said that they should look. Then they did so, and found

Skarphedinn’s body there, and he had stood up hard by the gable-wall, and his legs were burnt off him right up to the knees, but

all the rest of him was unburnt. He had bitten through his under

lip, his eyes were wide open and not swollen nor starting out of

his head; he had driven his axe into the gable-wall so hard that

it had gone in up to the middle of the blade, and that was why it

was not softened.

After that the axe was broken out of the wall, and Hjallti took

up the axe, and said, “This is a rare weapon, and few would be

able to wield it.”

“I see a man,” said Kari, “who shall bear the axe.”

“Who is that?” says Hjallti.

“Thorgeir Craggeir,” says Kari, “he whom I now think to be the

greatest man in all their family.”

Then Skarphedinn was stripped of his clothes, for they were

unburnt, he had laid his hands in a cross, and the right hand

uppermost. They found marks on him; one between his shoulders

and the other on his chest, and both were branded in the shape of

a cross, and men thought that he must have burnt them in himself.

All men said that they thought that it was better to be near

Skarphedinn dead than they weened, for no man was afraid of him.

They sought for the bones of Grim, and found them in the midst

of the hall. They found, too, there, right over against him

under the side wall, Thord Freedmanson; but in the weaving-room

they found Saevuna the carline, and three men more. In all they

found there the bones of nine souls. Now they carried the bodies

to the church, and then Hjallti rode home and Kari with him. A

swelling came on Ingialld’s leg, and then he fared to Hjallti,

and was healed there, but still he limped ever afterwards.

Kari rode to Tongue to Asgrim Ellidagrim’s son. By that time

Thorhalla was come home, and she had already told the tidings.

Asgrim took Kari by both hands, and bade him be there all that

year. Kari said so it should be.

Asgrim asked besides all the folk who had been in the house at

Bergthorsknoll to stay with him. Kari said that was well

offered, and said he would take it on their behalf.

Then all the folk were flitted thither.

Thorhall Asgrim’s son was so startled when he was told that his

foster-father Njal was dead, and that he had been burnt in his

house, that he swelled all over, and a stream of blood burst out

of both his ears, and could not be staunched, and he fell into a

swoon, and then it was staunched.

After that he stood up, and said he had behaved like a coward,

“But I would that I might be able to avenge this which has

befallen me on some of those who burnt him.”

But when others said that no one would think this a shame to him,

he said he could not stop the mouths of the people from talking

about it.

Asgrim asked Kari what trust and help he thought he might look

for from those east of the rivers. Kari said that Mord Valgard’s

son, and Hjallti Skeggi’s son, would yield him all the help they

could, and so, too, would Thorgeir Craggeir and all those

brothers.

Asgrim said that was great strength.

“What strength shall we have from thee?” says Kari.

“All that I can give,” says Asgrim, “and I will lay down my life

on it.”

“So do,” says Kari.

“I have also,” says Asgrim, “brought Gizur the White into the

suit, and have asked his advice how we shall set about it.”

“What advice did he give?” asks Kari.

“He counselled,” answers Asgrim, “`that we should hold us quite

still till spring, but then ride east and set the suit on foot

against Flosi for the manslaughter of Helgi, and summon the

neighbours from their homes, and give due notice at the Thing of

the suits for the burning, and summon the same neighbours there

too on the inquest before the court. I asked Gizur who should

plead the suit for manslaughter, but he said that Mord should

plead it whether he liked it or not, and now,’ he went on, `it

shall fall most heavily on him that up to this time all the suits

he has undertaken have had the worst ending. Kari shall also be

wroth whenever he meets Mord, and so, if he be made to fear on

one side, and has to look to me on the other, then he will

undertake the duty.’”

Then Kari said, “We will follow thy counsel as long as we can,

and thou shalt lead us.”

It is to be told of Kari that he could not sleep of nights.

Asgrim woke up one night and heard that Kari was awake, and

Asgrim said, “Is it that thou canst not sleep at night?”

Then Kari sang this song:

“Bender of the bow of battle,

Sleep will not my eyelids seal,

Still my murdered messmates’ bidding

Haunts my mind the livelong night;

Since the men their brands abusing

Burned last autumn guileless Njal,

Burned him house and home together,

Mindful am I of my hurt.”

Kari spoke of no men so often as of Njal and Skarphedinn, and

Bergthora and Helgi. He never abused his foes, and never

threatened them.

132. FLOSI’S DREAM

One night it so happened that Flosi struggled much in his sleep.

Glum Hildir’s son woke him up, and then Flosi said, “Call me

Kettle of the Mark.”

Kettle came thither, and Flosi said, “I will tell thee my dream.”

“I am ready to hear it,” says Kettle.

“I dreamt,” says Flosi, “that methought I stood below Loomnip,

and went out and looked up to the Nip, and all at once it opened,

and a man came out of the Nip, and he was clad in goatskins, and

had an iron staff in his hand. He called, as he walked, on many

of my men, some sooner and some later, and named them by name.

First he called Grim the Red my kinsman, and Ami Kol’s son. Then

methought something strange followed, methought he called Eyjolf

Bolverk’s son, and Ljot son of Hall of the Side, and some six men

more. Then he held his peace awhile. After that he called five

men of our band, and among them were the sons of Sigfus, thy

brothers; then he called other six men, and among them were

Lambi, and Modolf, and Glum. Then he called three men. Last of

all he called Gunnar Lambi’s son, and Kol Tborstein’s son. After

that he came up to me; I asked him `What news?’ He said he had